English (B.A.) with Creative Writing Concentration

Program Overview

The English major at Messiah University assists students in studying a wide array of literatures using a variety of critical thinking and writing skills to help them become perceptive readers, insightful thinkers, and responsible writers. Students engage deeply with Christian faith as they explore the way language shapes our identities, deepens our interactions with others, and enables us to change the world.

The Creative Writing concentration allows students to develop significant original writing in diverse creative genres and establish professional habits of creative writers, including revision, workshopping, public reading, and publication. Because many careers call for close analysis and interpretation of texts, fluency in writing, and creative and critical thinking, the English major prepares students for success in a variety of fields.

Besides the obvious career choices of advanced scholarship, teaching, journalism, and publishing, Messiah English majors have thrived in law, business, ministry, public relations, social media marketing, library science and other professional careers.

Program Learning Outcomes

Graduates from Messiah’s English program can:

1. Analyze literary texts by reading closely and applying disciplinary vocabularies, theories, and methods.
2. Respond to literary texts by developing and supporting interpretations informed by the text’s cultural context.
3. Demonstrate writing and rhetorical skills appropriate to critical, creative, and professional tasks for a variety of audiences and in a variety of media and genres.
4. Develop and challenge their thinking through scholarly research projects that develop significant research questions and effectively analyze primary and secondary evidence to support claims in the field of English.
5. Reflect on vocational calling, explore possible career paths, and develop action plans for their professional lives.
6. Articulate the connections between Christian faith and the study of English.

In addition, creative writing concentration students can:

•   Define craft terms and concepts and articulate how these aspects of craft contribute to text’s literary, aesthetic, or emotional effects. 

•   Craft compelling works of literary merit in prose or poetry. 

•   Demonstrate the professional habits of creative writers: revision, workshopping, public reading, and submission for publication.

Major Requirements

Complete the following for your major:

One to three credits from the following

Three credits from the following:

Creative Writing Concentration (24 credits)

Six credits from two of the following categories:

Questions of Faith in Literature category:

Questions of Literature in History category:

Questions of Culture, Identity, and Power category:

Three credits from the Questions of Form, Genre, and Craft category:

Twelve credits from the following:

Three of the twelve credits may come from the following:

QuEST Requirements