Creative Writing
The Creative Writing concentration will teach you how to realize your own ideas on the page. From foundational craft skills to intermediate workshops in different genres—such as poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction—students in the concentration build up to writing longer pieces, including short stories, poetry collections, and even novels. Opportunities also exist for learning how to teach writing, running a literary magazine, writing YA/children’s literature, writing for broadcast, and diving deep into advanced topics such as science-fiction, horror, hybrid work, and surrealism. You will study literature as a writer and learn techniques from successful authors to craft our own worlds and works. This concentration will develop your writing practice, give you insights into careers in creative writing, and most importantly, make you into the author you want to be!
Linguistics
The Linguistics Concentration builds students' knowledge of how language works. In particular, students in this concentration learn the sound patterns and grammatical constructions of language as well as their uses within everyday speech and writing. In addition, the linguistics concentration attends to how language interacts with human thought, and how it varies across individuals and communities in terms of geography, social class, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, age, and culture. Students also explore the processes of language acquisition and bilingualism in children and adults.
Literature
The Literature concentration offers an advanced study of literature, building on the foundational literature classes taken in the core of the major. In the same semester, students might immerse themselves in classics by Shakespeare or Edgar Allan Poe, study popular genres like horror or postapocalyptic fiction, and explore Chicano/a American literature or literature by people with disabilities. Students in this concentration will deepen their research and writing skills and gain familiarity with a range of literary theories. By the time they graduate, students will have a broad set of portable skills, including crafting evidence-based written and verbal arguments, synthesizing and communicating complex information efficiently and clearly, and developing habits of critical and analytical thinking that will help them become thoughtful citizens and careful and enthusiastic readers.
