Requirements for the MA in Writing

Required Courses

Students completing the 30 credit-hour Master of Arts Writing program will have four required courses (totaling 12 credit-hours):

• The Core I and Core II sequence helps students to develop their writerly and professional identities by exploring the writing and research strategies that inform all writing.
• In Seminar I and Seminar II, students develop a major creative, scholarly, or professional project within a genre of their choosing. These projects are presented to the other students, faculty, and the public in the yearly event known as Symposium. Along with the support provided by the course instructors, all students receive individualized attention by a faculty mentor.

Electives

To complete the remaining 18 credit hours, students may create a program of study that allows them to focus on specific genres or to create a mix of courses that benefits them individually. These courses include:

• Creative writing courses using the workshop method, including our Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry Workshops.
• Courses emphasizing the pedagogy of writing, including Issues in Composition Studies, Perspectives on Writing Assessment, and Teaching Practicum (for students in the Teaching Experience Program).
• Genre-based courses in Writing for Children and Young Adults, Writing the Memoir, Writing the Novel, Writing Genre Fiction, The Essay: Art and Craft, and Picture Book to Graphic Novel.
• Courses with professional applications including Technical Writing, Editing the Literary Journal, Professions in Publishing, Cultural Criticism, and others.

Although the program is set up for completion in as little as two years, students may extend the program to fit their schedules (including, in the case of K-12 teachers, their tuition-credit schedule). Up to 6 hours may be taken outside the MA in Writing and may include graduate level courses taken previously at Rowan. Up to six hours of transfer credit may also be applied. (Please note, however, that formal applications to apply transfer credit will be considered on an individual basis.

Application process: Applications to the Master of Arts in Writing are administered by Global Learning and Partnerships. No GRE is required to apply.

For more information contact:
Katie Budris, Senior Lecturer
Program Coordinator - Master of Arts in Writing
Department of Writing Arts
budris@rowan.edu 
856-256-4858