ALW395 - Writing Lives: Emerging Forms and Contemporary Practices
Unit details
| Year | 2025 unit information |
|---|---|
| Enrolment modes: | Trimester 1: Burwood (Melbourne), Online |
| Credit point(s): | 1 |
| EFTSL value: | 0.125 |
| Unit Chair: | Trimester 1: Geoff Boucher |
| Prerequisite: | Two level 2 ALL or ALW units |
| Corequisite: | Nil |
| Incompatible with: | Nil |
| Educator-facilitated (scheduled) learning activities - on-campus unit enrolment: | 1 x 1-hour online/on-campus lecture per trimester in weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 1 x 2-hour online/on-campus seminar per week |
| Educator-facilitated (scheduled) learning activities - online unit enrolment: | 1 x 1-hour online lecture per trimester in weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 1 x 2-hour online seminar per week |
| Typical study commitment: | Students will on average spend 150-hours over the teaching period undertaking the teaching, learning and assessment activities for this unit. This will include educator guided online learning activities within the unit site. |
Content
This unit invites students to draw on lives (their own and others) in order to provoke writing works of a broad kind. With a reflection on existing and traditional modes of life writing, it will challenge students to engage with emergent forms of memoir, biography, fragmentary work, micro-memoir, digital modes and performance practice. The unit encourages experimentation and honing of writing craft in this long-standing and adaptable genre, alongside ethical considerations and composition strategies relevant and useful for writing lives of all kinds.
Learning Outcomes
| ULO | These are the Unit Learning Outcomes (ULOs) for this unit. At the completion of this unit, successful students can: | Alignment to Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes (GLOs) |
|---|---|---|
| ULO1 | Demonstrate in critical reflection awareness of diverse existing practices, traditions and examples in life writing, and their relation to your own creative productions and practice ethic. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities GLO4: Critical thinking GLO5: Problem solving |
| ULO2 | Demonstrate a broadening of practice in relation to your own life writing, alongside an awareness of and ability to discuss and evaluate possible forms of production and strategies for generating content for the rendering of lived events, consequences and affective modes. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities GLO2: Communication GLO4: Critical thinking GLO5: Problem solving |
| ULO3 | Demonstrate through your creative writing your understanding of and fluency in putting life writing strategies, traditions and contemporary approaches to use. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities GLO2: Communication GLO4: Critical thinking |
| ULO4 | Display a willingness to engage in or to activate appropriate strategies and writing practices from the field of contemporary life writing that illustrate innovation and/or fluency in terms of presentation, either through text or audio/visual media, or other modes of creative communication as discussed in learning materials. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities GLO2: Communication GLO3: Digital literacy GLO5: Problem solving |
Assessment
| Assessment Description | Student output | Grading and weighting (% total mark for unit) | Indicative due week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment 1: Exercise | 1000 words or equivalent | 25% | Week 6 |
| Assessment 2: Essay | 1000 words or equivalent | 25% | Week 8 |
| Assessment 3: Exercise | 2000 words or equivalent | 50% | Week 12 |
The assessment due weeks provided may change. The Unit Chair will clarify the exact assessment requirements, including the due date, at the start of the teaching period.
Learning resource
The texts and reading list for ALW395 can be found via the University Library.
Note: Select the relevant trimester reading list. Please note that a future teaching period's reading list may not be available until a month prior to the start of that teaching period so you may wish to use the relevant trimester's prior year reading list as a guide only.
Unit Fee Information
Fees and charges vary depending on the type of fee place you hold, your course, your commencement year, the units you choose to study and their study discipline, and your study load.
Tuition fees increase at the beginning of each calendar year and all fees quoted are in Australian dollars ($AUD). Tuition fees do not include textbooks, computer equipment or software, other equipment or costs such as mandatory checks, travel and stationery.
For further information regarding tuition fees, other fees and charges, invoice due dates, withdrawal dates, payment methods visit our Current Students website.