ALW395 - Writing Lives: Emerging Forms and Contemporary Practices

Unit details

Note: You are seeing the 2021 view of this unit information. These details may no longer be current. [Go to the current version]
Year:

2021 unit information

Important Update:

Unit delivery will continue to be provided in line with the most current COVIDSafe health guidelines. This may include a mix of on-campus and online activities. To find out how you are impacted, please check your unit sites for announcements and updates. Unit sites open one week prior to the start of each Trimester/Semester.

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Last updated: 4 June 2021

Enrolment modes:Trimester 1: Burwood (Melbourne), Waurn Ponds (Geelong), Online
Credit point(s):1
EFTSL value:0.125
Unit Chair:Trimester 1: Indigo Perry
Cohort rule:

Nil

Prerequisite:

Two level 2 ALW units

Corequisite:

Nil

Incompatible with:

Nil

Typical study commitment:

Students will on average spend 150-hours over the teaching period undertaking the teaching, learning and assessment activities for this unit.

Scheduled learning activities - campus:

1 x 1-hour class per week for 6-weeks plus;
1 x 2-hour seminar per week for 11-weeks

Scheduled learning activities - cloud:

 1-hour class per week (recordings provided), and 2-hour asynchronous online learning activities per week.

Content

This unit will allow students to draw on lives (their own and others) in order to provoke writing works of a broad kind. With a reflection on existing and traditional modes of life writing, it will challenge students to engage with emergent forms of memoir, biography, fragmentary work, micro-memoir, digital modes and performance practice. The unit encourages experimentation and honing of writing craft in this long-standing and adaptable genre, alongside ethical considerations and composition strategies relevant and useful for writing lives of all kinds.

ULO These are the Learning Outcomes (ULO) for this unit. At the completion of this unit, successful students can: Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes
ULO1

Demonstrate in critical reflection awareness of diverse existing practices, traditions and examples in life writing, and their relation to your own creative productions and practice ethic.

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

GLO4: Critical thinking

GLO5: Problem solving

ULO2

Demonstrate a broadening of practice in relation to your own life writing, alongside an awareness of and ability to discuss and evaluate possible forms of production and strategies for generating content for the rendering of lived events, consequences and affective modes.

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

GLO2: Communication

GLO4: Critical thinking

GLO5: Problem solving

ULO3

Demonstrate through your creative writing your understanding of and fluency in putting life writing strategies, traditions and contemporary approaches to use.

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

GLO2: Communication

GLO4: Critical thinking

ULO4

Display a willingness to engage in or to activate appropriate strategies and writing practices from the field of contemporary life writing that illustrate innovation and/or fluency in terms of presentation, either through text or audio/visual media, or other modes of creative communication as discussed in learning materials.

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

GLO2: Communication

GLO3: Digital literacy

GLO5: Problem solving

These Unit Learning Outcomes are applicable for all teaching periods throughout the year

Assessment

Assessment Description Student output Grading and weighting
(% total mark for unit)
Indicative due week
Assessment 1 - Exercise 1000 words
or equivalent
25% Week 6
Assessment 2 - Essay 1000 words
or equivalent
25% Week 8
Assessment 3 - Exercise 2000 words
or equivalent
50% Week 12

The assessment due weeks provided may change. The Unit Chair will clarify the exact assessment requirements, including the due date, at the start of the teaching period.

Learning Resource

The texts and reading list for the unit can be found on the University Library via the link below: ALW395 Note: Select the relevant trimester reading list. Please note that a future teaching period's reading list may not be available until a month prior to the start of that teaching period so you may wish to use the relevant trimester's prior year reading list as a guide only.

Unit Fee Information

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