English, B.A., Creative Writing

Kate McCarthy-Gilmore, Ph.D., Chair

The English program offers majors in Creative Writing and Literature, and many students choose to double major in both. The program also offers minors in English and in Rhetoric & Public Writing.

Double Major in Literature & Creative Writing (B.A.):

Students must complete 33 literature credits plus a Senior Literature Capstone, as well as 18 creative writing credits plus a Senior Thesis Seminar. They also must defend both a Literature Capstone paper, and a Creative Writing Thesis.

Requirements for the Major in English: Creative Writing (B.A.):

The Creative Writing major at Loras College offers extraordinary depth and range, together with the kind of close, sustained faculty mentoring which is only possible at a small college. Students choose from introductory and advanced courses in Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Nonfiction, along with specialized courses in Screenwriting; Nature Writing; Fantastic Fiction; Writing for New Media; Writing as Social Action; Rhetoric & Political Engagement, Grant & Proposal Writing; and Revision, Editing & Publishing.

Our Creative Writing majors are introduced to rigorous critical reading in Literary Studies, sharpen their analytical skills in Literary Criticism, and choose several courses from the whole history of English and American literature, in all genres, and from selected courses in Irish, Canadian, Russian, and World literatures. Students will be required to defend a senior creative writing thesis.

Student Learning Outcomes - English: Creative Writing

1. Demonstrate critical reading skills required to articulate a persuasive and insightful close reading, and a persuasive and insightful formal or structural analysis of a literary text (Goal #1 is common to all Literature and Creative Writing majors).
2. Demonstrate the rhetorical skills required to make a persuasive and insightful written argument using evidence from a literary text. (Goal #2 is common to all Literature and Creative Writing majors).
3. Demonstrate the ability to write aesthetically interesting original works of creative writing.
4. Demonstrate, through their writings, a clear understanding of genre conventions and literary techniques, such as structure, plot, character, setting, point of view, dialogue, imagery, metaphor, symbolism, rhetoric, or prosody;
5. Demonstrate control of structure and form (unity, coherence, balance, emphasis)
6. Effectively revise and edit their own work for technical, stylistic, and grammatical effectiveness;
7. Orally articulate their composition and revision processes, and explain how the study of literature and individual authors provides them with models and an understanding of literary conventions and traditions which informs their own writing.