Creative Writing

BAAS Course Block in Creative Writing

About the Creative Writing course block

The Creative Writing course block at Penn LPS Online offers an innovative, collaborative course of study for those who have always wanted to learn to unlock their creativity. Each course is designed as a workshop in which you explore new ideas, tackle new writing tools, generate original insights, and discover your own powers of innovation. You create, collaboratively discuss, and revise your original writing with feedback from your instructors and your peers. You also engage with a range of assigned readings and multimedia that inform and grow your innovative practice.

The Creative Writing curriculum appeals to students new to creative writing as well as students with writing experience who want to learn new skills. Through a series of courses in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and screenwriting, the Creative Writing course block focuses on creative writing as a form of critical thinking, as a way to reimagine audience and as a space of innovation. Taught by professionals in the field, our courses cultivate both individual and group learning, providing an overview of the field as well as deep dives into literary genres. These courses are designed for hands-on, intensive study of the subtleties and power of language.

Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences degree courses in the Creative Writing course block are offered on an accelerated (8-week) schedule. Courses in the block are largely asynchronous with some optional synchronous sessions to be scheduled by the instructors.

All Penn LPS Online courses offer academic credit.*

Please note: Students completing this course block while enrolled in the Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences (BAAS) degree are awarded a Certificate in Creative Writing upon completion of the degree. If you are enrolled in the BAAS program and don't complete the degree requirements to graduate, you are not eligible to receive this certificate.

*Academic credit is defined by the University of Pennsylvania as a course unit (c.u.). A course unit (c.u.) is a general measure of academic work over a period of time, typically a term (semester or summer). A c.u. (or a fraction of a c.u.) represents different types of academic work across different types of academic programs and is the basic unit of progress toward a degree. One c.u. is usually converted to a four-semester-hour course.

The Creative Writing course block prepares you to:

Understand how text conveys meaning across a variety of literary genres and styles
Explore how to use innovation, flexibility, and collaboration to cultivate a creative writing practice
Create, revise and edit your original writing in multiple literary genres, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and screenwriting