School of English and Theatre Studies, College of Arts

The goal of the Creative Writing Major is to prepare students to become socially aware professional writers and creative professionals. Towards that end, the creative writing program provides students with the opportunity to engage with issues of environmental awareness and social justice through creative practice. Students also gain a depth and breadth of understanding of literature, enabling them to analyze and evaluate how their creative practice engages, revises, or contests literary traditions, genres, and forms. The purpose of combining literary studies and creative practice is to produce a unique form of aesthetic maturity.

In their course of study, majors explore three writing genres, gain expertise in two, and create a polished creative portfolio in one while minors gain skill in two writing genres. By the end of the program, students will be able to create original, compelling creative work by achieving a breadth and understanding of the techniques of creative craft and form across two genres.

The Creative Writing minor reflects the significant role that creative writing plays in our cultural life, from travel writing and blogs, gaming and journalism, to poems, novels and films. The minor hones students’ skills in expressive writing, and teaches students to situate their work within a broader context of local, global and historical creative texts. Workshops and a capstone seminar provide students with the opportunity to revise their work and develop a creative portfolio.

Learning Outcomes

By completion of this program, a student should be able to:

• creatively and critically apply the knowledge and critical understanding of the elements of storytelling, literary devises, and genre-specific methodologies to devise the best approaches for achieving their creative goals, literary effects and/or aesthetic ends.
• critically evaluate creative work, utilizing their firm grasp of the elements of storytelling, as well as literary forms and techniques, to propose creative, informed solutions to problems, flaws, and issues with the writing.
• achieve an aesthetic maturity through the analysis and critical evaluation of literature.
• master the elements of storytelling, poetics, and/or scriptwriting in their writing.
• produce sustained literary work of skilled quality that demonstrates technical confidence, a distinct individual voice, an awareness of audience, and an aesthetically sophisticated engagement with a literary form.
• articulate their creative decisions and offer nuanced, in-depth critique of others’ work (both written and oral) in group collaborations and workshops.
• apply a disciplinary vocabulary that enables the student to discuss, analyze, and evaluate the elements of storytelling, poetics and/or scriptwriting.
• achieve a depth and breadth of understanding of literature by reading across a range of genres, historical periods, traditions, movements, and points of view.
• approach their aesthetic practice in an analytical and informed manner; to situate their writing within a literary context; and to assess how their creative work participates or departs from a larger literary tradition.
• demonstrate a global understanding of issues regarding environmentalism and/or social justice in their creative practice, using their creative work to engage in a dialogue for change.
• demonstrate a global understanding by situating texts within different historical, cultural and discursive contexts.
• recognize the ethical implications of their own and others’ writing, as well as understand arguments about issues of appropriation and representation.
• work productively in a group setting by debating issues and presenting ideas in class with a high degree of professionalism and responding respectfully and comprehensively to questions posed.
• achieve organizational and time management skills in order to be prepared for class and submit work by assigned deadlines.
• undertake the professional practices of a writer, poet, and/or scriptwriter either through creative practice or community engagement.

Major Requirements (Honours)

This is a major within the degree: Bachelor of Arts. 

A minimum of 8.50 credits is required including:

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
Required Core (4.00 credits)
CRWR*1000	Elements of Storytelling	0.50
CRWR*2000	Reading As a Writer	0.50
ENGL*1080	Foundations in Critical Reading and Writing	0.50
ENGL*2380	Reading Poetry	0.50
2.00 Additional English credits 1		2.00
Restricted Electives (4.50 credits)
Select 1.50 credits from the following:
CRWR*2100	Fiction Workshop: Writing the Anthropocene	0.50
CRWR*2150	Speculative Fiction Workshop	0.50
CRWR*2200	Creative Nonfiction Workshop: Writing Nature	0.50
CRWR*2300	Poetry Workshop	0.50
CRWR*2400	Screenwriting Workshop	0.50
THST*2120	Writing for Performance	0.50
Select 1.00 credits from the following:
CRWR*3100	Fiction Writing Workshop	0.50
CRWR*3200	Creative Nonfiction Writing Workshop Workshop	0.50
CRWR*3300	Poetry Workshop: Ecopoetics	0.50
CRWR*3400	Screenwriting Workshop: Writing For Inclusive Screens	0.50
CRWR*3500	Advanced Writing for Performance: Writing for Inclusive Stage	0.50
Select 1.00 credits from the following:
CRWR*4100	Capstone Prose/Narrative Workshop	1.00
CRWR*4300	Capstone Poetics Workshop	1.00
CRWR*4400	Capstone Scriptwriting Workshop	1.00
Select 1.00 credits from the following: 2
CLAS*2000	Classical Mythology	0.50
CLAS*3030	Epic Heroes and Poems	0.50
EURO*1100	European Cinema	0.50
EURO*2200	Gender and Modernism in Europe	0.50
EURO*3300	Violence and Culture in 20th Century Europe	0.50
FREN*2020	France: Literature and Society	0.50
FREN*2060	Quebec: Literature and Society	0.50
FREN*3030	Good and Evil	0.50
FREN*3090	Classics of French Literature	0.50
FREN*3110	Storytelling in the Francophone World	0.50
FREN*3140	Women in Literature, Art and Film	0.50
FREN*3160	Songs, Lyrics and Poetry in French	0.50
FREN*3170	Fictions of Childhood	0.50
HUMN*3020	Myth and Fairy Tales in Germany	0.50
HUMN*3180	Community Engagement Project	0.50
HUMN*3190	Experiential Learning	0.50
HUMN*3400	Renaissance Lovers and Fools	0.50
HUMN*3470	Holocaust & WWII in German Lit. & Film	0.50
HUMN*4190	Experiential Learning	0.50
SPAN*2990	Hispanic Literary Studies	0.50
SPAN*3220	Literature and Arts I: Spain	0.50
THST*1040	Introduction to Performance	0.50
THST*2450	Approaches to Media Studies	0.50
THST*2500	Contemporary Cinema	0.50
THST*3140	Performance and the Past	0.50
THST*3530	Canadian Cinema	0.50

¹

Except ENGL*1030 Effective Writing

²

Note: Courses may have prerequisites; students are encouraged to review the prerequisites and restrictions for individual courses.

Minor Requirements (Honours)

This minor cannot be combined with a major in Creative Writing. 

A minimum of 5.00 credits is required including:

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
Core (2.00 credits)
Required:
CRWR*1000	Elements of Storytelling	0.50
CRWR*2000	Reading As a Writer	0.50
ENGL*1080	Foundations in Critical Reading and Writing	0.50
ENGL*2380	Reading Poetry	0.50
Restricted Electives (3.00 credits)
Select 1.00 credits from the following:
CRWR*2100	Fiction Workshop: Writing the Anthropocene	0.50
CRWR*2150	Speculative Fiction Workshop	0.50
CRWR*2200	Creative Nonfiction Workshop: Writing Nature	0.50
CRWR*2300	Poetry Workshop	0.50
CRWR*2400	Screenwriting Workshop	0.50
THST*2120	Writing for Performance	0.50
Select 1.00 credits from the following:
CRWR*3100	Fiction Writing Workshop	0.50
CRWR*3200	Creative Nonfiction Writing Workshop Workshop	0.50
CRWR*3300	Poetry Workshop: Ecopoetics	0.50
CRWR*3400	Screenwriting Workshop: Writing For Inclusive Screens	0.50
CRWR*3500	Advanced Writing for Performance: Writing for Inclusive Stage	0.50
Select 1.00 credits from the following:
Any course(s) in ENGL at the 2000 or 3000 level
CLAS*2000	Classical Mythology	0.50
CLAS*3030	Epic Heroes and Poems	0.50
ENGL*1200	Reading the Contemporary World	0.50
ENGL*1500	Medicine and Literature	0.50
EURO*1100	European Cinema	0.50
EURO*2200	Gender and Modernism in Europe	0.50
EURO*3300	Violence and Culture in 20th Century Europe	0.50
FREN*2020	France: Literature and Society	0.50
FREN*2060	Quebec: Literature and Society	0.50
FREN*3030	Good and Evil	0.50
FREN*3090	Classics of French Literature	0.50
FREN*3110	Storytelling in the Francophone World	0.50
FREN*3130	Representing the Self	0.50
FREN*3140	Women in Literature, Art and Film	0.50
FREN*3160	Songs, Lyrics and Poetry in French	0.50
FREN*3170	Fictions of Childhood	0.50
HUMN*3020	Myth and Fairy Tales in Germany	0.50
HUMN*3180	Community Engagement Project	0.50
HUMN*3190	Experiential Learning	0.50
HUMN*3400	Renaissance Lovers and Fools	0.50
HUMN*3470	Holocaust & WWII in German Lit. & Film	0.50
HUMN*4190	Experiential Learning	0.50
SPAN*2990	Hispanic Literary Studies	0.50
SPAN*3220	Literature and Arts I: Spain	0.50
THST*1040	Introduction to Performance	0.50
THST*1200	The Languages of Media	0.50
THST*2450	Approaches to Media Studies	0.50
THST*2500	Contemporary Cinema	0.50
THST*3140	Performance and the Past	0.50
THST*3530	Canadian Cinema	0.50