Scottish Literature MA
Textual Editing: Scottish Texts SCOTLIT4029
- Academic Session: 2026-27
- School: School of Critical Studies
- Credits: 20
- Level: Level 4 (SCQF level 10)
- Typically Offered: Either Semester 1 or Semester 2
- Available to Visiting Students: Yes
- Collaborative Online International Learning: No
- Curriculum For Life: No
Short Description
This course introduces the core skills of editing selected Scottish texts, including constructing and annotating a reading text and descriptive bibliography. It also provides an introduction to relevant Book History a propos the selected texts.
Timetable
1x2hr seminar per week over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus.
This is one of the Honours options in Scottish Literature and may not run every year. The options being offered this session are available on MyCampus.
Co-requisites
None.
Assessment
The standard assessments for this course are:
■ Essay (1500 words) - 40%
■ Set Exercise (2,000 words) - 60%
If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:
■ There are no alternatives to the Essay (1500 words), but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions).
Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor. 
Are reassessment opportunities available for all summative assessments? Not applicable
It is the default expectation that all courses will offer opportunities for reassessment or deferred assessment. Where it is not possible to offer this in some assessment components, the grade achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade, and any exceptions for this course are described below.
[No exceptions]
Course Aims
This course aims to:
■ build knowledge of the choices that need to be worked through in textual editing.
■ develop students' understanding of the basic principles of annotating literary texts.
■ develop understanding of the basic tools of descriptive bibliography
■ introduce relevant aspects of book history.
Intended Learning Outcomes of Course
By the end of this course students will be able to:
■ evaluate the choices available and identify which might best be made by an editor constructing a reading text.
■ annotate a text in detail.
■ critically discuss the relevance of book history and descriptive bibliography to understanding literary texts.
■ discuss the theoretical state of textual editing practice in the literary critical/scholarly climate of the early 21st century.