Wednesday 12 May 2010

Writers' Reflections

I have now completed my first batch of marking from semester two. I have actually enjoyed this very much. I was marking from two different year groups – our second and our third year. The third year work was of a better quality than the second. The writing was more fluid and more sophisticated. That is to be expected. The content differed less.
They have all submitted their Writer’s Reflections. In these, they talk of their progress as writers over a module or in the case of third years of their progress throughout the whole of their degree programme.
In part I mark the process they describe and in part I mark the quality of the writing. The former is extremely interesting. Different students find different points of interest in the course. My second years have been concentrating on writing novels for young people. Just like last year, they are all generally conscious of how difficult it is to write a synopsis and how important it is. Some have realised the importance of planning, others the importance of editing. Many have grappled with voice. I have been impressed by the number of drafts they have worked on. Many have read well and widely. And although I felt they did not use the workshop elements as much as they might have, they seemed to appreciate the opportunity they had been given to do this. I was impressed by how much they had absorbed and taken on from the course. It was fascinating reading of each student’s journey.
I have now marked one or two of the creative pieces and have looked at a piece of creative writing by a colleague. Some amazing work is coming to light.

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