Writing
Small class sizes – and an emphasis on real-world publication – help you train as a working writer
When you want to develop your talent and build the habits of a professional writer, choose the Writing Concentration to distinguish your BA in Liberal Studies.
Intentionally small class sizes permit you to train closely with faculty mentors as you investigate writing and develop your own writing projects.
Practice your craft in faculty-led writing workshops, including some offered as soon as your first year in the concentration. Join a close-knit group of peers who take your writing as seriously as you do.
You’ll pursue fiction, poetry, drama, creative nonfiction, and media writing in special seminars that introduce you to writing for publication – an emphasis not found in typical undergraduate programs. Apply your learning on campus in outlets like the online APU Journal. Or branch out with an internship or junior practicum experience.
One of five optional ways to design your Liberal Studies degree, the Writing Concentration rewards students whose personal and professional goals include creative expression. Your senior year capstone is a project you’ll design with your faculty mentor and present to the APU community. Memoir, creative nonfiction, young adult fantasy and journalism are among recent examples of senior projects produced by Writing Concentration students like you.
Whether you’re at work on a screenplay, novella, blog, graphic novel – or other forms in between – the Liberal Studies Writing Concentration educates you to think logically and express ideas clearly. The Writing Concentration prepares you for graduate study in fields like teaching, law, and communications. Our graduates are applying their skills in professions ranging from marketing and journalism to organizational management and public education.
And unlike programs that might advise waiting until graduation before calling yourself a real writer, the Writing Concentration at APU believes you’re a writer – now. Our active learning approach introduces you to outlets for undergraduate work, giving you an early start on thinking and working like a pro.
A sample of Writing Concentration courses:
LL 20400 – Creative Writing Workshop An investigation of the creative writing process and its products, with emphasis on the individual student’s development as a writer.
LL 20200 – Introduction to Creative Writing Investigation and practice of the genres, forms and techniques of imaginative writing. Examination of important work by writers practicing in the major genres. Relationship between writing and publishing. Offered Fall/Spring.
LL 30200 – Advanced Creative Writing Investigation and practice at an advanced level of the genres, forms, and techniques of imaginative writing. Works by established or experimental writers in the genres will be examined, including their writings about the creative process itself. A major project such as a chapbook of poems, section of a novel, one-act play, etc., is required. Offered Fall/Spring.
LL 40600 – Advanced Studies in Literature and Language Advanced studies in literature are grounded in critical theory and cultural and historical contexts. Studies of language rely on current theories in the field. Satisfies the Humanities GUR. Offered Fall/Spring.
