Short course
Writing Lives
Course status:
Applications being accepted
Location:
Online
Dates:
26/04/2027 - 09/07/2027
Study format:
Online - flexible
Fees:
£695.00
Is there a true story that only you can tell? This course is designed to provide you with the skills you need to turn experiences, recollections and real-life phenomena into literary works that are enjoyable and accessible to a wider audience.
Are there stories, events or circumstances in your own experience, your family's, or those of people known to you, that you've always wanted to investigate, and that you think would make good reading? This course will provide you with all you need to shape your materials into an enjoyable and accessible literary work. 'Life Writing' is prose non-fiction devoted to exploring the events and emotions of real lives. The Life Writing course will enable you to recognise which things are significant, how to characterise them in a way that really brings them to life, and how to structure them into a narrative that will keep a reader's interest.
This course emphasises weekly reading and writing exercises, peer feedback, and tutor guidance. Tutors prompt and moderate discussions that centre on group learning rather than workshopping personal pieces of writing. Both assessed assignments receive detailed feedback from the tutor.
Book this course
Book your place online using the button below.
The course is broken down into 10 units over 10 weeks, each requiring approximately 10 hours of study time. The following topics are covered:
Unit One: Getting Started
- Getting acquainted, how to work with the truth, memory, and good practices.
Unit Two: Point-of-view
- Memory and imagination, using the senses, finding a voice.
Unit Three: Descriptive Writing
- Getting the surfaces right, getting below the surfaces.
Unit Four: Characterising Others
- Revealing motivation, psychological depths and habits.
Unit Five: Characterising Yourself
- Re-living your life inside and outside time and experience – making yourself knowable.
Unit Six: Dialogue
- Writing the authentic, the important and the plausible simultaneously.
Unit Seven: Structure
- Finding the plot in history, realising potential and maximising drama.
Unit Eight: Sequence and Situation
- How to form episodes combining characters, dialogue and description.
Unit Nine: Beginnings and Endings
- How to start and where to stop.
Unit Ten: Re-writing and Editing
- Finishing, polishing, re-making, re-telling, expanding and cutting.
We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral and very rewarding part of the course and the online learning experience.
Course aims
This course aims to provide students with insight into the major aspects affecting life-writing and to enable them to use these features confidently in writing their own creative non-fiction.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be expected to understand:
- Key features (such as perspective, dialogue, etc) in a work of life-writing.
- The applicability of such characteristics in their own work.
- How to use at least some of these aspects of technical expertise with increased skill and confidence.
By the end of this course, students will be expected to have gained the following skills:
- The ability to recognise and name key features in contemporary life-writing.
- Knowledge of why authors employ these features and what their different effects are.
- Increased confidence in their own use of such features as enhancements to the development of an individual’s ‘voice’ in life-writing.
Level and demands
This course is open to all, and no prior knowledge is required.
This course is offered at FHEQ level 4 (first year undergraduate level), and you will be expected to engage in independent study in preparation for your assignments. Our 10-week Short Online Courses come with an expected total commitment of 100 study hours.
English Language Requirements
We do not insist that applicants hold an English language certification, but we warn that they may be at a disadvantage if their language skills are not of a comparable level to those qualifications listed on our website. If you are confident in your proficiency, please feel free to enrol. For more information regarding English language requirements, please see here.
IT requirements
This course is delivered online; to participate, you must be familiar with using a computer for purposes such as sending email and searching the Internet. You will also need regular access to the Internet and a computer meeting our recommended minimum computer specification.
Teaching methods
- Introductory section, outlining key areas of work within each unit.
- Description of required reading and recommended reading.
- Presentation of materials taken from additional (eg, online) sources, relevant to each unit.
- Online discussion forum.
- Online personal study diary.
- Area for short responses to literary extracts from key texts.
- Tutor responses to forum and exercises.
- Assessment and feedback.
Assessment methods
You will be set two pieces of work for the course. The first 500-word assignment is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome, but preparing for it and the feedback you are given will help you prepare for your assessed piece of work of 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.
Ms Lisa Selvidge
Lisa has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, where she subsequently worked for 15 years both as tutor and academic director for Continuing Education. She wrote and taught one of the first short online courses in creative writing. Her works include, The Last Dance over The Berlin Wall, Beyond the Sea and Writing Fiction Workbook.
Credit Application Transfer Scheme (CATS) points
Coursework is an integral part of all online courses and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework. All those enrolled on an online courses are registered for credit and will be awarded CATS points for completing work at the required standard.
See more information on CATS points
Digital credentials
All students who pass their final assignment will be eligible for a digital Certificate of Completion. Upon successful completion, you will receive a link to download a University of Oxford digital certificate. Information on how to access this digital certificate will be emailed to you after the end of the course. The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course you attended. You will be able to download your certificate or share it on social media if you choose to do so.
Fees
| Description | Costs |
|---|---|
| Course Fee | £695.00 |
Funding
If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, or are a care-leaver in the UK, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:
Concessionary fees for short courses
Textbooks
To participate in the course you will need to have regular access to the Internet and you will need to buy the following book:
Roorbach, B., Writing Life Stories: How to Make Memories into Memoirs, Ideas into Essays and Life into Literature (Writer’s Digest Books, 2008)
Recommended, but not required:
Bell, J. and A. Motion, eds., The Creative Writing Coursebook (Macmillan, 2019)
Hackles, L., Writing from Life: How to Turn Your Personal Experiences into Profitable Prose (How To Books, 2008) Gilchrist, C. Your Life, Your Story : Writing Your Life Story for Family and Friends. (Piatkus, 2010) (Also available in electronic format: Lume Books (15 Oct. 2019) – electronic & Kindle edition)
Please ensure that you can access copies of any required textbooks before enrolling on a course. While cancellations are uncommon, courses may not run if enrolment is too low. The Department accepts no responsibility for books purchased in anticipation of a course running.
Module code: O26P471CRV
Please use the ‘Book now’ button on this page.