7th March 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
From autumn, AQA will be offering a creative writing A-level for young aspiring playwrights, authors and poets. It is claimed to be the first of its kind in the UK and runs in line with expansion of creative writing courses at university level. The writing skills pupils will gain from it will be valuable for employment as well as being used for writing novels and screenplays.
This course, which will be offered both at AS and A-level, will teach students to examine different forms of writing including prose and poetry. Pupils will also study different types of content such as sonnets, radio plays and travel writing. They will have to demonstrate that they comprehend the techniques and styles of what has been termed the ‘author’s craft’.
Examinees will be asked to produce a piece of creative work as a response to another published text as well as producing an array of different literary work comprising of short stories, plays or poems. The sitting of this exam will provide pupils with the opportunity to take a subject that has gained in popularity at universities. The new A-level has become one of 700 other creative writing courses which are on offer in the UK.
In 1970 when it began to offer creative writing courses, the University of East Anglia became the pioneer of similar courses across the UK. Andrew Cowan, a novelist and professor of creative writing at the university, approved of the commencement of the A-level saying that it would be particularly useful to those students wanting to study the subject at a higher level. He claimed that ‘the earlier this engagement can be fostered the better’.