Creative Writing Mission

The academic mission of Lebanon Valley College’s Program in Creative Writing is to develop writing skills in a variety of modes and for a variety of audiences, while also developing abilities in critical thinking and creative problem-solving. The program achieves these objectives through courses centered on craft, process, and aesthetic traditions in all of the genres we teach. Students are engaged through multiple experiences pertaining to creative writing: workshops, seminar courses, readings by visiting writers, internships, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Graduates of the creative writing program are equipped to pursue graduate study and to work in a wide variety of professional fields, including publishing, journalism, advertising, marketing, theater, business, and others.

Creative Writing Department Goals and Objectives

 

1. Comprehension: Students will demonstrate the ability to comprehend complex texts by:

   • Performing sufficient paraphrase or summarization of the information texts communicate, as well as insightful inferences that entail possible implications of the text for contexts, perspectives, or issues beyond or challenging the creators’ explicit message.

2. Close Reading: Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze relations between form and content by: 

   • Organizing and synthesizing primary source evidence to reveal insightful patterns, differences, or similarities related to focus/thesis.

3. Analysis of Contexts & Assumptions: Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze context and assumptions by:

   • Revealing insightful ways in which complex socio-historical (or other, such as aesthetic) contexts and assumptions inform the production, distribution, and/or reception of object of study.  

4. Information Literacy: Students will demonstrate the ability to discern and use authoritative sources by:

   • Locating and selecting verified, reputable sources to create insightful analysis or synthesis.

5. Control of Syntax and Mechanics: Students will demonstrate the ability to control syntax and mechanics by:

   • Utilizing a language that skillfully communicates with clarity and fluency.

6. Domain-Specific Communication: Students will demonstrate the ability to communicate according to domain-specific goals by:

   • Crafting skillful communication consistent with domain-specific, rhetorical, and/or creative goals.