The basic principles of this course are innovation and diversity; at level 1 students study a range of forms and techniques in the major genres of fiction, poetry, scriptwriting and creative non-fiction, whilst developing your own approaches in preparation for the more project based modules of the 2nd year, where specialisation and experimentation are both encouraged; in the third year students produce substantial work in their own specialised areas (1 or 2 specifically), in particular in the special project, which takes up the whole of the last semester of the course; in June students have the opportunity to showcase work from throughout the period of their studies in the degree show; students look into the implications for their writing of such issues as collaboration and performance, sexuality and gender, innovation and experimentation, new media, and cultural and critical theory.