writing program

Dive into a creative writing program with courses designed to elevate your technical and storytelling skills, inspire your mind, and launch you into your career. 

Overview

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 program

In addition to coursework in multiple creative writing genres, including poetry, literary non-fiction, spiritual writing, digital media, and fiction, you will gain professional 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!

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Options

  • Double major–because the courses in our 35-hour writing major 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.
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Careers

All organizations, no matter the industry, need good writers who can communicate effectively with their target audiences, so students who major in writing 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

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Classes

  • Creative Writing Fiction or Poetry
  • Writing for Digital Media
  • The Spiritual Practice of Writing
  • Professional Writing and Editing
  • Composing Arguments
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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.

Meet our Faculty

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