Course Requirements - Creative Writing
Creative Writing Course Requirements
The creative writing program (within the English Department) offers instruction in writing fiction, poetry, playwriting and screenwriting. The major is based in the workshop method, which focuses on creation and peer review of student-centered texts. Prospective creative writing majors should plan on taking a creative writing course each semester; within that guideline, there is a good deal of flexibility in how to complete the major. Courses should be chosen in consultation with a faculty advisor in the English Department. Creative writing majors take workshops in at least two of the three genres we teach (poetry, fiction and playwriting), eventually concentrating on one genre for the Manuscript Workshop. If you wish to develop skills in writing nonfiction prose — journalism, personal essays, etc. — consider the writing major offered by the Rhetoric Department.
A collateral major in creative writing requires concurrent completion of another major. When completing a creative writing major or minor, you may not select either the major or minor in writing offered by the Rhetoric Department. If majoring in both English and creative writing, you cannot count more than two ENG-courses toward the creative writing major.
Four-Year Plan
The following represents one of many paths you can take to complete a major in creative writing. Note that students typically take four courses per semester for a total of eight each year. Check the Coe catalog to review all of your options or talk to faculty in the English Department.
First Year
- CRW-115 Exploring Creative Writing
- ENG-101 Introduction to Literary Studies: The Art of Reading and Writing
Second Year
- ENG-281 Literatures in English to 1800 or ENG-291 Literatures in English after 1800
- CRW-255 Playwriting Workshop 1
- CRW-290 Fiction Workshop 1
Third Year
- CRW-355 Playwriting Workshop 2
- CRW-390 Fiction Workshop 2
- CRW-490 Fiction Workshop 3
Fourth Year
- CRW-492 Manuscript Workshop