How Do I Earn the BFA?
- CWL 190: Intro to Contemporary Literature
- CWL 202: Introduction to Creative Writing
- CWL 250: Join the Conversation (taken in Fall of Junior year)
Topics offered change semesterly, and are designed to be repeated according to interest:
CWL 300: Forms of Creative Nonfiction
CWL 305: Forms of Fiction
CWL 310: Forms of Poetry
CWL 315 (or FLM 215): Forms of Scriptwriting
CWL 320: Forms of Interdisciplinary Arts
CWL 325: Forms of Science Writing
(By special permission, students may take select courses from other SBU programs (FLM & TV Writing, English) or even our graduate-level CWL MFA program. See semesterly Course Topics List for details.)
CWL 330: Topics in European Lit for Writers
CWL 335: Topics in American Lit for Writers
CWL 340: Topics in World Lit for Writers
(By special permission, students may count the credits earned in select AFH, AAS, EGL, HUF, HUS, or UST courses towards this requirement. Students may also petition to substitute any other relevant courses from other departments.)
A cluster of courses designed to support you as you bring your creative thesis project to fruition.
CWL 390: The Ethics of the Creative Imagination (Senior year Fall)
CWL 450: Senior Project (Senior year Fall)
CWL 487: Mind the Gap/ Independent Reading & Research (with your thesis advisor, Senior
Year Fall)
CWL 499: Thesis (Senior year Fall + Senior Year Spring)
FAQs
CWL 300-325 are creative writing workshops, usually focused on a single genre like
fiction or poetry. Workshops generally involve submission and discussion of students'
original work. A "submission" is when you circulate your writing assignment to the
other students and your professor ahead of time. Everyone reads your work and writes
comments on it to prepare for class, so that, together, they can critique your work.
Don't worry! Critiques are constructive, structured discussions, not open season on
tearing the work down. Some workshops might be generative, with lots of writing prompts.
Others might focus more on revision, with take-home writing assignments. It all depends
on the professor and the topic (see below). Students must take the prerequisite, CWL
202, prior to enrolling in 300-level writing workshops.
All of our course numbers, from CWL 202 to the 300-level writing workshops to the
"read like a writer" courses (CWL 330-340) are broadly defined. To figure out what's
really going on in a particular section during a particular semester, you need to look at
its topic. Then you can decide whether that course will further your aims as an artist.
The creative writing program circulates and posts the list of upcoming topics prior
to the registration period.
Since topics and professors change each semester, our courses are repeatable for credit.
That means a student devoted to poetry, for example, can take CWL 310, Forms of Poetry,
multiple times, each semester of it will be unique, and all of those credits will
count toward the major or minor. Minors may choose to specialize or to sample a variety
of genres. Majors, who are required to take some courses outside their genre, will
tend to specialize as they approach their senior project. But with this freedom to
take any combination of workshops within the CWL 300-325 range, you can build your
own BFA.
FAQs
All of our course numbers, from CWL 202 to the 300-level writing workshops to the "read like a writer" courses (CWL 330-340) are broadly defined. To figure out what's really going on in a particular section during a particular semester, you need to look at its topic. Then you can decide whether that course will further your aims as an artist. The creative writing program circulates and posts the list of upcoming topics prior to the registration period.
Since topics and professors change each semester, our courses are repeatable for credit. That means a student devoted to poetry, for example, can take CWL 310, Forms of Poetry, multiple times, each semester of it will be unique, and all of those credits will count toward the major or minor. Minors may choose to specialize or to sample a variety of genres. Majors, who are required to take some courses outside their genre, will tend to specialize as they approach their senior project. But with this freedom to take any combination of workshops within the CWL 300-325 range, you can build your own BFA.