Creative Writing… isn’t that what fan-fiction is or something?
You bet it is! But it is also that and so very much more. Creative writing encompasses everything from your diary, that short story you wrote in fifth grade, the poem you wrote to your eighth grade crush and all the way to genres such as creative nonfiction.
While one of the goals of creative writing is undoubtedly to tell a good story, the craft and writing style is also used as a tool to teach. For example, you can teach good sentence structure and flow in text by having students write a story about their friendship in sixth grade just as well as you can by having them explore three concepts from chapter eight, or examining a classic. I know I’m more likely to remember a lesson if it relates to a personal memory.
That’s one thing that academia seems to lack. A touch of the personal. This little foray into the topic of academics is what brings us to my main concern:
The undergraduate curriculum greatly neglects the area of creative writing, especially to those we are not in any way geared towards English or Poetry.
How does Academics fit into this?
The undergraduate curriculum is often a topic that pops up for debate in the university setting, whether you’re currently an undergrad or not. The courses are wide-spread across most of the fields of study, and give students a chance to wet their feet in many branches of knowledge. So, you may ask, where does creative writing fit into this?
To be blunt, it doesn’t.
Every undergraduate in university is required to take a set amount of English classes to prepare them for the onslaught of academic writing that will define their career. Most of these classes are tailored to the specific writing style of the student’s field. We, the students, become adept in this academic discourse. Our theses become ironclad, the paragraphs are lined up in strict order, and the language is precise.
But when then tables are turned, and we are asked to write about ourselves and explore events that happened to us, a struggle occurs. Students have become ingrained in the academic language. We are taught to be able to critically analyze everything but the person who does so. I know I struggled turning the critical lens on myself and learning how to relate those events to others.
Creative nonfiction is simply a writing style that is not taught widely across the undergraduate curriculum. As of now, the student must go out of his or her way to teach themselves this way of writing. When I was first tasked with writing a paper in the first person, I had a difficult time. The world “I” and personal examples were something that you just didnt do. It did not feel natural, and was not the way I had been taught to write.
If this genre of writing becomes more widely taught, we should hope to see students who can write and relate to their surroundings, rather than a classic novel with hardly any contemporary correlations.
Aren’t there creative writing courses available for those who want to take them?
You’re right, there are. But almost, if not all, are considered upper-level writing courses or electives. Unless your degree is in some way related to English, these courses are simply not part of the curriculum. Plus, there are certainly less daunting writing courses for the students who have only learned academic and business writing.
“Not everyone wants to take creative writing courses.”
This is true. And as an English major, I did not want to take math courses or that geology lab. Instead of upper level writing courses for electives, how about a entry level course that may be available after the classic composition courses. If the undergraduate has multiple labs to choose from, why not multiple English courses?
If the interest is there for the student’s creative writing itch, it should be the universities job to provide the tool to scratch it.
So how exactly does creative writing benefit most undergraduates?
Transitioning between the writing voices in academia to a more personal and inclusive style can be difficult. With blogs, and other forms of social media, being used more everyday in academic and professional settings, it can be useful to teach students this style of writing and the more personal tone it fosters. Having a strong academic writing voice is key to surviving general university classes, but that often does not translate outside the university setting. By making these courses available, or even required in some cases, students will be acquiring a writing style that is useful outside the university world.
Also, the exploration of self is something important that happens once we take our first steps into college. Creative writing classes can help with this exploration, while also intertwining normal classroom teaching. While it is no case as easy as it sounds, simply getting the idea of entry level courses and their benefits out there to chew on is the first step towards change.
What can we do?
If you’re a student, you can get involved with campus organizations to find like-minded individuals and spread awareness for creative writing courses. This is important because the student body has many voices for personal concerns, but may lack the ability to present it correctly to their peers. Students should be able to write and discover themselves, not only literary lenses and classic novels.
Student government is also a viable and promising route to try. Also, simply expressing your views to your teachers and striking up conversations can lead to surprising events down the road.
But one thing is for sure. If we, the students, the teachers, the university faculty, and those outside academia all together show a solid front, then the slow snowball into a big change will happen.
Maybe the world will start to see architects’ writing match the beauty of the designs they create.
