Studying at the Open Uni: Year 2 Recap

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Year 2

During my second year, I studied A230 Reading and studying literature and A215 Creative Writing alongside each other. Unfortunately, most Level 2 modules start in October so if you choose to study full time rather than part time you have to study your modules concurrently. There was a step up in both of these modules compared to the first year, but that’s to be expected.

A230 – Reading and studying literature

I enjoyed this module and it covered a wide range of books from the Renaissance (such as Shakespeare’s Othello) to the 21st century (such as Joyce’s Dubliners). A230 also covered poetry across these different periods as well from William Wordsworth to Elizabeth Bishop. Like with any literature module wherever you study, there’s going to be texts that you enjoy more than others. You’re not going to love every text you study, but that’s the beauty of literature.

If I’m being completely honest, the poetry side of things isn’t my favourite and I find it to be the most challenging aspect of studying literature. My favourite book that we studied in the module was Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights – this was a reread for me and I enjoyed it so much more the second time round. I think it’s up there as one of my favourite classics. I also really enjoyed Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dubliners by James Joyce and Othello by William Shakespeare. My least favourites have to be Candide by Voltaire and Oroonoko by Aphra Behn – I just didn’t really vibe with these at all.

I’m pretty sure this module is running for the last time in the October 2023 run, but it’ll be replaced by a new and updated module for next year! Overall, this was a decent and interesting literature module whilst also being challenging at the same time. I liked that it covered a wide range of texts from different periods.

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A215 – Creative Writing

I’ve always enjoyed creative writing and, after doing a creative writing assignment in A111, I decided I wanted to take this module at level 2.

This module was probably the most nerve-wracking because, as you may or may not expect, there’s a lot of expectation to post draft pieces of your writing in your tutor group forum. It can be kind of scary posting draft pieces for other people to comment on (although everyone is always lovely!), but it’s also an important aspect of the creative process to improve your work. For these kinds of forums to work it’s important that people actually make use of them, no matter how nerve-wracking, otherwise I can imagine them becoming kind of dead. No one is going to judge you on your writing, everyone is there to support each other! Thankfully my tutor group wasn’t too bad in terms of being active.

My favourite aspect of the module was being able to study the short story format and this was definitely my preferred medium to write in. Although the poetry side was somewhat challenging, I did actually enjoy the creative process when writing some poems for an assignment and the poems which surprised me! My least favourite had to be life writing, this really wasn’t my forte and I found it to be the most challenging.

The only issue with studying creative writing academically is that I still think there’s some subjectivity to it, despite the fact that they try to make it somewhat objective by teaching you about the different aspects and techniques of the creative process. Different people have different tastes in writing style, tone, and genre which could potentially have an impact when grading your work (in my opinion). Personally, I just think that it’s hard to be wholly objective when it comes to creative writing in an academic space. However, I have to say that this was a good module overall and I would still recommend it if you’re interested in creative writing.

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