English and Creative Writing

The Department of English and Creative writing offers meaningful majors designed to prepare students for professional and personal success. The department offers three majors: Creative Writing, English, and Integrated English Language Arts. We also offer minors in Creative Writing and English.

In all of our majors, students study literature and write creatively and analytically along with gaining real-world experience through campus leadership opportunities and internships. Our  different majors allow students to specialize in the areas that are most important to them while gaining a sophisticated understanding across our discipline. We are one of the few universities in our region to offer a full Creative Writing Major, and our program is distinctive because it offers classes in poetry, fiction, and playwriting. Our English Major offers courses in classic and contemporary literature, from Shakespeare to science fiction, in addition to professional, analytical, and creative writing. Our Integrated English Language Arts Major is specially designed for students who want to go onto careers as teachers in grades 7-12.

The faculty in the Department of English and Creative Writing are experts and published writers in their fields, and we pride ourselves on promoting self-expression and intellectual rigor. Our small classes allow us to work together as a community of writers and readers who share a love of literature, language and creativity.

Opportunities abound on campus for students to engage in the life of the department and gain professional experience while earning their degrees. Our majors and minors
 

• Publish their work in the The Mill, the university literary and arts journal
• Work as editors and designers on The Mill, the university literary and arts journal
• Meet and learn from visiting novelists, poets, and writers who come to campus as part of The Mill Reading Series
• Work as writers and editors on The Exponent, the university newspaper
• Serve as leaders in Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor Society
• Collaborate with Theatre in productions and staged readings
• Gain internships on campus and throughout the Cleveland area in non-profits, corporations, education, and media
• Work as academic coaches and mentors in the High School-Higher Education Program
• Work with professors as course assistants in classes
• Conduct scholarly research and creative endeavors through the Summer Scholars Program, Faculty Student Collaborative Scholarship courses, Honors in the Major projects, and independent study courses

The majors in English and Creative Writing teach 21st-century skills in critical and creative thinking, written and oral communication, collaboration, and the ability to interpret texts and situations across multiple points of view. Major surveys show that these are the skills that employers look for in hiring and promotion. Our majors and minors go on to meaningful careers as writers, editors, and communication directors in businesses, marketing, media relations, health care, and non-profit and charitable organizations. They are teachers, lawyers, analysts, content providers, and project managers. Our alumni tell us that their English and Creative Writing majors fuel them as they move upward into executive and leadership positions in their careers and communities. In a world of constant change, English and Creative Writing majors and minors graduate with the true foundations needed to successfully meet the future and lead lives of meaning and purpose.