E302 Language and creativity

Module Guide
This publication forms part of the Open University module E302: Language and Creativity. Details of this
and other Open University modules can be obtained from Student Recruitment, The Open University, PO
Box 197, Milton Keynes MK7 6BJ, United Kingdom (tel. +44 (0)300 303 5303; email general-enquiries@open.
ac.uk).
Alternatively, you may visit the Open University website at www.open.ac.uk where you can learn more about
the wide range of modules and packs offered at all levels by The Open University.

The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA

First published 2016
Copyright © 2016 The Open University
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SUP 046790
1.1
Contents
1 Introduction 5
2 Module components 6
2.1 The module website 6
2.2 The Study Guide 6
2.3 Audio-visual material 6
2.4 The module books 7
2.5 Stylistics 9
2.6 English: A Linguistic Toolkit 9
2.7 Study skills activities 10
3 Studying the module 11
3.1 Aims of the module 11
3.2 Structure of the module 11
3.3 Study schedule 13
3.4 Tuition 13
3.5 Assessment 13
4 E302 in OU qualifications 15
5 E302 production team members 16
Core production team (authoring) 16
Production team 16
Audio-visual production 17
External assessor 17
Acknowledgements 17
 1 Introduction

1 Introduction
Creativity in English and other languages is often thought to be the
preserve of a few – for example, highly accomplished authors and
speakers. Increasingly, however, researchers have come to recognise the
many ways in which creativity in language use permeates our daily
lives. E302 Language and creativity takes a broad approach to the study
of creativity in language use looking at a wide range of examples,
including everyday conversation, advertisements, political
demonstrations, creative writing, social media, poetry, children’s stories,
rap, drama, journalism and personal life stories. The module illustrates
the fundamental importance of linguistic creativity to all aspects of
human life and at the same time considers the ongoing debates
surrounding what exactly is meant by ‘creativity’.
In E302 Language and creativity you will investigate the relationship
between spoken and written language and other modes such as image,
movement, music and dance. You will also explore developments
resulting from the recent rise of social media, which is having a
profound effect on the uses of language in society. The module
focuses on creativity in English and also considers the use of English
alongside other languages, as well as the impact of globalisation on
creative uses of English. The module will provide you with a detailed
understanding of what linguistic creativity is, how it is used, and the
issues it raises, while also helping you to consider your own daily
experiences of creative language use.

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Module Guide

2 Module components
2.1 The module website
The module website provides a range of key resources to support your
study of E302. Here you will find the study planner which shows you
what you will be studying each week, gives you key study dates for all
the module components and sets out submission dates for your
assignments. You will also find the Study Guide and related materials,
including pdfs of the printed material and audio-visual material
available to download. The module website is also the place to go to
access your tutor group forum (TGF) and valuable Open University
sites such as Library Services.

2.2 The Study Guide

The Study Guide helps you to plan your work and should be the
starting point for your study each week. The Study Guide is organised
into an Introduction to the module as a whole and three blocks:
. Block 1: Creativity in language
. Block 2: Narrative, language and creativity
. Block 3: The politics of language and creativity in a globalised
world
Each block of the Study Guide includes a range of material to take you
through your study of E302. The material has been designed and
selected to support your learning about language and creativity – and,
hopefully, to make it enjoyable. The Study Guide includes summaries
and discussions of key ideas considered within the module, notes on
the module books and audio-visual materials, and a range of structured
activities to support your learning.

2.3 Audio-visual material

This is an integral component of E302. A wide range of audio-visual
material is included in the module to give you direct experience of
different kinds of creativity, as well as access to people talking about
their own creative practices and to researchers discussing their work.
You are expected to refer to these materials in your assignments.

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 2 Module components

2.4 The module books

There are three module books, one for each block. Each book includes
chapters written by authors who are expert in particular areas of
language and creativity.

Figure 1 Creativity in Language: From Everyday Style to Verbal Art, edited

by Zsófia Demjén and Philip Seargeant

Book 1, Creativity in Language: From Everyday Style to Verbal Art,

looks at creativity in both written and spoken language, drawing on
perspectives from stylistics and discourse analysis. The book takes an
analytic and exploratory look at creativity in language, beginning with
the simple question of what creativity is and how it relates to language.
The book includes practitioners’ approaches in terms of both creative
writing and translation; and it extends out to consider other forms of
semiotic creativity, looking in particular at visual communication and
the way it combines with the verbal mode.
Book 2, Narrative, Language and Creativity: Contemporary Approaches,
brings together current ideas about narrative approaches from across a
range of disciplines and bodies of research, including sociolinguistics,
literary studies and linguistic ethnography. Chapters focus on the
creation and significance of narratives in different areas of experience
over the life span using examples drawn from a wide range of sources

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Module Guide

Figure 2 Narrative, Language and Creativity: Contemporary Approaches,

edited by Janet Maybin

including autobiography, verbatim theatre, social media, conversational

anecdotes, imaginative play, company branding and confessional
television.
Book 3, The Politics of Language and Creativity in a Globalised World,
explores the many ways in which linguistic creativity is a resource for
political activity, and the politics surrounding the production,
ownership and evaluation of different kinds of creative activity in
contemporary society. Chapters draw on a range of approaches
including sociolinguistics, discourse studies and social semiotics to
explore creative practices such as the making of advertisements,
political speeches, plays, hip hop music and banners in grassroots
demonstrations. At the heart of this book is a recognition of the recent
explosion of ‘production’ activity across texts, modes, media and
technologies which, in turn, is forcing us to ask questions about what
gets counted and valued as ‘creative’ linguistic and semiotic practice,
and why.

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 2 Module components

Figure 3 The Politics of Language and Creativity in a Globalised World,

edited by David Hann and Theresa Lillis

2.5 Stylistics
Amongst your module materials you will find the book Stylistics, by
Lesley Jeffries and Dan McIntyre. This provides a useful and detailed
overview of a range of key terms, concepts and approaches to
analysing linguistic creativity. You will focus on Stylistics extensively in
Block 1, which explores creative texts, but you will find that it is also a
useful resource across the module as a whole.

2.6 English: A Linguistic Toolkit

English: A Linguistic Toolkit is a resource which you may be familiar
with if you studied U214 Worlds of English. It consists of a book and a
series of online activities, which are designed to help you to grasp how
language works, and how it can be described and analysed. As you
work through the E302 Study Guide you may come across suggestions
to revisit the Toolkit if there are relevant parts which support your
study. It is up to you whether or not you act on those suggestions. The
links are made to help you refresh your understanding, but if you
haven’t studied U214 we encourage you to make time to look through
the resource.

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Module Guide

Figure 4 Stylistics, by Lesley Jeffries and Dan McIntyre

2.7 Study skills activities

The study planner, as well as pacing your work, contains links to study
skills activities which the module team have developed with input from
Library Services. These activities are designed to support you through
your study of the module by developing relevant skills, including ones
which will help you in your assessment preparation.

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 3 Studying the module

3 Studying the module

3.1 Aims of the module
E302 will provide you with:
. an understanding of the nature of creativity in English in a global
context and the ways in which it is used to fulfil a range of social,
cultural, artistic and political functions
. a range of materials to enable you to consider the roles, interests
and concerns of different participants in the construction and
interpretation of creative texts and practices
. a critical appreciation of different theories and debates about the
nature and functions of creative language practices in both everyday
and literary uses of English
. opportunities to explore and try out different analytical approaches
to the study of creativity in English – drawing on linguistics,
stylistics and semiotics – and to consider their relative strengths
and limitations for the study of creative texts and practices.

3.2 Structure of the module

E302 is divided into three blocks, each taking a slightly different
approach to language and creativity.
Block 1 explores and analyses creative texts, including multimodal texts
(those mixing language and other semiotic modes). The block draws
mainly from linguistics, especially stylistics, and also includes units on
creative writing and translation studies. An applied case study in the
final unit draws together key threads in Book 1. Study Guide Units 2–8
(including the audio-visual materials), module Book 1, and Stylistics are
central to your work on Block 1.
Block 2 focuses on narratives: how they are embedded in dynamic
cultural practices, their functions in people’s lives and their connections
with identity. Block 2 is interdisciplinary, with different units using
frameworks from sociolinguistics, linguistic ethnography, sociology,
creative writing, translation studies and multimodality studies. Study
Guide Units 9–15 (including the audio-visual materials) and module

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Module Guide

Book 2 are central to your study of Block 2, with Stylistics as a key

resource.
Block 3 investigates how linguistic creativity provides a resource for
political activity, and examines the politics of creative production,
ownership and evaluation. The units draw on approaches and analytic
frameworks from stylistics, social semiotics, multimodality aesthetics,
discourse studies and rhetoric. Study Guide Units 16–22 (including the
audio-visual materials) and module Book 3 are central to your study of
Block 3 with Stylistics as a key resource.
As outlined above, each of the three blocks is made up of units of
study within the Study Guide. You will generally study one unit of the
module each week.
The module deals with the work of many researchers and thinkers. The
case study at the end of Block 1 is an opportunity to focus in depth
on the considerable work of one scholar, Professor Elena Semino, who
has worked extensively on metaphor in both literary and non-literary
writing, and in spoken interaction. In Unit 8, you will hear Elena
Semino talk about her work, read examples of her work on creative
metaphor, and watch and listen to an academic reading group
discussing her ideas. The key focus in the case study is the use of
creative metaphor in different contexts – a novel, a doctor–patient
interaction and a scientific paper – and it explores the value of
metaphorical language in each case.

Block 1: Block 2: Block 3:

Creativity in language Narrative, language The politics of language
and creativity and creativity in a
globalised world

Study Guide 1 Study Guide 2 Study Guide 3

Book 1 Book 2 Book 3
Study planner
Set book (Stylistics)
Audio-visual materials
Study skills activities
English: A Linguistic Toolkit

Figure 5 The module structure

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 3 Studying the module

3.3 Study schedule

The online study planner for E302, which can be found on the home
page of the module website, shows you what you will be studying each
week as well as showing the submission dates for your assignments and
providing links to relevant resources. The study planner should always
be your first port of call.

3.4 Tuition
To support you during your study of E302, you will be allocated a
tutor who will also mark and comment on your assignments. Your
tutor should be the first person you contact over any module-specific
queries, for example regarding the materials and assignments. You will
also take part in a tutor group forum (TGF) which is the online
discussion forum that runs for the duration of the module and is
overseen by your tutor. The main purpose of the TGF is to enable you
to make contact with fellow students, to discuss the module ideas, and
to share perspectives and any interesting resources that you come
across, such as links to articles, television and radio frames, websites
and so on. Your tutor may also use the forum to post items to the
group and/or to run online tutorials.
You will also have the opportunity to participate in learning events
relating to E302, details of which will be available on StudentHome.
These learning events may be run by a different tutor.
If you have a technical enquiry relating to online tuition, contact the
OU Computing Helpdesk.
If you have a more general inquiry about your study, such as financial
support or extra sessions for study skills, this will be better dealt with
by your Student Support Team. Appropriate contacts and sources of
information can be found online, starting from the StudentHome page.

3.5 Assessment
Details of all E302 assignments, together with guidance notes, can be
found on the ‘Assessment’ page of the module website. There are two
forms of assessment on E302: four tutor-marked assignments (TMAs)
and an end-of-module assessment (EMA). The assessment for the
module is designed to reflect its learning outcomes, which are also

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Module Guide

provided in the Assessment Guide. Please take some time to read the
Assessment Guide carefully and in its entirety.
All E302 assignments are submitted electronically, via the eTMA
(electronic tutor-marked assignments) system. Full instructions on how
to test that the system is working for you, and on use of the eTMA
system generally, can be found via StudentHome.

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 4 E302 in OU qualifications

4 E302 in OU qualifications
E302 contributes to a number of qualifications. For example, it is a
core option for the BA (Honours) English Language and Literature,
and for some of the pathways within the BA (Honours) Language
Studies. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification
descriptions for the latest information on the circumstances in which
this module can count towards a qualification.

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Module Guide

5 E302 production team members

Core production team (authoring)
Zsófia Demjén (academic)
Rose Gibson (curriculum secretary)
Sharon Goodman (academic)
David Hann (academic)
Nicky Johnson (curriculum assistant)
Theresa Lillis (academic)
Penny Manford (study guide author)
Janet Maybin (academic)
Ruth McCracken (curriculum manager)
Dave McGrath Wilkinson (study guide author)
Frank Monaghan (academic)
Caroline Schwartz (curriculum manager)
Philip Seargeant (academic and production team chair)
Joan Swann (case study author)
Katy Thomas (curriculum manager)

Production team
Daniel Bottom (digital development editor)
Debbie Crouch (graphics media developer)
Michael Collins (media assistant)
Mick Deal (media assistant)
Fiona Harris (freelance editor)
Carol Houghton (licensing and acquisitions assistant)
Anh Huntington (senior project manager)
Sue Ince (licensing and acquisitions assistant)

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 5 E302 production team members

Sue Lowe (senior project manager)

Bernadette Martin (learning and teaching librarian)
Neil Mitchell (graphics media developer)
Siobhan Parkinson (video and audio assistant)
Emma Piquemal (video and audio producer)
Mark Thomas (interactive media developer)
Samantha Thomas (learning and teaching librarian)
Lauren Robinson (licensing and acquisitions assistant)
Perry Williams (faculty learning delivery and technologies manager)

Audio-visual production
Audio and visual sequences were produced for The Open University
by Lambent Productions. Additional materials produced by the Video
and Audio department at The Open University.

External assessor
Dr Andrea Macrae (Oxford Brookes University)

Acknowledgements
The module team would like to thank everyone who contributed to the
making of this module, including developmental testers, critical readers
and those interviewed for the audio and video materials.

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