Toggle Nav
Search
  • My Account
Basket
Close
Menu
Account
Find a course
Cms page top banner area

Expectations for participating in writing courses at City Lit

Close-up of students gathered at a deskClose-up of students gathered at a desk

The Writing Department at City Lit is committed to welcoming all learners, and to ensuring that all learning takes places within a productive, supportive environment. The following guidelines provide some more information on how your course will be taught and what will be expected from you as part of the learning experience.

This course promotes diversity and inclusivity

We are committed to welcoming all learners to City Lit Writing, and this course actively encourages and makes space for different perspectives and learning needs. In order to create a safe and productive environment for everyone, we ask that all members of our community demonstrate kindness and respect for each other. For more information, please see the college Student Code of Conduct and Equality and Diversity Policy.

This course contains a workshop element

Workshopping means that you will be encouraged to share your ideas and your written material so that you can receive feedback from your classmates and the tutor. Feedback may take the form of verbal and/or written comments. The college operates a policy of constructive feedback, which means that all comments from learners and tutors on student work should be designed to promote learning and to foster a productive, supportive environment.

Feedback is a key part of learning in writing classes. It can be daunting for some but with kindness, compassion, and practice it can become one of the most enjoyable parts of the writing process. In particular, learning how to give valuable constructive feedback on written work is one of the most effective ways of developing your own skills as a writer. Your tutor will provide you with guidelines on the principles of giving effective feedback.

All written work and feedback are provided with an expectation of confidentiality. Written work, ideas and feedback shared by your fellow students should not be circulated except amongst other course attendees and your tutor. Students’ ideas and writing remain their own intellectual property throughout, and will never be shared by City Lit without consent and due credit.

This course supports the use of content notes

City Lit Writing endeavours to create a safe, creative, and welcoming space for all. For this reason, we strongly support the use of content notes to facilitate open and productive discussion. This means that you are asked to make your tutor and classmates aware in advance if any writing you wish to share contains material that may be deemed sensitive. Please ask your tutor for further clarification if you are unsure about what might qualify as sensitive content.


Topics that may require a content note:

Below is a non-exhaustive list of topics for which students may consider adding a content note. In many cases, a ‘common sense’ approach is the best way to judge if a topic might be triggering for a reader.

  • Sexual assault
  • Child abuse
  • Substance abuse
  • Abortion and miscarriage
  • Discrimination and bigotry


Some examples of appropriate use of content notes:

  • Your tutor invites you to submit a piece of your writing to Google Classroom for your classmates to read, analyse, and discuss. Your writing contains reference to illegal drug taking. To prepare your classmates, you add the following brief comment to your submission post: ‘Content note: Substance abuse.’
  • Your tutor asks you to bring a piece of writing you admire to class to share within a small group setting. The piece of writing you choose contains reference to a rape. In order to prepare your classmates, you choose to offer the following verbal warning before you share copies: ‘I’d like to warn you that this passage contains mentions of sexual assault.’ You may also choose not to read the passage out loud.
  • Your tutor pairs you with a partner and asks you to share a small excerpt of your writing with each other for feedback. The excerpt you choose to share includes a character using a discriminatory slur. In order to prepare your partner, you choose not to read the slur aloud and offer the following verbal warning before you share your written copy: ‘this piece includes a character using a discriminatory slur. I won’t say the slur aloud because I understand that it’s offensive to lots of people, but just to let you know that it’s written in full in the first paragraph. I’m looking forward to hearing what you think of its use in my piece.’

If you would like to learn more about content notes and why we at City Lit Writing support their use, you can refer to this helpful resource from the Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning.

Learn more