Courses Offered
Listen. Learn. Explore. Challenge. Write.
Listed below are just some of the wonderful courses offered by our Creative Writing program.
Introductory Screenwriting (CRW 201)
Semester(s) Offered: Both
This course will teach you about the basic structural formulas involved with creating a script. You will experiment creatively and write scene alongside either a short film or the first act of a full-length movie.
Prerequisites: None
Credits: 3
Introductory Poetry Writing (CRW 205)
Semester(s) Offered: Both
This course teaches you free writing or “muse writing” to help generate ideas, how to critique poetry, and how to revise. Emphasis placed on moving from abstract to concrete detail and sensory detail, and getting rid of cliches. This course will help take your work from stream-of-consciousness to polished work.
Prerequisites: None
Credits: 3
Testimonials
COMING SOON!
2010 - present
Introductory Fiction Writing (CRW 206)
Semester(s) Offered: Both
You begin with learning how to brainstorm plot and characters, writing small scenes, and doing dialogue exercises. The class culminates in each student writing and revising a 15-page short story.
Prerequisites: None
Credits: 3
Introductory Playwriting (CRW 207)
Semester(s) Offered: Both
In Introductory Playwriting students learn the format of the stage play script, the various types of staging for plays, and the limitations of the format for storytelling. These limits will push students to focus on story and character in writing their first ten-page play.
Prerequisites: None
Credits: 3
Introductory Creative Nonfiction Writing (CRW 208)
Semester(s) Offered: Both
If you are one of those people who conflates creative nonfiction writing with journalism, prepare to understand why you're wrong. You'll learn the basics of the genre, as well as how to analyze nonfiction in its many forms by paying more attention to craft and developing a nuanced understanding of truth. The course will also teach you how to evaluate and analyze literature from the genre in a workshop setting using written critiques. In addition to developing your own writing, you'll learn to watch people and complete fun writing prompts that help you to probe your childhood memories.
Prerequisites: None
Credits: 3
Living Writers Series (CRW 300)
Semester(s) Offered: Fall
CRW 300 is a large lecture class, which means there can be up to 100 students in this class. During the Living Writers Series, you will be assigned a few books to read over the course of the semester. After reading each of these books, you will write commentary on what you have read and a question based on that commentary. As the class finishes each assigned reading, the books are discussed and then the authors come to visit! Students listen to the authors discuss various aspects of their writing careers, and then have an opportunity to ask questions. The professor also takes each visiting writer to dinner, and students are invited to attend the dinners. It’s a great opportunity to meet writers in multiple disciplines and to hear how different writers have found a place in the writing community.
Prerequisites: ENG 102
Credits: 3
Intermediate Screenwriting (CRW 301)
Semester(s) Offered: Varies by semester
This course involves either building upon the first act you created in your introductory class or creating a short script. Over the course of the semester you will learn even more about screenwriting structure, you will write constantly, and you will workshop one another’s work.
Prerequisites: CRW 201
Credits: 3
Intermediate Poetry Writing (CRW 305)
Semester(s) Offered: Varies by semester
This course continues to teach revision, going much more in depth. You will be reading and responding to published work extensively, as well as critiquing with more frequency. The vocabulary of poetry will be expanded and emphasis placed on the music and sound of your work.
Prerequisites: CRW 205
Credits: 3
Intermediate Fiction Writing (CRW 306)
Semester(s) Offered: Varies by semester
“Bob’s Bootcamp.” You will write three stories, critique consistently, read extensively, and go on “Artist Dates” during which you will do things you’ve never done before and discuss those activities with the class. This course is described as intensive due to the consistent level of work in terms of reading, writing, critiquing, and discussion.
Prerequisites: CRW 206
Credits: 3
Intermediate Playwriting (CRW 307)
Semester(s) Offered: Varies by semester
In Intermediate Playwriting students will advance their skills from Intro while writing a full One-Act play of roughly forty pages. In this course character and dialogue is tightened and and more focus is placed on how the stage is set. The student learns to visualize how the stage will look during performance and take into account how the actors move about the space.
Prerequisites: CRW 207
Credits: 3
Intermediate Creative Nonfiction Writing (CRW 308)
Semester(s) Offered: Varies by semester
This course sharpens its focus on the genre by exposing you to different types of creative nonfiction writing including, but not limited to: the lyric essay, literary journalism and the collage essay. You may also discuss the role research plays in the genre and how various writers choose to frame facts and reportage with a narrative using the creative voice. You will also continue to interrogate the differences between factual truths and emotional truths, as well as what is at stake in essays which value one over the other.
Prerequisites: CRW 208
Credits: 3
Literary Citizenship (CRW 395)
Semester(s) Offered: Varies by semester
This course will teach you the things you want to know about being a writer after graduation. The class projects depend on the ambition, passion, and enthusiasm of the students in the course. There will be many individual projects that will help you in your future, such as creating a professional online presence, applying to MFA programs, or sending out work for publication, plus group projects that will help the community and other writers. You will write book reviews, cover letters, a resume or C.V., a blog, and a personal bio, and you will read three books on the writing craft. You may go on a field trip to a local independent bookstore, and may sit down with faculty members in the program to hear about different aspects of the “writing life.”
Note: Students apply to be a part of this course. Applicants are expected to have completed at least one intermediate level CRW course and have revised work ready for submission to literary journals. You cannot register without having completed the application well in advance of the registration period.
Prerequisites: ENG 102 and any CRW 300 level course
Credits: 3
Advanced Screenwriting (CRW 401)
Semester(s) Offered: Varies by semester
In this course you will engage in either the creation of the third act of your pre-existing script, or you will write an entire full-length movie. This class also focuses on workshopping and writing, but there is considerably more discussion about what to do with your script when it’s done and how to find success in the industry.
Prerequisites: CRW 301
Credits: 3
Advanced Poetry Writing (CRW 405)
Semester(s) Offered: Varies by semester
Advanced poetry will be an in depth, semester long workshop class where you will be creating your own chapbook. You will learn to look for themes in your own writing and be able to organize and put those together into one cohesive collection. You will also focus on the submission process to literary journals in your own time and continue the cycle of constructive criticism with your work as well as your classmates'.
Prerequisites: CRW 305
Credits: 3
Advanced Fiction Writing (CRW 406)
Semester(s) Offered: Varies by semester
This course will teach you how to write flash fiction stories. The word limit will teach you to build scenes, establish characters, and create varied pacing in concise ways. You will learn to revise fiction on the level of “the line” and pay attention to the sound and connotation of each word. The class includes the Graphic Flash event, which is a collaboration between writers, graphic artists, and possibly other students who can transform your ideas into new works. You will give a public reading and share a story with the Oswego community.
Prerequisites: CRW 306
Credits: 3
Advanced Playwriting (CRW 407)
Semester(s) Offered: Varies by semester
In the Advanced Playwriting course students take their Intermediate play and make it better than ever. Students act out one another’s plays so that they can fully realize how space and movement add to the storytelling.
Prerequisites: CRW 307
Credits: 3
Advanced Creative Nonfiction Writing (CRW 408)
Semester(s) Offered: Varies by semester
You've learned the basics and beyond. You will continue to write sophisticated critiques and revise in a workshop setting. You'll also be encouraged to take risks with your writing in terms of structure, voice, and content. This course is designed for you to write and revise a piece of writing ready for publication. Much to your relief, you'll also begin to explore how to make a life -- and perhaps a living -- as a writer. Last but not least, you will conceptualize, design and post to a weekly blog on a subject of your choice. As part of a “blog circle,” you will help your classmates refine their blogs and learn the discipline required to maintain an ongoing, focused writing project.
Prerequisites: CRW 308
Credits: 3
2010 - present