Your voice matters—learn how to share it
Writing Degree Program
Dive into a creative writing degree program with courses designed to elevate your technical and storytelling skills, inspire your mind, and launch you into your career. Your words can change the world, a writing degree is your key to mastering the written word and turning ideas into influential works.
Tomorrow's storytellers are getting started right here.
A writing degree gives you the skills to communicate with purpose and passion.
Writing isn’t just about what you say; it is also about how you think and how you make sense of the world. As Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood insists, “A word after a word after a word in power.” Students who study writing at Anderson University learn to write for a variety of audiences and situations and to use written language to accomplish a broad range of purposes. From writing poems and short stories to composing strong arguments and generating compelling prose for digital spaces, we prepare our students to engage the world in creative and original ways.
As a writing major, you will work on original manuscripts, participate in writing workshops, learn about the publishing industry, meet accomplished writers and editors, and study literary models of writing in many genres in order to learn the specific writing techniques to create your own original work. You’ll also have opportunities to share your writing through publication in our Literary Arts Magazine, participation in open mic events, and compete for prizes in our Syford Poetry and Genesis Prose contests. Students who demonstrate outstanding scholarship are also invited to join AU’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honors Society.
EXPLORE THE WRITING DEGREE
AU’s writing degree program offers coursework in multiple creative writing genres, including poetry, literary non-fiction, spiritual writing, digital media, and fiction. Alongside your studies, you will gain professional writing experience through an internship of your choice. The English faculty have compiled a rich database of information about local internship opportunities for our writing majors–many of which are paid positions!
Degree Pathways
- Double major–because the courses in our 35-hour writing degree can be taken in any order, it pairs well with many other academic programs, such as history or political science, psychology, public relations, business, dance, and computer science.
- Writing as a minor–composed of 15-credit hours (5 courses that you get to choose), this minor can be combined easily with any other academic major.
- Graduate in 3 years–the writing major can easily be completed in three years or choose the BA + MBA route and earn two degrees in only four years.
Careers
All organizations, no matter the industry, need good writers who can communicate effectively with their target audiences. Writing degree program graduates can find career opportunities in a wide variety of fields:
- Publishing and editing
- Content Creation
- Ministry and Non-profit organizations
- Healthcare
- Public Service
- Government Agencies
- Freelance Writing
Internships
Internships provide valuable experience through a variety of projects:
- Developing content for marketing materials
- Managing/writing for social media
- Launching and helping maintain a social media presence
- Managing/editing a print or web publication
- Writing feature articles for a magazine, newsletter, website, or blog
- Writing speeches
- Writing grant proposals
- Crafting letters or email messages to internal or external audiences
- Copy editing
- Conducting a variety of research projects — possibly related to grants, marketing, internal processes, etc.
Classes
- Creative Writing Fiction or Poetry
- Writing for Digital Media
- The Spiritual Practice of Writing
- Professional Writing and Editing
- Composing Arguments
Meet our english faculty during your campus visit.
_ Department of English
Brandon Bruning
Assistant Professor of English, Instructor of Biblical Languages
Peter Elliott
Associate Professor of English
Thomas Kneeland
Asst. Prof. of English
Deborah Miller-Fox
Dean of the College of Humanities, Education, and Social & Behavioral Science
Dr. Jason Robert Parks
Director of the English Program
The Anderson You
You have unique interests and skills that set you apart. Explore the free My College Career Quiz to receive a personalized list of majors selected just for you. We’ve taken out the guessing work. Come find the Anderson you.