Writing in USA

Students who have successfully completed a B.F.A. in Creative Writing from Lakeland University should be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of key terms, histories, forms, and structures from a variety of fields within the fine arts.
• Present work clearly and professionally when writing within different genres.
• Master the conventions of Standard English.
• Use artistic conventions in creative and unique ways.
• Work both independently and within a community of writers.
• Demonstrate work habits necessary for successful careers within the writing profession.
• Apply knowledge and skills gained in the classroom to real-world settings (e.g., internships, The Mirror, Seems, etc.).

While pursuing a BA in Creative Writing, students study literary texts and then produce their own poetry or fiction. The creative writing student is an artist. This major is perfect for those who love to write poems or stories, and who plan to do so no matter what. In addition to the required five courses in poetry or fiction writing, students must take five courses in English Literature or English Language. While some creative writing students attend graduate school to hone their skills and develop their art, others practice their craft in commercial industries like marketing or publishing. Ultimately, creative writers learn many skills that employers find desirable.

You can build on your creative skills and refine your writing technique with Carlow’s Creative Writing major. You will explore the works of great writers while deepening your relationship with these texts through critical examination. 

You can workshop creative pieces with peers as well as working writers, and develop your ability to understand creative concepts like context, image and voice.

You can gain experience in editing, graphic design and other practical skills by working with “The Critical Point,” Carlow’s journal of visual and literary arts. Opportunities such as the Madwomen in the Attic writing workshops and annual anthology and the Red Dog Reading Series can help you hone public reading, critique and editing skills.

A Master of Arts (MA) degree in English can be a passport to any number of careers where employers value communication and research skills, proficiency with digital technologies, and the ability to think critically to solve complex programs. Our MA English alumni work in publishing, journalism, education, marketing, law, and politics, among other fields.

The Creative Writing Concentration in the MA in English is designed to help writers find their voices and find their audiences. It is built around poetry and prose workshops led by award-winning published authors. Faculty take a holistic approach to teaching that merges rigorous literary study with a communal, writer’s retreat-style experience. Students take a combination of literature courses and creative writing workshops. A special seminar on Teaching Creative Writing will help prepare students interested in future instruction careers. Each student completes a significant final thesis work of prose or poetry during a semester-long one-on-one collaboration with our instructors

The Department of English prepares students to study, understand, and use the English language in order to

1. communicate through written composition
2. comprehend and create written texts
3. gain a critical and analytical understanding of texts
4. prepare for careers in teaching, writing, editing, publishing, and other professions that value such knowledge and skills.

Creative writers are people who invent worlds and then invite other people to come live in them a while. If that sounds appealing, you should consider majoring in English with a creative writing emphasis--and you should know we've designed it so that you can easily combine it with another major.

As a creative writing student at EIU, you can study all four of the major creative genres: fiction, poetry, drama (plays or scripts), and creative nonfiction. The program begins with a course that introduces you to all four genres, then you take intermediate and advanced classes in at least two genres (of your choice).

Outside the classroom, there's plenty going on, too. We bring writers to campus to share their work throughout the year. Students give readings, too. And in January, we have a a very special event. For one Saturday, student writers, faculty, and writers from around the region spend a day learning from three special guest writers who both share their work and provide workshop sessions for all of us.

Total Semester Hours required for the Degree: 120 semester hours

Semester Hours required for the English Major: 50-52 semester hours

UVU’s English program is designed to give students skill, confidence, and versatility in writing, speaking, and interpreting texts. The program provides opportunities for students to consider and practice the applications of effective language use in diverse situations: professional, pragmatic, social, political, and aesthetic. The English program emphasizes knowledge and use of standard English in all written work, yet incorporates an understanding that English is a desirably diverse and variable phenomenon. The courses of study in English are designed to familiarize students with much of the traditional canon of literature. They are also designed to provide students with the critical and ethical skills necessary to interrogate this canon, to incorporate and legitimize their own and others’ “different” voices, not just in the academy, but in any of the many situations in which language influences human activity.

The Professional and Technical Writing major is about the writing, editing and design of documents for businesses and organizations.

Learn how to communicate to different target audiences visually and textually through multiple print and online mediums. See what it's like to work under budgetary and timeline constraints with clients, just as you would in the business world. Deep dive into grammar, formatting and typography, and become skilled in today's most popular web and editing software.

Our students have gone on to successful careers as writers, editors and document developers. Many have also found success in graduate school, mastering studies in rhetoric, composition, technical communication, business and public administration.

The Writing Seminars offers a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in fiction and poetry. Students admitted to the M.F.A. program enroll in two years of course work and produce a substantial manuscript in the form of a novel or collection of fiction or poetry. M.F.A. candidates are chosen on the basis of a manuscript, college transcripts, and appropriate letters of recommendation that testify to the student’s ability and willingness to undertake serious study in the literary arts. Since all students receive financial aid in the form of full tuition and a teaching assistantship, applicants must be able to demonstrate aptitude for college teaching.

The creative writing concentration offers students classes in various genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and scriptwriting, as well as special topics. Students meet accomplished writers who visit creative writing classes as part of Salem State’s Writers’ Series, and they have the opportunity to work on Soundings East, Salem State’s international literary magazine. They culminate their experience by writing a creative writing thesis, working individually with a faculty mentor, and producing a chapbook of their work published by the creative writing program.

Arcadia’s undergraduate Creative Writing concentration exposes students to one-on-one faculty interaction, hands-on workshops, internship experiences, and opportunities to meet individual interests and career goals in today’s creative marketplace.

Additionally, the low-residency M.F.A. program in Creative Writing builds on the undergraduate curriculum with access to a dynamic online writing community, residency abroad, and book-length manuscripts with plans for publishing. As the only program of its kind in the Philadelphia area, M.F.A. students are able to schedule and maintain full-time, professional lives.

The Professional and Technical Writing program at Utah Tech University prepares students for careers in technical, scientific, medical, legal, and business writing environments. Courses introduce students to the procedures and practices that professional writers and editors use regularly, including grant writing, freelance writing, interactive media development, magazine production, technical editing, and document design. To further enhance their understanding of language and verbal communication, students in our program investigate areas such as composition theory, visual rhetoric, and the history of rhetoric.

Southern Utah University offers both a minor and a bachelor's degree program in English. The following emphases are available on both the minor and the bachelor's degree: Creative Writing, Literature, Secondary Education. In addition, a composite degree in Secondary Education/Creative Writing is available for English majors. The members of the faculty in the Department of English help students choose between various career paths such as writing the next great American novel, educating young minds, or becoming a Corporate Communications Specialist.

A creative writing concentration provides ample opportunities to hone your writing across genres and gain practical applications that can lead to an exciting career.

Examine and discuss literary texts in literature and creative writing classes that help you develop your own voice and approach to writing. From there, you will refine and showcase your skills in upper-level creative writing classes, including two-semester sequences in the writing of poetry, novels, plays, and other genres, and through a senior-year creative thesis.

Here, you’ll join a close-knit family of English language lovers. From the time you arrive on campus until you graduate, you’ll be guided by the same faculty advisor. You’ll enjoy small class sizes and amazing friendships with your fellow English majors. Our dedicated professors will get to know you. They will support you in your coursework, creative endeavors, internships, and post-graduate or career preparations. They will become personally invested in your success and will open doors for you. 

As a creative writing major, you’ll take liberal arts courses and write across a wide range of genres like poetry, fiction, drama and creative nonfiction. In your fiction writing classes, you can write the kind of fiction you want to write, including the ability to focus on developing your craft in science fiction, fantasy, or horror, and learn from the author of the first textbook ever published on writing fantasy fiction.

A good MFA program is hard to find, but we believe the MFA Program at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Georgia offers unique opportunities for MFA students dedicated to the craft and purpose of creative writing. GCSU’s famous alumna, Flannery O’Connor, lived in Milledgeville on her farm, Andalusia, and of our beautiful, Southern town, she wrote "When in Rome, do as you done in Milledgeville." Our MFA students certainly get a lot done in their three years in Milledgeville.

As a Creative Writing major, you’ll learn how to develop your own individual voice. You'll also learn to produce original works in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Coursework consists of creative writing classes, and classes in English, history, and culture. Small writing workshops that focus on giving and receiving feedback will teach you to communicate your ideas to others.

Rice English integrates creative and critical practice through training in close reading, analytical writing, cultural history and theory, and craft/form. Our faculty research and pedagogy cover the breadth of the study of British and American literatures and cultures ranging from the medieval era to the present. The curriculum emphasizes literature and literary history, race and ethnicity studies, feminist and gender studies, queer theory and the history of sexuality, visual culture and comparative media studies, and the Anglophone literature of the postcolonial world. Faculty have particular strengths in the newer interdisciplinary areas of medical humanities, ecocriticism, post-humanism, and environmental humanities. Recent research and writing in the public humanities innovates the departmental mission as faculty and students engage new audiences. Rice English is also home to a vibrant creative writing concentration offering a range of courses in fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction.