In Progress
Please note that this Unit Profile is still in progress. The content below is subject to change.Overview
This unit provides students with an introduction to the practice and craft of creative nonfiction writing, a genre that combines factual accuracy with creative expression. Students will explore how writers transform lived experience, research, and observation into compelling narratives that engage readers while maintaining ethical integrity. Through analysis of diverse voices in the genre—from established Australian writers like Helen Garner, Raimond Gaita and Alice Pung to international innovators and emerging digital storytellers—students will develop critical frameworks for understanding how creative nonfiction responds to and shapes cultural conversations. The unit emphasises practical skill development through guided experimentation across subgenres (including memoir, personal essay, portrait, essays of place and travel writing). Students will engage with contemporary issues in nonfiction writing, including representation ethics, the boundaries between fact and memory, and the possibilities of hybrid forms and digital platforms.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 2 - 2025
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Student Evaluation Survey
Use more examples or elaboration.
Review learning materials and content to elaborate on concepts and provide more examples.
Feedback from Student Evaluation Survey
Assessment feedback needs to be timelier and more usable.
Revise the structure of assessment types to ensure the feedback from assessment 2 can be directly applied to assessment 3, and due dates to ensure students receive feedback from assessment 2 with enough time to apply the feedback to assessment 3.
- Critically analyse and apply constructive feedback techniques on peers' work and refine their own writing through collaborative discussions.
- Evaluate and develop self-reflective practices to assess and critique personal creative development.
- Create and revise creative nonfiction pieces that apply narrative techniques, structure, and style specific to creative nonfiction while demonstrating ethical consideration.
- Design and implement research strategies using diverse methods (archival materials, interviews, digital resources) and seamlessly integrate findings into narrative writing that maintains both factual integrity and creative vision.
- Construct and critically redraft a sustained piece of creative nonfiction, demonstrating judgement in revision choices and ethical practice throughout the creative process.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Group Discussion - 20% | |||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 35% | |||||
| 3 - Written Assessment - 45% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Communication | |||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | |||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | |||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | |||||
| 5 - Team Work | |||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | |||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | |||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | |||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | |||||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||||