Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Creative and Professional Writing

Programme Director: Mr SHEA, James

The Creative and Professional Writing Programme of the Hong Kong Baptist University is the first UGC-funded undergraduate programme in Hong Kong tertiary institutions dedicated to creative and professional writing learning in both Chinese and English languages. It is committed to a distinctive mission of higher education in providing an interdisciplinary and bilingual writing programme that develops and sustains the Role Statement of the University that "Hong Kong Baptist University aspires to be a premier institution of higher learning providing broad-based, creativity-inspiring education with distinctive contribution to the advancement of knowledge through research and scholarship." Apart from cultivating students to write in creative and professional fields, the Creative and Professional Writing Programme also aims to nurture students’ academic potential, cultural dimensions and sense of creativity, and to enhance their professional value.

To pursue these goals, the Programme carries certain distinguishing characteristics:

  1. Bilingual Teaching and Learning: Students will read, write and speak in Chinese as well as English, developing their skills in both languages. Bilingual ability enables students to respond to Hong Kong’s specific linguistic environment.
  2. Interdisciplinarity: All the Creative and Professional Writing courses are designed to ensure that students are exposed to the writing demands and strategies of diverse disciplines, including art criticism, language, literature, history, philosophy, media studies, business and science.

The Programme emphasises the following general aims:

  1. To provide students with a vigorous curriculum to develop creative and professional writing skills in Chinese and English languages;
  2. To develop students’ abilities when writing professionally in different genres and contexts to enhance students’ career opportunities;
  3. To cultivate students to produce original works of fiction, poetry, or nonfiction;
  4. To enhance students’ cultural literacy which would act as a solid basis for their creative and professional writing; and
  5. To build up their knowledge for self-directed and life-long learning in the world of professional writing and publishing.

The practicum of the Creative and Professional Writing Programme has two focuses: one is on creative writing while another one on professional writing. Not everyone can become a great creative writer, but professional writing always includes a significant creative component. Our society urgently needs writers of all kinds. The professional writing portion of the curriculum, with good infusion of the creative side, can prepare students to work for a great variety of future careers. It goes without saying that graduates with excellent writing skills, both in English and Chinese, are of great demand. It not only meets the demand of the market in creative industry, news media, publishing houses, editorship of journals, government offices, non-profit and charity organisations, education sector, etc., but also in business sector, industrial sector, and financial sector. There would be a strong demand for the graduates of this Programme from the education sector that increasingly emphasises the writing education. The interdisciplinary approach would also build a solid foundation for students to pursue postgraduate studies.

The 60 major units of the Programme consist of 42 units of Required Courses and 18 units of courses from the two Major Electives of English and Chinese writing. The Required Courses provide fundamental learning in writing and concepts in aesthetics, theories and ideas in creativity, and cultural differences, in order to enhance students’ intellectual cognition and skills. Each of the two Major Electives consists of two Modules—one in creative writing and one in professional writing. There are four Modules altogether. Students are required to select at least one course from each of the four Modules, so that they will be trained both in Chinese writing and English writing, and be skilled both in creative and professional writing.

The structure of the curriculum is as follows:

I) Major Courses 54 units
II) Honours Project 6 units
III) University Core Courses 13 units
IV) General Education Courses 18 units
V) Free Electives 37 units
    128 units

Requirements

I. Major Courses 54 units
  Major Required Courses (36 units)  
  Either  
  HUMN2015 Writing Seminar: Workshop in Creative Writing 3 units
  Or  
  WRIT2015 Writing Seminar: Workshop in Creative Writing 3 units
  HUMN3005 Artistic Creativity and Aesthetics Awareness 3 units
  Either  
  HUMN3016 Professional Writing Practicum: Essentials of the Craft of Writing 3 units
  Or  
  WRIT3006 Professional Writing Practicum: Essentials of the Craft of Writing 3 units
  Either  
  HUMN4026 The Art of Creating Stories: Writing and Appreciation 3 units
  Or  
  WRIT4007 The Art of Creating Stories: Writing and Appreciation 3 units
  Either  
  HUMN4027 The Double Face of Creativity: Fact and Fiction 3 units
  Or  
  WRIT4015 The Double Face of Creativity: Fact and Fiction 3 units
  WRIT1005 Creativity: Theory and Practice 3 units
  WRIT2005 Biography Writing 3 units
  WRIT2006 Food, Wine and Travel Writing for the Leisure Industry 3 units
  WRIT2007 Editing and Publishing 3 units
  WRIT3007 Writing for New Media 3 units
  WRIT4005 Cultural Differences and Creative Writing 3 units
  WRIT4006 Writing Internship 3 units
     
  Major Elective Courses (18 units)  
  At least one course from each of the following four Modules: 
  English Elective  
  Creative Module  
  ENGL3015 Creative Writing 3 units
  LANG2006 English through Creative Writing 3 units
  LANG3025 Creative Writing in Children's Literature in English 3 units
  TRAN3045 Drama and Film Translation 3 units
  Either  
  WRIT2026 Special Topic in Creative Writing 3 units
  Or  
  WRIT3016 Special Topic in Creative Writing 3 units
  WRIT3025 Big Stories: Writing Long-form Fictional Narratives 3 units
  WRIT3026 Poetry Writing 3 units
  WRIT4016 Writing Diaspora in a Global World 3 units
  WRIT4017 From Sacred Books to Sampling: Authorship in Creative Writing and Digital Arts 3 units
     
  Professional Module  
  HUMN2025 Gender: Theory and Culture 3 units
  Either  
  HUMN2036 Media and Communication: Issues, Concepts and Theories  3 units
  Or  
  HUMN3037 New Media Cultures  3 units
  HUMN3007 Language and the Humanities 3 units
  HUMN3015 The Making of the Contemporary World 3 units
  HUMN3046 Science Fiction, Film and Culture 3 units
  HUMN4025 Cultural Studies 3 units
  HUMN4035 Special Topic in Theory and Culture 3 units
  HUMN4036 Special Topic in Media and Cultural Studies 3 units
  JOUR2085 English News Reporting and Writing 3 units
  JOUR2096 Advanced News and Feature Writing (English) 3 units
  JOUR3095 Business and Financial News Reporting in English 3 units
  TRAN4026 Literary Translation 3 units
  WRIT2016 Writing for Science 3 units
  WRIT2017 Writing for Business 3 units
     
  Chinese Elective  
  Creative Module  
  CHIL3026 Modern Chinese Fiction Writing 3 units
  CHIL3027 Modern Chinese Prose Writing 3 units
  CHIL3055 Rhymed Chinese Literature Writing 3 units
  FILM2015 Script Writing 3 units
  FILM4007 Advanced Script Writing 3 units
  HUMN3025 Chinese Song Lyric Writing 3 units
  LANG2005 Creative Writing through Masterpieces 3 units
  LANG3006 Creative Writing: Modern Chinese Poetry 3 units
  WRIT3015 Scriptwriting for Theatre 3 units
  WRIT3017 Special Topic in Chinese Creative Writing 3 units
     
  Professional Module  
  HUMN1005 The Study of Culture 3 units
  HUMN3006 Great Works in the Humanities 3 units
  JOUR2046 Advanced News and Feature Writing (Chinese) 3 units
  JOUR2077 Chinese News Reporting and Writing 3 units
  LANG2025 Chinese Writing for Business and Public Administration 3 units
  TRAN3026 Media Translation 3 units
  WRIT2025 Advertisement Copywriting 3 units
  WRIT3005 Reading Masterpieces and Writing Your Own 3 units
     
II. Honours Project 6 units
  WRIT4898 Honours Project I 3 units
  WRIT4899 Honours Project II 3 units
     
III. University Core Courses 13 units
     
IV. General Education Courses 18 units
     
V. Free Electives 37 units
    128 units
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