Masters

PhD

Courses

The Carnegie Mellon English department offers four undergraduate degrees: a bachelor of arts in creative writing, a bachelor of arts in English, a bachelor of arts in professional writing, and a bachelor of arts in technical writing.

The Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing is based on a conservatory model in which students study with faculty members who are practicing poets and prose writers. The heart of the program is the workshop, in which students take small, roundtable classes that help students to practice their craft, to experiment, and to grow as writers.

The Bachelor of Arts in English draws upon the artistic and research strengths of its faculty in creative writing, literary and cultural studies, and rhetoric. Students in the English B.A. thereby learn the research skills and writing strategies to enable them to analyze the language and texts of others and to report their research in effective texts of their own. Such training can prepare students for graduate work in literature, culture, or rhetoric, and also for careers in law, business, or government, which require similar skills in interpretation, writing and the analysis of how communication works.

The Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing is a career-oriented major designed to prepare students for successful careers as writers and communications specialists in a range of fields: publishing, government, law, journalism, health care, community advocacy, the non-profit sector, education, corporate communications, finance, and the arts. The major is designed to develop writers with both the professional skills needed to negotiate current work contexts and the analytic and problem-solving skills needed to keep pace with cultural and technological change.

The Bachelor of Science in Technical Writing is a career-oriented major for students interested in writing for technical fields. Technical writers design, write, and edit documents for engineering, scientific, industrial, and governmental organizations. These include technical reports, computer manuals, brochures, proposals, technical specifications, educational and training materials, and marketing or public relations releases.