The Major in Creative Writing may be declared at the completion of a minimum of three courses in directed writing and of ENG 11a, Literary Method. The Major will consist of ten courses, with a minimum requirement of four workshops.

Some students may wish to apply for admission to the Poetry or Fiction Thesis Option. Eleven semester courses are required, including a two semester Senior Creative Writing Thesis. Admission to this option is decided by the Creative Writing Faculty on completion of at least one course, preferably two, in directed writing.

The Creative Writing Committee, in selecting students for the thesis option of the major, evaluates native talent, aspiration and discipline, as evidenced in submitted work and attested to by writers the student has studied with. It also evaluates whether the student is in that phase of creative development that is leading toward the massive closure a book-length effort requires. Some students of exceptional talent will be better served by the minor, with its expansive modality, if they are in a phase of rapid imaginative or stylistic development that would be arrested by the formalizing nature of conceiving and finalizing a book.