<p>D loves Creative Writing but stuggles with the anaytical essays and research papers that are so often the core of typical English department courses and majors. Can anyone speak to the Creative Writing Major at CMU? Is it a place for a kid who loves to write short stories and poems but hates to analyze Shakespeare and Chaucer?</p>
<p>Hi! I’m a sophomore creative writing major :)</p>
<p>As a creative writing student, there are two different types of classes your daughter will take. The core Creative Writing courses, such as Survey of Forms, Workshop and Advanced Workshop will be for the most part very much story driven and not at all focused on analysis. There are usually a couple of papers each semester in these classes but they’re short (2 pages double spaced) and not graded very harshly. </p>
<p>The other kind of class is the English Elective pool of classes. Your daughter will have to take three such courses, and these will probably be very analysis driven classes. Shakespeare: Histories & Tragedies and Shakespeare: Comedies & Romances courses are both offered, for example, as are Chaucer, Dumas, Milton, and a host of other very famous authors. The good news is that these classes are definitely in the minority and can even be taken over the summer at an easier college if your daughter truly struggles with them, although we have some AMAZING professors that teach them. (Your daughter will have to take 3 of these essay courses, and 8 workshops/creative writing classes.)</p>
<p>I took a course called Science Fiction & Philosophy, where our essays were answering questions such as “Can computers ever truly think better than humans?” and “If your brain were attached to someone else’s body, would it still be you?”. I was never a huge essay person, but classes like this make it easy and fun to want to be involved. :D</p>
<p>I hope this helps. If you/your D have other questions, I’d be glad to offer advice on those too!</p>