7 EMA: the assignment
In the light of your study of both parts of E301, analyse and compare
evidence for both literariness and creativity in a short ‘everyday’
English language text, and a short ‘literary’ English language text, both
of which you have selected yourself.
Your assignment should be 3000 words in length (+/–10%). Your
reference list is not included in the word count. In addition, you should
include an appendix containing your texts, which in total should be no
longer than 500 words.
8 Guidance notes
E301 illustrates a variety of ways of approaching creativity and literariness in
English language texts, from those that focus on textual analysis to those that
locate these within the broader sociocultural context and those that draw on
cognitive theory. It also shows how creativity and literariness are related and are
features not only of works of literature but of everyday spoken and written texts.
The EMA will require you to demonstrate your awareness of the range of
analytical possibilities that you have encountered in E301, and to select and apply
those that you consider most appropriate to your chosen texts and/or the practices
they represent. You should use at least two analytical techniques from E301 in
your answer. You must use material from both parts of the module and you may
include material from the set books. Rather than focusing narrowly on one
particular type of analysis, you will need to apply and draw inferences from
different concepts and techniques that you have studied in the module. For
example, it will not be sufficient to look at your texts in terms only of metaphor
or to analyse them only from a sociocultural point of view.
In E301, it is expected that you engage in critical thinking and evaluation of the
materials you have studied, so you will also be assessed in part on your ability to
think through the strengths and limitations of the techniques that you use, and to
express this clearly in your writing