Major in English, Creative Writing Concentration

The Creative Writing concentration gives students the opportunity to strengthen their creative writing skills and infuses their analytic reading skills with imagination. Students take beginning, intermediate, and advanced courses in one or more of the following genres: fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Intermediate and advanced courses are primarily workshop classes in which students read and critique one another’s work. At the center of all creative writing courses is the study of craft. Students in the Creative Writing concentration also take a wide variety of English and literature courses that prepare them to be writers by instructing them in literary traditions and styles. An internship program for all English majors offers Creative Writing students positions that may lead to employment. In addition, the Creative Writing program runs a vibrant reading series that gives students the chance to meet visiting writers.

To change your major to English with a concentration Creative Writing, you can either call the College of Liberal Arts Academic Advising Center at 970-491-3117 or send an email to cla_advising@colostate.edu. More information is available on https://advising.libarts.colostate.edu.

Effective Fall 2022

For graduation, an English major must attain a minimum grade point average of 2.000 in all Composition (CO) and English (E) courses.

Upper Division English/Composition Electives (18 credits total)

Select at least one course from each Category (1-4) below and at least one course from the Additional Upper-Division English/Composition Electives list below. Selected courses may only count toward one Category. 

Category 1 – Historical Approaches: Literature of the British Isles before 1830, or American or European Literature before 1900

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
Select a minimum of 3 credits from the following:
E 331	Early Women Writers	3
E 344	Shakespeare	3
E 424	English Renaissance	3
E 425	Restoration and 18th Century Literature	3
E 426	British Romanticism	3
E 430	Eighteenth-Century English Fiction	3
E 440	American Literature Before 1900	3
E 443	English Renaissance Drama	3
E 444	Restoration and 18th-Century Drama	3
E 451	Medieval Literature	3
E 460	Chaucer	3
E 463	Milton	3
E 475	American Poetry Before 1900	3

 Category 2 – Historical Approaches: Literatures of the British Isles after 1830, or American or European Literatures after 1900

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
Select a minimum of 3 credits from the following:
E 332	Modern Women Writers	3
E 334	LGBTQ+ Literature	3
E 345	American Drama	3
E 350	The Gothic in Literature and Film	3
E 420	Beat Generation Writing	3
E 421	Asian-American Literature	3
E 422/ETST 422	African-American Literature	3
E 423	Latino/a Literature	3
E 427	Victorian Age	3
E 431	19th-Century English Fiction	3
E 432	20th-Century British Fiction	3
E 433	Literatures of the American West	3
E 438/ETST 438	Native American Literature	3
E 441	American Literature Since 1900	3
E 445	Modern British and European Drama	3
E 455	European Literature after 1900	3
E 478	Modern Poetry	3
E 479	Recent Poetry of the United States	3

 Category 3 – Breakthroughs: Ideological, Racial, Cultural, Gendered 

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
Select a minimum of 3 credits from the following:
E 330	Gender in World Literature	3
E 331	Early Women Writers	3
E 332	Modern Women Writers	3
E 333	Critical Studies of Popular Texts	3
E 334	LGBTQ+ Literature	3
E 338	Ethnic Literature in the United States	3
E 339	Literature of the Earth	3
E 421	Asian-American Literature	3
E 422/ETST 422	African-American Literature	3
E 423	Latino/a Literature	3
E 428	Postcolonial Literature	3
E 438/ETST 438	Native American Literature	3
E 456	Topics in Critical Theory	3

 Category 4 – Genre Approaches

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
Select a minimum of 3 credits from the following:
E 310	Researching and Writing Literary Criticism	3
E 334	LGBTQ+ Literature	3
E 337	Western Mythology	3
E 344	Shakespeare	3
E 345	American Drama	3
E 350	The Gothic in Literature and Film	3
E 403	Writing the Environment	3
E 430	Eighteenth-Century English Fiction	3
E 431	19th-Century English Fiction	3
E 432	20th-Century British Fiction	3
E 443	English Renaissance Drama	3
E 444	Restoration and 18th-Century Drama	3
E 445	Modern British and European Drama	3
E 460	Chaucer	3
E 463	Milton	3
E 475	American Poetry Before 1900	3
E 478	Modern Poetry	3
E 479	Recent Poetry of the United States	3

 Additional Upper-Division English/Composition Electives

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
Select a minimum of 3 credits from the following:
Any course not taken previously from Categories 1-4 above
CO 302	Writing in Digital Environments (GT-CO3)	3
CO 401	Writing and Style	3
E 300/AMST 300	American Lives-Methods in American Studies	3
E 302	Reading and the Web	3
E 305	Principles of Writing and Rhetoric	3
E 311A	Intermediate Creative Writing: Fiction	3
E 311B	Intermediate Creative Writing: Poetry	3
E 311C	Intermediate Creative Writing: Nonfiction	3
E 320	Introduction to the Study of Language	3
E 322	English Language for Teachers I	3
E 323	English Language for Teachers II	3
E 324	Teaching English as a Second Language	3
E 326	Development of the English Language	3
E 327	Syntax and Semantics	3
E 328	Phonology, Morphology, and Lexis	3
E 329	Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis	3
E 370	American Literature in Cultural Contexts	3
E 401	Teaching Reading	3
E 402	Teaching Composition	3
E 405	Young Adult Literature	3
E 406	Topics in Literacy	3
E 412A	Creative Writing Workshop: Fiction	3
E 412B	Creative Writing Workshop: Poetry	3
E 412C	Creative Writing Workshop: Nonfiction	3
E 465	Topics in Literature and Language	3
E 470	Individual Author	3
E 501	Theories of Composition	3
E 502	The Politics of Literacy	3
E 503	Investigating Classroom Literacies	3
E 505A	Major Authors: English	3
E 505B	Major Authors: American	3
E 505C	Major Authors: World	3
E 506A	Literature Survey: English	3
E 506B	Literature Survey: American	3
E 506C	Literature Survey: Comparative	3
E 507	Special Topics in Linguistics	3
E 513A	Form and Technique in Modern Literature: Fiction	3
E 513B	Form and Technique in Modern Literature: Poetry	3
E 513C	Form and Technique in Modern Literature: Essay	3

¹

Excludes E subject code courses.

²

The department requires majors to complete a second field. This may be met by completing the second semester of the second year of a foreign language or by completing 12 credits of upper division courses in a coherent field of study outside English.

³

Selection must match subtopic of E 311A, E 311B, or E 311C.

⁴

Select enough elective credits to bring the program table to 120 credits, of which at least 42 must be upper-division (300- to 400-level).

Distinctive Requirements for Degree Program:
For graduation, an English major must attain a minimum grade point average of 2.000 in all Composition (CO) and English (E) courses.