Expansion And Inclusion Of Creative Writing: A Course For Academic Writers

This thesis argues for the creation of a creative writing course that will target and benefit students who do not see themselves as writers, but who seek help with their writing, either personally or academically. Creative writing as a discipline has turned toward professionalization and a career focus and thus narrowed their student outreach and blocked their ability to show the benefits of creative writing to students across fields of study. Creative writing skills can benefit students of all disciplines and skill levels by producing better writing and writers, as well as improved critical thinking and reading skills within those students. Combined with writing center theory and placed within the University Writing Center, this course will utilize writing center ideas of peer collaboration, self-directed learning, low-stakes learning, and non-hierarchical teaching to engage students in an encouraging and dynamic environment. Pointing to personal anecdotes and experience, the history of creative writing, and a literature review of creative writing within the classroom, this thesis claims that there is a place in the academic world, a need even, for this type of creative writing course for non-creative writers.