At our second session of the CATO May Seminars (19.05.2026), I presented Brilliant Writing From Reluctant Writers: Encouraging Quality Critical Writing from a Diverse Cohort. In this talk I note how the writing component or dissertation of many creative arts degrees has been diminished and even completely abolished in recent years. I suggest that efforts by researchers such as those of the Writing PAD network (formed in 2004) to find appropriate ways to address the difficulties that many creative arts students encounter when tackling writing based work are not being well considered if the solution to such difficulties is to ever reduce the writing element of a creative degree.
I make a case for the continued importance of writing for a number of reasons. For example, the well-established benefits of overcoming writing challenges as a means to operate in future professional scenarios, being able to slowly think through written information, being able to construct a logical argument and identify and assess the veracity or reliability of sources.
But there are other uses of course for writing as a life skill too – as a reflective medium, as a way of making sense of the world, and as the most precise way of communicating. And in spite of my billing of my talk, not all creative students are reluctant about writing – so why this gradual erosion of the opportunity to write in creative arts curricula?
None of this means that writing is necessarily easy, but I wonder, why should learning need to be easy? Accessible and easy are not to be confused. I reflected on my own struggles to write, the time it takes and effort it takes me, but that it is ultimately rewarding. When I suggest in the title that we can get “brilliant” writing, this is a view on the outcomes from the Level Six Writing module which I present in the talk. The idea of “brilliant” is that the students, mostly, come to love their research, their subject matter, and become much more confident in writing.
The module is a 11-week journey into many aspects and different genres of writing, with contributions from visiting lecturers who make the relationship between writing, craft and visual practice, or who explain about the mechanics of academic writing. We present a wealth of thought-provoking and instructional material to the students in this module and ask them to document their progress and ideas week by week, and to collaborate peer to peer on some elements of writing.
The outcome is a 2000-3000 essay (allowing for a big range in word count with the emphasis on quality not numbers of words), alongside around 30 pages of illustrated process notes. This is very different from the 7000-word dissertations I used to supervise in BA Graphic Design, which were guided primarily through one to one tutorials over a period of many months. These too, I would defend – (they have since been abolished) –, but we are operating in a different educational context in the online degree.
The writing module on our BA Illustration Online which I created asks students to think about questions around writing whilst they are in the process of researching and gradually putting together their own written research outcome.
The starting point is always a piece of their own visual work, a "catalyst piece" from which they can start to identify a subject matter. Sometimes the writing remains quite personal and can be a way of working through vulnerabilities or difficult life experiences. It can be analytical of practice, or a particular piece of work. It can often be broader in subject matter; themes that emerged in the most recent run of this module were:
- Death, Loss, Nostalgia
- Identity, Politics, Heritage
- Place, Ecology, Landscape
- Creative Process, Craft, Materials
These are addressed through the chosen genre of writing: academic, journalistic, promotional, reflective, educational, or often a hybrid of these.
As with the module presented in Session One, I use students’ own submission notes to analyse their responses. Whilst these are naturally selective in content, given that these are submissions are for assessment, they give a broad picture which is not inauthentic. I again was able to identify the many types of learning that are taking place: epistemic (new knowledge), metacognitive (understanding the learning process) affective (emotional connection), iterative (drafting, redrafting, choosing words), situated (using place, lived experience).
What is specific here about online learning?
There are two main aspects which continue the thread from the first session. One is the range of life situations, generations, educational backgrounds of the online cohort. This brings such an interesting span of topics as students are drawing on very different resources. Secondly, there is the geographical dispersal of the students, and this too brings a really rich and interesting range of localised themes into the written work. These even feed into research methods. For example, a student used their own dna analysis as a means to look into cultural traditions around death; another worked with a local research curator to understand the effect of illustration on the perception of the local natural habitat. They undertook field work in local natural habitats.
It is remarkable how much the offline research inspires much of the writing – a writer in Patagonia describes a liminal space, living “at the end of the South American continent and the start of the southern ocean, mystery and frozen landscapes.” Another, living by the sea, begins with childhood memories of the seaside and looks at how artists deliberately use nostalgia to connect with viewers.
My research demonstrated overall increased confidence in writing which is very encouraging to witness. Even more so is the enthusiasm with which students become absorbed in their subject matter.
I would welcome any insights and experiences from others working in this field on writing for creative students online.
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