Creative Writing Degree
Weekly Writing Wednesdays #66
There are many ways to learn how to write. No one path is absolute, but I can speak from my experience and share some tips about the route I took. I received a bachelor of arts degree in creative writing with a 4-year college program. It was difficult to find a program that had enough writing to meet my standards, and it was difficult (As it is for most students) to figure out how to pay for college as well!
Today I am sharing what you should be on the lookout for when picking a writing program.
Writing Degree VS English Degree
When I started looking for a college degree in writing, there were only four colleges in Ohio (during 2013-2015) that had a writing major, versus schools with an English major and a writing focus or minor. Do you know what the difference is between these two? There are many pros and cons, depending on your needs!
English Major: An English degree has a large focus on literature, research, and essay-writing. This is a wonderful degree and some programs have writing classes that can be built into a minor or are available as a major’s focus. But overall, this may limit the depth of or number of writing classes you can take due to the number of credits that must be toward literature. In some cases, writing is only offered as elective classes.
Writing Major: While you still study literature in a writing degree, the main requirements are more toward the writing side and these programs often have more options to study a variety of writing styles. Varied programs will have not only basic writing classes but different styles, levels, and a selection of writing-based electives to choose from.
Note: This varies widely across different institutions!
Writing Classes
When I say I studied writing I usually got two reactions: “Do you write only essays?” or “Do you write only stories?” The answer is “Yes!” but there is a lot more to it. If you are unfamiliar with how classes are set up in college (American colleges/ universities) here is a rundown of what terms or ideas are covered under the umbrella of a major. Each program may have different names for what I am going to explain below so I am trying to simplify this as much as possible.
Major Requirements: These classes are the core of your major. Every writing student at your school will have to take these classes to graduate. Examples can be basic writing classes, a fiction writing class, and a non-fiction writing class. There are usually literature requirements too as a good writer is a good reader!
Multi-level Classes: In many majors, there are classes that you must take in order as you advance your skills. My program offered a selection of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction workshops. These started at level 1 craft & technique classes and then the next level was advanced workshops.
Major Electives: Every major has electives. Once you get your basic classes done there are optional classes you can take, and you will usually be required to take a certain number of electives as a minimum. Electives can be something like excursions into topics related to your other classes, writing in foreign languages, history and writing, literature classes, interviewing and research skills, niche topics, study abroads, and more!
To give you a better example of these requirements or the types of classes you might find, here is a list of what classes I took as a writing student at Hiram College:
Basics of Creative Writing
Grammar and Style
Intro to Literature
Teaching and Supervising (Writing Assistants)
Shakespeare in England (Study Abroad)
American Literature Pre-colonialism-1800s.
Craft & Technique Fiction
World Literature
Craft & Technique Creative Nonfiction
Medieval Literature
Fiction Advanced Workshop
Literary Journalism
Professional Editing and Publishing
Senior Seminar: Fiction and Magical Realism
Writing in Nature
Craft & Technique Poetry
Creative Nonfiction Advanced Workshop
There were novel writing, script writing/ screenplay, and many literature classes I simply did not have time for!
Picking Out a Good Writing Program
Now, I just gave you a huge list of possible classes you can take inside a writing program. But how do you figure out what program is good for you? My first advice is, match your degree to what career you are aiming for. If you are planning on being a creative writer (fiction, novelist, author, poet, etc.) a creative writing degree is a good match. If you are not certain you want to go that far into the creative-artist side of things, an English major is great because that gives you a taste of writing but not so heavy as a full writing degree. Or maybe consider writing as a minor to be paired with another degree to fit your future work field. Next, see what program matches your needs.
You will want to pick a program that teaches more than one way to write and exposes you to a variety of literature. Here are some examples. These lists are not exhaustive.
Types of writing classes:
Fiction Writing
Creative Nonfiction Writing
Essay Writing
Poetry Writing
Novel Writing
Script Writing
Types of literature classes can be modern, antiquity, medieval, or can focus on recent history. You can read across British lit, American lit, Asian lit, western and eastern European, Russian, African, South American, and more. There can be classes focusing on groups of writers such as women, BIPOC or LGBTQ representations!
A lovely college I live near nowadays has a decent writing program, but it only teaches fiction and essay writing, and the literature (Even in a full English degree) only covers American and British literature. While there is nothing wrong with those courses, you will only focus on a small percentage of the writing and literature world (unless you want to work in and study those specifically.) You will want to look for a writing program that offers at least three different kinds of writing and has classes that cover different areas of the world as well as a variety of writers from all walks of life. The more varied your learning, the more skills, experiences, and perspectives you gain!
Writing Centers
The best writing programs are only as strong as their writing tutors. The best model of a writing assistant (or tutor) program comes from Iowa University’s writing department. They train writing students how to teach and review student’s work to not only correct but to show them how to improve their skills as writers. My school fortunately did this and we had an entire department dedicated to our writing center which was separate and received different training in comparison to regular tutors. This is ideal! These are usually signs of a robust writing program. To learn more about these kinds of programs, I recommend checking out the Lindsay Crane Writing Center webpage. Another incredible example is the Purdue Owl (Online Writing Lab) from Purdue University.
Conclusion
While there are many facts to take into consideration when looking for a college or university, knowing a little more about what can be in your degree is important. Luckily, I knew I wanted to know everything there was about writing so I needed to find a program offering a wide variety of classes. I know this isn’t always the case, but I do think if you have an example of what to look for, this will help when you start planning out your pros and cons lists!