What do we think of Creative Writing as an A Level choice?

[YDdraigGoch]

It's a new subject offered at my DD's school, and after a Sixth Form taster day today, she's come home really excited about doing it for A Level.
DH is concerned that this might be seen as a soft option.
Her other choices are likely to be Eng Lit, History and Philosphy and Ethics.
I think Creative Writing would complement Eng Lit.
DD is thinking about a History degree.

Are there any English teachers or Uni folk out there who could give me an honest opinion?

How many A levels is she doing? My concern would be that all the subjects you list are very time consuming. If she does five humanities subjects she will have a huge amount of reading and lots of essays each week. In her place I'd opt for a language instead.

But well taught, creative writing could be a real asset. There's a huge skill shortage of good writers out there. Long winded, incoherent documents with lousy grammar abound.

I am also a professional writer who wouldn't recommend Creative Writing A level.

I am also a professional writer (fiction) who would not recommend this as an A level, though it is obviously great for sixth-formers to be writing creatively.

To be honest, I'm not even that convinced about Philosophy and Ethics, which my son will be taking next year, so I'm not just being snobby. The Philosophy professor I was chatting (he is at London university) to didn't think much of it. It's going to be a 'third' A level for my son, so I'm not going to discourage him and in case it's always got to be their choice, not ours, hasn't it! But if your daughter does want to go to a 'good' university, she needs to be careful.

History is always a good choice, and English Literature.

Wot wordfactory said. (Apart from the bit about being a writer. I am a writer, but mainly the journalist sort. And fwiw I wouldn't recommend an A level in Meeja Studies either.)

Caveat to last post: this professor is a rather crusty, old-fashioned sort, so please don't throw bread rolls at me re. my reservations about Philosophy & Ethics. My son's school is very academically selective and I'm sure they wouldn't let anyone study it if it wasn't respected ,and besides you asked about CW, not P&E.

Sorry!

Let her do it. The other three are very academic and accepted by Russell group universities. My son did all three and is now at Oxford. Her fourth should be a fun choice - unis only count three in any case. English lit does not foster creativity in any way - the so called creative sections only encourage pastiche. A levels are all challenging, she may as well have one she loves.

I have been reading the AQA spec., which claims that thiw A level will allow students to progress as writers through A level to degree and then into 'professional practice'. But that is not how writers, of fiction in particular, operate. If you submit a ms. to an editor or agent, or even publish it yourself, having this A level will make no difference to your prospects. They do not look at your A levels when giving you a book deal. Two of my nephews and nieces and my own son want to be writers and I tell them to get the best possible A levels and degree so that they can support themselves while they wait for publication. You need to have money saved. My novels pay out royalties twice a year. In between I need to earn from other sources. Not all authors do well enough to support themselves by books alone.

As long as you have three strong A-levels and a reasonable chance of doing well in those I don't think the fourth one matters terribly; universities will only really be looking at her first three for academic gravitas iyswim.

But agree with others that there are probably A-levels out there that would do more for a future career as a writer. English language might be more useful. Or a MFL. She should be looking at things that develop her understanding of the world.

Depends where she's aiming, but I'd be wary of that and philosophy and ethics.

Agree with Word and MOtherinferior that a creative writer should be reading first.

I can see why she would be excited by it - and perhaps as a fourth A level it would be a good choice.

But I would worry about how it was taught. I think to be a really effective course it needs to be taught by a writer. By that I mean someone who is being published.

Creative writing at Uni is massively hard to get into and starts from a place of your writing.

I wonder how they would assess it at A level?

As an aside, is Philosophy and Ethics different to just Philosophy? Because Philosophy by itself it a v well respected A level and not a soft option at all.

I took philosophy and ethics at my grammar school and it was an excellent foundation for my philosophy and theology degree at Oxford. I now teach the subject and have sent several to oxford myself so I hadn't come across this!

Grr lack of capitals etc. Can't work predictive text on this phone!

As a teacher I'd be wary of it simply as it is new -so teachers won't be experienced in teaching or levelling work. Similarly new examiners and the fact universitys won't have heard of it yet.

I'd personally be tempted by the ou module as an extra if its not too time consuming (I've not looked at it) or just lots of encouragement to write herself or find a writers group etc. She can do 4 as levels then and add as an extra curricular.

I think it might be a bit of a mistake. It may turn out to be very difficult to get top grades. I also agree with wordfactory that for now reading and analysing through English Lit is likely to help her writing far more.

This isn't because I think creative writing is a 'soft option', it's a core part of many English Lit courses and it's often difficult to get top grades. I'm just not sure A-Level is the right thing.

Re the OU module I mentioned earlier, I don't know if it runs all year round, so to speak, but when my DD did it, it was supposed to be between her ASs and the summer of that year. In fact some of the deadlines were the same week as some of her AS papers. But the tutor was flexible and she fitted it in.

It would have been ideal if there had been a summer course available (which there may be - she had to do it to fit with the shcool's approach). The scheme was called YASS I recall but I've no idea what that stands for....

"Can the professional writers here please explain why not the Creative Writing A Level???"

I'm another professional (creative!) writer and would also not recommend it. A writer will write creatively with or without an A-level. If your daughter is a writer, she'll bring that to whatever A-levels she does and there'll be no stopping her writing creatively in her own time. But honestly, what would an A-level in it add to her in terms of qualifications? Nothing at all, in my opinion. I'm even fairly dubious about creative writing first degrees, as again, they don't really qualify you for anything in the way that say a journalism or even a very vocational screenwriting degree might (and even then, I'd save screenwriting for a second degree, or just write some scripts - you don't need a degree to do it). But while absolutely you should enjoy the subjects you do for A-level, there is no point doing them, especially in these days of high costs and competitiveness, if they're ultimately worthless in terms of getting you a job or on a decent degree.

Maybe I'd just about support a creative writing A-level for a mature student who just wanted a more formal course rather than the writersy group classes around. But for a kid going to college, it really isn't going to add anything to what she could do for herself by reading a few books on the subject and writing LOTS.

PS: In my experience, creative writing studies are an industry on their own, quite distinct from actually making a living from creative writing. It's a way for colleges to fill classes and for out-of-work writers to make money. It's a cash cow, because everyone thinks they can do it and they can be easily exploited. Another thing that undermines their worth is the low standard. I've witnessed some terrible crap that's been rubber-stamped by creative writing degrees, as it's all subjective blah blah, but essentially these are people who are buying their degree. Sorry to sound so cynical, but honestly, all you need to do is keep her stimulated and all she needs to do is keep being creative. And do some proper A-levels.

I would concur that the creative writing industry is a cash cow. The teachers are often just filling in to make up their lack of earnings throuh writing. There are some notable exceptions at post grad level (I teach on one myself) but much dross. A level wd be even worse imvho. Also I wd question how much any 16 year old could achieve in CW. To make any headway you have to have read hugely in all genres. You have to have thought about literature very deeply and then considered how to apply it to your own work.