Return to Film, Theatre, and Creative Writing | Courses Index
[1] Courses in Creative Writing (CRWR)
2310 INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING This course introduces students to several core components of successful creative expression and allows students to practice them through composing original, imaginative work in poetry, prose, and other genres depending on the instructor’s expertise. Class time will be devoted to workshops, invention exercises, and the discussion of guided reading assignments. The course is required for both creative writing and writing studies majors and minors. Lecture, discussion. [ACTS: ENGL2013]
3320 FORMS OF SCREENWRITING Comprehensive examination of the formal elements of the literary art of scriptwriting. The course will address aspects of screenwriting (cinematic narration, script format, contemporary film theory, and technical considerations). The course is taught as a workshop. Prerequisite: CRWR 2310. [UD UCA Core: I]
3321 FORMS OF PLAYWRITING This course is an elective in the major and minor in Writing and Creative Writing. It is a comprehensive examination of the formal elements of the literary art of playwriting. The course will address various elements of dramatic writing for the theatre and will address aspects of stage design, script formatting, contemporary dramatic theory, and technical considerations. Class projects will include reading various genres of plays, reacting to those plays, and writing original scenes in those styles, some of which will be workshopped. Students are required to complete original scripts. Prerequisite: CRWR 2310. [UD UCA Core: I]
3325 FORMS OF POETRY Comprehensive examination of the formal elements of the literary art of writing poetry, with an emphasis on the study of prosody, traditional and contemporary poetics, poetic craft, and other technical aspects of the art. The course is taught with a workshop component. Lecture, discussion. Prerequisite: CRWR 2310. [UD UCA Core: D, I]
3330 FORMS OF CREATIVE NONFICTION This course will provide an in-depth consideration of, and practice in, several of the many forms of creative nonfiction writing. These forms may include memoir, profile, essays about place and journeys, and lyrical and meditative essays, among others. Forms will be determined by instructor interest and expertise. The course will have a workshop component. Lecture, discussion. Prerequisite: CRWR 2310. [UD UCA Core: D, I]
3331 FORMS OF ILLUSTRATED NARRATIVE This course is an upper-division workshop course that provides students with a comprehensive overview of the formal elements of illustrated and interactive narratives with an emphasis on the study of comic art, collage, computer-generated projects, literary works accompanied by visual art or photography, gaming storylines, installations, and other forms of illustrated/interactive narratives. Students will practice different forms and submit a portfolio of original work at the end of the course. Students will also study many established writers and artists in the genre as models, as well as examine critical articles on illustrated narrative design and theory, but most class time will be devoted to examining students’ works-in-progress. Some class time will be devoted to peer review and discussion, invention exercises, and marketing strategies. This course has a workshop component. Lecture, discussion. Prerequisite: CRWR 2310. [UD UCA Core: D, I]
3335 FORMS OF FICTION This course will provide an in-depth consideration and practice of one of the many forms of fiction writing, which may include, flash fiction, magical realism, mystery writing, science fiction, and metafiction. Subjects will be determined by instructor interest and expertise. This course has a workshop component. Lecture, discussion. Prerequisite: CRWR 2310. [UD UCA Core: I]
3345 FORMS OF WRITING FOR CHILDREN This course is an elective for the Creative Writing major and minor, and the Writing major and minor. This course will provide an in-depth examination of the craft and technical considerations involved in creating various forms of writing for children, including, but not limited to, the picture book, the easy-reader, the chapter book, the middle grade novel, the young adult novel, the nonfiction book, the magazine story and the nonfiction magazine article. Students will also learn about the markets for each form and how to navigate them. This course has a workshop component. Prerequisite: CRWR 2310.
3370 POETRY WORKSHOP An upper-division workshop course focusing on the writing of original poetry. Students will present drafts of work for peer review and discussion and will submit a portfolio of original material at the end of the course. Some class time will be devoted to readings, invention exercises, and marketing strategies. Prerequisites: CRWR 2310 and CRWR 3325.
3371 FICTION WORKSHOP An upper-division workshop course focusing on the writing of original fiction. Students will present drafts of original work for peer review and discussion and will submit a portfolio of original material at the end of the course. Some class time will be devoted to readings, invention exercises, and marketing strategies. Prerequisites: CRWR 2310 and CRWR 3335.
3372 CREATIVE NONFICTION WORKSHOP An upper-division workshop course focusing on the writing of original creative nonfiction. Students will present drafts of original work for peer review and discussion and will submit a portfolio of original material at the end of the course. Some class time will be devoted to readings, invention exercises, and marketing strategies. Prerequisites: CRWR 2310 and CRWR 3330. [UD UCA Core: C, R]
3373 ILLUSTRATED NARRATIVE WORKSHOP An upper-division elective workshop course focusing on the writing of original illustrated and/or interactive narratives. Students will present drafts of work for peer review and discussion and will submit a portfolio or original material at the end of the course. Some class time will be devoted to readings, invention exercises, and marketing strategies. Prerequisites: CRWR 2310 and CRWR 3331. [UD UCA Core: C]
3374 TRAVEL WRITING WORKSHOP An upper-division workshop course exploring the genre with a focus on the writing of original travel writing. Students will present drafts of work for peer review and discussion and will submit a portfolio of original material at the end of the course. Some class time will be devoted to readings, invention exercises, and revision strategies. Prerequisites: CRWR 2310 and CRWR 3330.
3375 WORKSHOP IN WRITING FOR CHILDREN An upper-division course that examines the specific craft of writing and publishing for children. Students will submit drafts of works for children at various points throughout the semester for instructor and class feedback. These might include: picture books, nonfiction, middle grade books, and young adult novels. Students will also complete an author study in which they examine in-depth the artistic development of a children’s writer whose work informs their own. Each student will complete a reading journal. Prerequisites: CRWR 2310, CRWR 3331, and CRWR 3345.
3376 SCREENWRITING WORKSHOP This course is an upper-division workshop course focusing on the writing of original screenplays. Students will present drafts of work for peer review and discussion and will submit a portfolio of original material at the end of the course. Some class time will be devoted to readings, invention exercises, and marketing strategies. Prerequisites: CRWR 2310 and CRWR 3320.
3377 GENRE FICTION WORKSHOP This course is an upper-division workshop course focusing on the writing of original genre fiction. The genres may include horror, science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, westerns, and others. Students will present drafts of work for peer review and discussion and will submit a portfolio of original material at the end of the course. Some class time will be devoted to reading established genre fiction, invention exercises, and marketing strategies. Prerequisites: CRWR 2310 and CRWR 3335.
3378 PLAYWRITING WORKSHOP This course is an upper-division elective in the Creative Writing major and minor and the Writing major and minor. The workshop course focuses on the development of plot, action, character, and dialogue and on the writing of original plays/scripts for the stage. Students are required to complete original scripts. Students will present drafts of work for peer review and discussion and will submit a portfolio of original material at the end of the course. The class will be offered as a studio course on demand with some class time being devoted to readings, invention exercises, and marketing strategies. Prerequisite: CRWR 3321.
4310 VISITING WRITER SYMPOSIUM This course affords Creative Writing majors and minors the opportunity to earn course credit for experiencing and investigating the published work and on-campus presentations of the visiting writers invited to campus during a given semester. Students will administer and attend all, or nearly all, visiting author presentations during that semester. They will read the published work of those authors, eventually writing both analytical and creative responses to that work. Prerequisite: CRWR 2310.
4324 TOPICS IN CREATIVE WRITING This course will provide students a more concentrated focus on specific areas, sub-genres, trends, schools, and developments in the creative writing discipline. The topics will vary according to instructor interest and expertise. This course may be repeated for up to nine hours of credit with different topics. Prerequisite: CRWR 2310 and completion of six hours of upper-division creative writing courses. Lecture, discussion. [UD UCA Core: Z]
4330 LITERARY CITIZENSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES This course teaches students the importance of connecting with campus, local, regional, and national literary communities and shows them how to best contribute to and interact with those communities given their talents and interests. It also assists students in professional development by identifying their literary talents and interests as well as educating them on the many paths to a literary career. [UD UCA Core: R]
4340 TEACHING CREATIVE WRITING This course is designed for students who might teach creative writing or include creative writing in their curriculum at the K-University levels. Areas to be covered include the history of creative writing pedagogy, up to and including modern pedagogical approaches to the field. In addition to discussion and lectures, students will observe and describe creative writing classes at levels pertinent to their teaching interests and develop an integrated practice lesson. Prerequisites: CRWR 2310 and completion of six hours of upper-division creative writing courses. Lecture, discussion. This class fulfills an elective requirement.
4371 NOVEL WRITING This course explores key aspects of fiction writing as they relate directly and specifically to the creation of a novel; that is, a book length work of fiction. The course is designed for students who are already grounded in the fundamentals of creative writing and who have explored the genre of fiction writing sufficiently well to know that they have ambitions to write novels. Students will learn how to plan, generate, examine, reexamine, expand, cut, and focus a book length imaginative work as well as how to integrate the work of novel writing into one’s larger life. Students will compose a portion of their own novels. These novel chapters will be workshopped, and revisions to the chapters will be expected by semester’s end. Lecture, discussion. Prerequisites: CRWR 2310 and completion of six hours of upper-division creative writing courses.
4372 NOVELLA WRITING Novella Writing is a course designed to increase your understanding of the novella form, help you develop a critical awareness of how novellas work, and enable you to write one of your own. You will study ten novella-length works from different cultural traditions, learn to analyze and critique them, and write your own novella, which will be extensively workshopped in class. Prerequisites: CRWR 2310 and CRWR 3335.
4373 NOVEL REVISION This course affords students who took CRWR 4371 NOVEL WRITING the opportunity to expand, revise, and line-edit the novels they drafted in that class, with an eye toward bringing their novels significantly closer to publication worthiness. Students will read a craft textbook on revising novels. They will also read multiple versions of a classic novel to compare the published version with the earlier, unfinished one. They will carry out a variety of revision activities on their novels, and they will receive feedback about their revising efforts from small group workshop sessions and from their instructor in one-on-one conferences. Prerequisite: CRWR 4371.
4V80 DIRECTED STUDY IN CREATIVE WRITING (Variable credit: 1-3 credit hours) Provides opportunities for advanced study of specific topics in creative writing. It is designed for students who have completed basic and intermediate courses who want to study specific topics that are not offered in the curriculum. Directed Study is especially useful to students who plan to go on to graduate study and to students seeking professional careers in writing. Prerequisite: Completion of CRWR 2310 and one 3000-level creative writing course.
4V85 INTERNSHIP IN CREATIVE WRITING (Variable credit: 1-3 credit hours) Internships provide qualified students an opportunity to enhance their academic study by gaining professional creative writing experience in writing, editing, publishing, teaching, event coordination, and/or the management of literary nonprofits. Interns are supervised by department faculty and a work-site manager. Prerequisites: CRWR 2310, one 3000-Ievel creative writing course, and consent of the internship committee. May be repeated for credit with a different internship project.