Access to Humanities and Social Sciences (English Studies Pathway)

Develops the fundamental academic writing skills required for humanities study, including essay planning, argument construction, appropriate referencing and the clear communication of ideas for a scholarly audience. Learners apply these skills throughout the diploma.

Builds a toolkit of reading strategies for engaging with literary, linguistic and cultural texts at pace, alongside effective methods for recording and organising information from a range of sources. An awareness of how purpose and context shape language use is developed.

Examines the conventions and characteristics of a range of literary and non-literary genres, from poetry and prose fiction to essays and journalism, and develops learners’ ability to identify and analyse literary features in context. The relationship between text, genre and social issues is a key theme.

Investigates how historical events, cultural contexts and community identity shape the language used in both oral and written texts, exploring the linguistic devices through which these influences are encoded and the effects they produce on readers and listeners.

Examines the economic, social and environmental conditions that drove industrialisation in Britain and analyses the competing perspectives through which historians and writers have interpreted this transformative period. This unit provides essential historical context for understanding Victorian literature and language change.

Conducts a close study of the novel as a literary form, examining how structure, plot, characterisation, setting and language combine to create meaning. Learners apply critical perspectives to a novel, developing the analytical skills and literary vocabulary central to English degree study.

Explores the work of Shakespeare with attention to the interpretative nature of text and performance, theatrical conventions and the cultural, social and historical contexts that shaped both the production and reception of his plays. Learners develop confidence in using literary terminology to discuss dramatic texts.

Develops the skills to analyse the short story as a distinct literary form, examining the significance of context, narrative voice, structure and language in texts by a range of authors. Learners also consider how literary criticism can deepen and complicate a reader’s response to short fiction.

Examines the rapid social, economic and political transformations of nineteenth-century Britain, including agricultural change, urbanisation and the growth of social protest movements. This historical grounding supports critical reading of Victorian and early twentieth-century literature.

Investigates the features of male and female speech patterns and the theoretical frameworks — including deficit, dominance and difference models — used to explain them. Learners consider the social construction of gendered language and apply these insights to the analysis of real and literary speech.

Explores the processes and challenges of adapting written narrative for the screen, examining the editorial conventions of mainstream narrative film and the ways meaning is constructed through visual and auditory codes. Learners produce a storyboard or script and evaluate how the source text has been transformed in adaptation.

Develops close reading skills in poetry, building learners’ ability to analyse meaning, form, metre and imagery using appropriate literary terminology. Learners consider how context shapes the production and reception of poetry and produce extended critical responses to a range of poems.

Focuses specifically on the skills of planning and writing an extended academic essay in English studies, synthesising secondary critical material with close textual analysis. This unit consolidates all the analytical and writing skills developed across the diploma.

Examines how digital communication platforms are accelerating language change, introducing new registers, forms and conventions, and influencing public discourse. Learners investigate the relationship between social media, identity and power in contemporary language use.

Studies drama as a written and performed form, examining how playwrights use language, structure, stage directions and dramatic conventions to create meaning. Learners analyse dramatic texts in relation to their political, social, cultural and historical contexts using appropriate critical terminology.