Creative Writing at A-Level

Featured Work

At present there is no official opportunity in any of the English Literature A-Level specifications for students to submit their own original creative writing. It is in the A-Level Language and Language and Literature specifications that writing is embedded. NAWE is however working on a proposal to introduce a specific Creative Writing A-Level (see below).

Regardless of curriculum provision, we trust that there will always be a stream of creative work produced by students at this level, and we are pleased to be publishing a selection.

Proposed A-Level qualification in Creative Writing

Draft Rationale

There is currently a significant movement to extend and enhance the range of creative opportunities available within schools. 'Creative' is one the important four Cs put forward by the QCA in Taking English Forward. At the same time, there has been an extraordinary proliferation of creative writing courses at undergraduate level. 55 institutions are offering a total of 577 courses involving creative writing in some form. Within the English Subject benchmarks, as recently revised, creative writing now features prominently. An A-Level in creative writing should be a natural, ideal preparation and entry qualification for all these degree courses.

Our proposal is for a Creative Writing A-Level that would complement (and not in any way replicate) English Literature and/or Language study, but would also be accessible to students not necessarily interested in literary criticism or theory, including those focused on entirely different subjects areas including science. Indeed, there is a logic in not over-emphasizing the alignment of creative writing with English studies, perhaps even 'locating' it elsewhere.

Significantly - and unlike other creative artforms such as music, art and design, dance, and drama - creative writing is not at present ‘visible’ in the secondary school curriculum. It does not exist as a discrete subject nor do examinations at GCSE and AS/A level currently exist as they do for these other subjects. Creative writing is subsumed within English and only forms a very small part of that English curriculum. Furthermore, aspiring writers cannot trace a route through school on to Higher Education and beyond into professional practice within the creative industries as it is possible for aspiring actors, musicians and artists to do. Yet creative writers are everywhere recognized and venerated within our society with many, such as Philip Pullman and J K Rowling reaching high prominence.

Furthermore, creative writing is firmly established as a distinct discipline within Higher Education with an underpinning theoretical and conceptual base, a discrete and unique pedagogical practice, the involvement of professional writers and links to the creative industries. Creative writing at this level is taught by practising writers whether they are academics who also write or novelists, poets and playwrights. The current gap between the teaching and practice of creative writing in secondary schools and undergraduate work in universities is, therefore, huge.

Given the opportunity to introduce creative writing at AS/2 level, we believe that creative writing would be best positioned and aligned with the other creative arts in the curriculum. In terms of its underlying principles, processes and assessment practices, it has more in common with them than with English courses, its exploration of language having an entirely different purpose. Rather than honing critical or analytical skills, the proposed course would explore the practical stages of creative work in a whole range of written forms, and allow students to explore how unique forms of expression are devised in order to express individual visions. GCSE English Language would be the only specified qualification required for those embarking on the course.

The course would balance the teaching of the necessary aspects of craft with an exploration of how personal preoccupations can be given their own voice and effectively communicated. The course would be asking the question: What is it that you, uniquely have to say, and can you find a uniquely successful way to express it? This process of discovery will inevitably examine and refer to published examples of such a quest.

Assessment of the students' performance will need to gauge the depth of both their learning and ability. It will need to register competence in planning and process but also to recognize the development of an original, fluent voice, used productively. The Assessment Objectives proposed are modelled to some extent on other creative arts at AS/2 but are also informed by the principles operating within Higher Education, where highly rigorous and successful schemes of monitoring individual work have been devised. (Examples of full assessment criteria are available.)

It is not considered possible to make assessment of the core, creative work (AO1) in any meaningful way under traditional exam conditions. AO1 will therefore be achieved through coursework marked by teachers with external moderation. Lengthy, iterative redrafting should be allowed for, indeed encouraged, and does itself form the basis of AO2. It is not however considered practical to present external markers with a full portfolio of redraftings. It should be the responsibility of teachers to 'sign off' successive drafts, with the student's presented Commentary referring to the key changes made. At AS level, AO3 is also addressed through coursework but at A2 there is a final exam.

Working and being assessed in this way, students will gain an understanding of how professional writers work, and contact with a professional writer in the classroom would be a logical extension to this. It is even conceivable that a visiting writer - though not assessing the students' work as such - might make useful recognition of their skills and progress.

There are inevitably implications regarding teacher training. The proposed alignment with other creative arts does pose something of an initial contradiction, as those first involved with delivering the course are most likely to be English teachers. Even so, their own education has been an education in how to read, with the majority not having written creatively since they themselves were at school, and there will be the need for specific new training to be available, which should, in time, produce specialist creative writing subject teachers. The expansion of such training (as does already exist in isolated areas) should have highly positive implications for the increase in creativity generally right across the curriculum.


Draft Assessment Objectives

AO1

Candidates should be able to produce their own works of creative writing within a wide range of genres including fiction, poetry, writing for performance and new media, and a variety of non-fiction.

AO2

Candidates should be able to produce a critical evaluation of their own work in relation to their aims and to the critical responses they have received from teachers and/or other students.

AO3

Candidates should be able to place their own creative writing in context, with reference to influences on its subject matter and forms.


These drafts were produced by a working group including Adrian Beard, Jane Bluett, Maggie Butt, Liz Fincham, Graeme Harper, Richard Kerridge, Paul Munden, Paul Norgate, Rob Stannard and Cliff Yates.