English Language and Creative Writing (Hons) Lancaster University

Overview

You will graduate from the English Language and Creative Writing (Hons) at Lancaster University not only as a skilled writer but also as someone who understands English at a deep level as well as what they themselves are doing with the language.

English Language is not just a fascinating area of study, but also an opportunity to gain a skill set that opens doors to a range of exciting and rewarding careers. Transferable skills include a capacity for critical thinking, an ability to gather, organise and analyse large quantities of data, and an aptitude for developing new and innovative ideas.

Each year, we invite current students to apply for a research internship. These are paid opportunities in which students work closely with academic members of staff on active research projects. These opportunities will allow you to gain advanced research skills that are valuable to employers and apply your academic knowledge in real world situations. Recently, our students have worked as interns on the following projects:

• Accent variation in historic north Lancashire
• Discourses around vaccinations during the Covid-19 pandemic
• En Clair: Forensic Linguistics, Literary Detection, and Language Mysteries podcast

For Creative Writing, if you are interested in writing, publishing, and editing you could choose to get involved in one of our four student-run literary journals: Cake, Flash, Lux and Errant. You might volunteer to help at Lancaster’s Literature Festival, which attracts well-known authors from around the world (including some of our own author-tutors).

You could also apply for one our residential internships at Wordsworth Grasmere. This course offers a way into many professions by ensuring you develop such important work-place skills as researching, drafting, editing, listening, persuading and presenting.

Careers

A degree in English Language and Creative Writing equips you with both creative and analytical expertise. You graduate with advanced skills in drafting and editing, data analysis, evaluating evidence, persuasive argumentation and communicating complex ideas with clarity and impact.

Our graduates have gone on to publish their own stories, novels, videogames, graphic novels and poems with major publishers, and have had their scripts produced in national festivals and broadcast on national radio.

Many pursue careers in publishing, journalism and arts management, or work as editors, copywriters and librarians. Others become marketing professionals in large corporations and small businesses, journalists for national outlets and local newspapers, or teachers from primary level to university level.

Graduates also move into roles such as:

• Game-writer
• PR and communication specialist
• Speech and language therapist
• Lexicographer
• Television and media professional

New and emerging opportunities are developing across the creative and cultural industries, including museums, heritage and the arts, literary tourism, podcasting, blogging, film, television and digital media. There are also growing opportunities in digitising historical resources and managing social media policy. A degree in English Language and Creative Writing will put you at the forefront of these societal developments.