NBS8635 Assignment 1 An Essay on a Creative Individual Brief & Guidance

NBS8635 Assignment Brief

• Choose a creative person (they can be living or dead, but should be reasonably well known).
• Write an essay explaining why this person is creative in your opinion. You must justify your argument with reference to relevant theories/concepts of creativity drawn from appropriate academic literature.
• Your essay should introduce your choice (some brief biographical details and what they have achieved); and the justification (using theories of creativity drawn from appropriate academic literature) for that choice; and must end with a conclusion summarising briefly the key points of your argument.
• You may include illustrations (please cite the source of anything reproduced in your essay) and headings/subheadings if you wish.
• Full referencing of all sources used (including empirical material relating to your choice of individual) is required.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I choose anybody as my creative individual?

A: Yes. It can be a woman or a man, young or old, still alive or long dead. They can be of any nationality and can be an artist, a scientist, an engineer, an entertainer, a politician, a soldier, a surgeon, a teacher, a sportsperson or from another discipline. They can be famous or less well known (although it is better if they are at least written about in newspapers, magazines and books). You can choose an entrepreneur or business person, but we have found that some previous students have equated business success with creativity and failed to make the case that their individual was creative.

Q: Can I write in the first person?

A: Not in assessments for all modules, but yes for this module.
 
Q: What if you (the lecturer) don't think my choice is creative? Will this affect my mark or grade for this assignment?

A: No. I will mark the assignment in line with the intended learning outcomes. For the assignment, any individual could be creative. What you need to do is argue, using some of the academic theories of creativity that you have encountered in this module, why and in what way this individual can be considered creative. I recommend that you don’t just focus on one aspect of the person (e.g. the personality). This was a weakness in some submissions in previous years.

For example, you may be able to argue that your person displays personality traits associated with creativity, but that is not enough to make a convincing argument that they are creative. Many people may display personality traits associated with creativity, but never produce any creative output.

Q: What is the balance between biographical details and theory?

A: In your introduction, you will need to give some biographical details: Who is your individual?; where and when they were born?; what their profession is/was?; what their creative output/practice is/was? Throughout the rest of the assessment, you need to say enough about your creative individual so that I can assess the strength of your argument, which must be evidenced by theories/concepts from the literature that we have covered in the module, that they are/were creative.

Q: Which theories of creativity should I use to analyse my chosen individual's creativity?

A: You should already have read some of the readings that are made available on Canvas. You should find the readings (both essential and recommended) from the sections on "What is creativity?" and "The Creative Personality" particularly useful. The chapter by Kozbelt, A., Beghetto, R.A., and Runco, M.A. (2010) 'Theories of Creativity’ pp. 20-47 in Kaufman, J.C. & Sternberg, R.J. (Eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press is particularly useful as it gives an overview of creativity theories.

You do not need to give detailed descriptions of the theories, but you do need to show that you can apply them to support your argument.

Q: How could I structure my essay?

A: One of the challenges of any written assessment is finding the most appropriate way to structure your work. For this piece, some students tell the story of their creative individual’s life (rather like writing a biography) and pick out key aspects that they can relate to theories that they have read about in the academic literature.

Alternatively, they select theories and then try to fit those to the individual. That tends to be less successful, but a variation is to choose themes from the literature to frame your argument (e.g. the 4Ps – personality, product, process, press/environment), noting that it may be very difficult to ascertain the process that your individual followed. Above all remember this is a short piece of work – so choose your words and arguments carefully.

Q: Can I use subheadings?

A: Yes, if you feel that it helps the structure of your work, but it is not necessary to use headings.

Q: Do I have to put references in this short essay?

A: Yes. You must get into the habit of always putting full references on all written work unless expressly told otherwise. You should put references for all sources that you have used in writing your essay. This includes online sources and web pages, books, autobiographies, book chapters, journal articles, articles in magazines and newspapers, and any films, recordings, television programmes, or other material you use.

Q: How many references would you expect for an essay of this length?

A: There is no right answer to this question, but a good guideline would be at least five and not more than ten references to support your theoretical arguments. You will also need to remember to reference your sources for the biographical details of your individual.

Q: How do I reference particular items?

A: The Business School usually uses the Harvard@Newcastle referencing style. There is a lot of guidance on referencing here: http://libguides.ncl.ac.uk/referencing. Please take care in referencing book chapters. It would be very unusual to have an edited book in your reference list, as you would usually have referred to a specific chapter. There is guidance on referencing all sorts of different items in Cite Them Right Online.

One specific question that has been raised is: How do I reference translated works?
It is usual to give the name of the original author, date and title and then the name of the translator and the publication details of the translation. There may be an example of how to do this in Cite them right (online), but if not, we won’t be penalising you at this level of detail. The in-text citation should be (Original author, original date).

Q: Will you read a draft?

A: Sorry, no! I specifically set you a short piece of work early on within this module so I can provide you with detailed feedback to improve future pieces of work across all modules. You should also be developing the skills to assess the quality of your work.

Q: Will you provide exemplar answers?

A: No. I like to give you the freedom to choose your creative individual, but each creative individual is unique, and your arguments will need to be specific to your individual.

Q: Can I use images in my answer?

A: Yes, but please make sure you identify your source in the caption (captions are not included in your word limit).