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Becoming a Creative Writing Major or Minor

Introduction

There are two different Writing degrees at Coe. The English Department offers a Creative Writing Major and Minor focusing on fiction, poetry, and playwriting. The Rhetoric Department offers a Writing Major and Minor focusing on various forms of non-fiction prose.

You can not do more than one Writing Major or Minor. So, a student completing a Creative Writing major or minor cannot also add a Rhetoric Writing major or minor. And vice versa.

A Writing Major does not stand alone; as a Collateral Major, it must always be a "second" major.

Professors in both English and Rhetoric will be glad to help you consider which major or minor suits you and to help you plan your course of study.

The Core of the Creative Writing Major:

Workshops

In a creative writing major, the fiction and poetry workshops are the key courses. In workshops students try various kinds of writing exercises to develop their skills, present their work-in-progress to their workshop colleagues, and use the commentary they receive to revise and improve their pieces.

Reading and Writing

To develop as a writer, you need to read widely, to study examples of the best writing, and to become familiar with the traditions within which you are working. To help with this, you must take at least two literature courses. Spreading these out over the first three years is a good idea.