Writing Studies M.A.

Director: Cristina Hanganu-Bresch, PhD.

Program Description

The Writing Studies program is unique to the Philadelphia area. Our program bridges the gap between traditional master’s degrees in English and creative writing degrees by emphasizing that all writing is creative. Our students take a wide variety of courses in order to explore the craft of writing from various perspectives.

This innovative program has several distinguishing features: it offers excellent training for magazine or journal editors and freelance writers; it provides rich growth opportunities for teachers of writing at the secondary or community college level; it provides important experience for traditional journalists; it incorporates collaborative workshops to stimulate creativity; and it develops skills important for success in corporate communications and public relations.

All of the teachers in the Writing Studies program are practicing writers who write in the genre that they teach. In other words, our public relations writing courses are taught by public relations writers, and published novelists teach our novel writing courses. All of our courses are small—typically fifteen students or less—to enable each student to get individual feedback from the instructor and detailed feedback from peers.

The students in the Writing Studies program are diverse in age, race, occupation, gender, and belief systems. The diversity of our students contributes to the success of our program. In addition to world-class writing faculty, students in our M.A. bring a wide range of ideas, creativity, and energy to our classes. Each class becomes its own community of writers.

In the Jesuit tradition of eloquentia perfecta, all Writing Studies courses engage students in using speech and writing effectively, logically, gracefully, persuasively, and responsibly. Students focus on developing the craft of a professional writer through drafting, revising, and incorporating feedback from peers and instructors as the writing progresses toward publication. We hope all of our students will become working writers who write for a wide variety of audiences.

This program is designed to position its graduates to be very competitive in the broad field of professional writing and communications. The courses in the program are all focused, in one way or another, on the work of the writer. Graduates will pursue careers in a wide range of areas: public relations, magazine and book editing, freelance writing (fiction and nonfiction), print and broadcast journalism, corporate communications, and the teaching of writing. The Writing Studies program accommodates both full-time and part-time students.