ROWAN WRITING ARTS
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    • Required Courses >
      • General Education >
        • Science and Mathematics
        • Social and Behavioral Sciences
        • Literature, History, Humanities, and Language
      • Introduction to Writing Arts >
        • History & Materiality of Writing
        • Issues in Writing
        • Technologies & the Future of Writing
      • Methods Choice >
        • How Writers Read
        • Tutoring Writing
        • Communication Theory
      • Creative Choice >
        • Creative Writing I
        • Writing Children's Stories
      • The Writer's Mind
      • Writing, Research & Technology
      • Senior Seminar: Methods of Analysis and Evaluation of Writing
      • Portfolio Seminar
      • Free Electives
      • Literacy Studies >
        • Writing With Technologies
        • Situating Writing
    • Elements of Language >
      • Rhetorics of Style
      • Linguistics
      • Semantics
      • Editing for Publication
      • American English Grammar
      • Introduction to Anthropological Linguistics
    • Concentrations >
      • Creative Writing >
        • Writing Comedy
        • Writing the Young Adult Novel
        • Creative Writing I
        • Creative Writing II
        • Writing Children's Stories
        • Writing and Craft for Elementary Students
        • Writing Fiction
        • Writing Poetry
        • Writing Creative Nonfiction
        • Screenwriting I: Writing the Short
        • Screen Writing II: Writing the Feature
        • Magazine Article Writing
        • Fundamentals of Playwriting
        • Film Scenario Writing
        • Tutoring Writing
        • The Publishing Industry
        • Professions in Writing Arts
        • Internship
        • Research Practicum
      • Publishing & Writing for the Public >
        • Introduction to New Media
        • Self Publishing
        • The Publishing Industry
        • Writing for Popular Culture
        • Publication Layout & Design
        • Rhetorical Theory
        • Environmental Writing & Rhetoric
        • Writing for the Workplace
        • Writing Comedy
        • Professions in Writing Arts
        • Fiction to Film
        • Participatory Media
        • Photojournalism
        • Online Journalism I
        • Media Law
        • Applied Media Aesthetics: Sight, Sound and Story
        • Internship
        • Research Practicum
      • Technical & Professional Writing >
        • Introduction to Technical Writing
        • Writing for Nonprofits
        • Scientific Writing and Rhetoric
        • Medical Writing and Rhetoric
        • Tutoring Writing
        • Writing for the Workplace
        • The Publishing Industry
        • Professions in Writing Arts
        • Internship
        • Research Practicum
    • WA Learning Community >
      • Publishers
    • Portfolio Seminar Overview >
      • PS Analysis Statement Assignment
      • Checklist
      • Core Values
      • Questions Concerning Core Values
      • PS AS Peer Group Instructions
      • Portfolio Contents and Uploading
      • PS AS Rubric
      • FAQs: Students
      • FAQs: Instructors
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    • Faculty Resources >
      • Best Practices in Online Learning
      • Syllabus Requirements
      • HyFlex/Remote Learning
      • Canvas Support >
        • Writing Comedy
      • Accessibility in Online Courses
      • Racial Equity Online
      • Supporting Developmental Writers Remotely
      • Building an Online Classroom Community
    • Acknowledgements
  • Blogs
    • Writer's Insider Blog >
      • Fall 2020
      • Spring 2020
      • Fall 2019
      • Spring 2019 >
        • An Interview with Devon James & Rachel Barton
        • Confession Travel Writer
        • Self-Publishing: A Change in Perspective
        • CCCA Career Fair: Having Your Future in Mind
        • Alumni Success: Entering the Working World
        • Behind the Scenes of Rowan's Hiring Process
      • Fall 2018 >
        • Singularity Press: Rowan's New Start Up
        • Writing Arts Club
        • How Can We Evaluate Creative Writing?
        • More Inclusive Events for Technical Writers
        • Guest Speaker Manuela Soares
        • Glassworks Reading
        • Spotlight: Taylor Henry, Recently Published Rowan Alum
      • Spring 2018 >
        • Publishing and Writing for the Public: A Reconstructed Concentration
        • What You Think You Know About Technical and Professional Writing is Wrong
        • The Toni Libro Medallion Award Winner: Myriah Stubee
        • An Interview with a Publisher
        • Excellence in Writing Arts Medallion Winner: Sara Skipp
        • The College of Communcation and Creative Arts 6th Annual Student Awards and Showcase Ceremony
        • Rowan Alum, Marissa Cohen, On Self Publishing and Advocacy
      • Fall 2017 >
        • Upcoming Classes in the Writing Arts Department
        • The Writer's Journey Blog by Earl Garcia
        • Rewriting The Department's Social Media Platforms
        • Rowan University Writing Arts Club Reinvents Mission
        • Glassworks Launches Issue Fifteen
        • For Futuristic Consideration: An Exploration of Careers in Writing
      • Spring 2017 >
        • Technical Communication: An Overview
        • A More Inclusive Future for Technical Writers
        • Easing the Tension: Breaking Down Technical and Professional Writing
        • Growing the Technical and Professional Writing Concentration
      • Fall 2016
      • Spring 2016
      • Winter 2015
      • Fall 2015 >
        • 2014 and Prior >
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    • 2021 Emerging Writers Scholarship
    • Denise Gess Literary Awards >
      • Rowan University Award for Poetry
      • Edward J. Czwartacki Award for Fiction
      • Pat B. Tweedie Award for Creative Nonfiction
      • Award Winners
    • Excellence in Writing Arts Medallion Award
    • AnToinette Libro Graduate Medallion Award
    • Past Awards >
      • 2008 Hollybush Writing Competition
      • Write Rowan, Right Now! Contest
  • Student Groups
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    • Avant Literary Magazine
    • The Whit Newspaper
    • Her Campus Rowan
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    • RU Deptartment of Writing Arts - Home
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    • Ric Edelman College of Communication & Creative Arts at Rowan University - Home
    • Student Groups

Careers in Writing Arts

The Writing Arts Department at Rowan University offers several programs to serve students who are interested in developing themselves as writers ready to engage in a post-graduate world where many professional settings call for highly skilled writers.
Writing Arts majors may concentrate in any of the following three concentrations, which are each geared toward a distinct professional realm:
  • Technical and Professional Writing
  • Publishing and Writing for the Public
  • Creative Writing

Technical and Professional Writing

Technical and professional writers are usually specialized within a certain topic area, for instance, writing within medical or scientific contexts, or within the workplace (whether nonprofit of commercial enterprises), or working to translate technical content for a range of audiences. Technical writers produce specialized documents that incorporate complicated material, and design such documents for specific audiences to get their jobs done, audiences such as a consumer setting up a smart television, or a member of a sales team who needs to grasp the technical specifications of a product to explain how it works to a client, or for politicians who need to understand the science at work in a given issue that impacting policy development, or for a patient who needs to understand a medical diagnosis and the range of procedures that must be deliberated. Many writers who pursue this concentration already have an idea of what specialized area they want to write for, but it is certainly acceptable for a writer to figure it out as they go along. ​
Writing Arts alumni have pursued careers in:​
  • Medical writing
  • Data Interpreter
  • Grant writing for schools or businesses
  • Manual, how-to, FAQ, press release writing
  • Information analytics
Specific companies that Writing Arts alumni have worked for:
  • Elsevier
  • Tabula Rasa HealthCare
  • Anthropologie
  • Specialty Pharmacy Times
  • Premier Legal Marketing
  • Freire Charter School
  • Copper Beech Financial Group
  • Underwood Memorial Hospital of South Jersey ​

Publishing and Writing for the Public

The concentration in Publishing and Writing for the Public prepares students for careers in editing, publishing, and working with new media. Students will develop skills working with digital and online writing platforms such as Wordpress, and Adobe Creative Suite applications such as Photoshop, InDesign, and Premiere. Along with learning to work with these professional applications, students also develop critical awareness of the ethical impact writing has within the worlds in which it gets circulated.

Having focused on publishing and writing for public audiences, Writing Arts graduates with this concentration have pursued careers in:
  • Book editing and publishing
  • Magazine editing and publishing
  • Book and magazine layout and design  
  • Creating, editing, formatting, and publishing web content
  • New media specialists
  • Freelance blogging
  • Video production
  • Game designer
  • Copywriting
  • Social media specialist

Writing Arts alumni with the focus in New Media and Publishing have been employed by companies such as:
  • Picador Press, a division of MacMillan Publishing
  • Penguin Random House
  • ​Mobile narrative game writer for Heartline, the second game of Lunar Rabbit Games
  • Quills Edge Press
  • Crenshaw Communications of New York
  • Kravetz & Company Public Relations

Creative Writing

The market for writers of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry in fiction is highly competitive, but the skills a student acquires with this concentration--for instance, the ability to tell stories and move audiences with such story-telling--can lead to other opportunities as well.

Writing Arts alumni with a Creative Writing concentration have pursued careers in:
  • Authoring
  • Ghostwriting
  • Blogging and editing (self-published or not)
  • Coaching/teaching writing
  • Lyrical songwriter
  • Public speaker or activist

Alumni have also pursued writing for platforms such as:
  • Maudlin House
  • The Nervous Breakdown
  • Peach Magazine
  • Hubpages
  • Singer and songwriter for VISTA
  • Self-publishing and entrepreneurship

The power of being unique is crucial in the creative writing field. A professional creative writer must have patience with their career path, because it is often times a slow one. However, this is also a very rewarding path to follow because it allows a writer to explore their writing in such a way that helps them discover who they are.

Rowan University Writing Arts Department

The most rewarding aspect of having a degree in Writing Arts is the endless possibilities for job opportunities graduates create for themselves. The Writing Arts department prepares students to not only be adaptable in their careers as writers, but the department also turns their alumni into self-critically aware and versatile individuals within their personal, professional, and civic lives. The lessons, lectures, readings, class discussions, and the core values they express will stay with a Writing Arts major for the rest of their lives.

In addition to the understanding of writing as an ethical, life-changing act, the Writing Arts degree prepares students for careers that entail a wide variety of writing. For example, the values and practices taught in Writing Arts courses provides skills that are easily transferable to other fields of study, such as public relations, advertising, marketing, social work, human resources, and more related to the field of communications. Many students pursue a degree in Writing Arts along with another major if they wish to have a strong command and understanding of writing and rhetoric, but also wish to pursue a career path that requires additional prerequisites. For example, many Writing Arts students have a dual major in Education because they want to be a teacher or in dual major in Science because they want to be a doctor.

Our alumni have pursued writing careers that differ immensely, but they all have one thing in common—they are working and living amidst their passions.

One recent Writing Arts alumni said: “Lots of companies need writers, and a surprising amount of people just aren’t that great at communicating through text. If you’re passionate about something—whether it’s fashion or computers or sports or anything in between—opportunities exist in which you can write about those things. The best part? Someone will actually pay you to do it.”

Check out our alumni page to see specific career paths that undergraduate and graduate Writing Arts alumni have pursued.
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  • Home
  • Advising
  • Programs
    • Undergraduate Programs >
      • Minors >
        • Writing Arts Minor
        • Creative Writing Minor
        • Technical & Professional Writing Minor
        • New Media Minor
    • 4+1 (B.A.+M.A.) Program
    • Degree in 3
    • Certificates of Undergraduate Study >
      • CUGS in Creative Writing
      • CUGS in Technical and Professional Writing
      • CUGS in Writing Studies for Educators
      • CUGS in Professional Communication
      • CUGS in Writing for the Environment
    • Graduate Programs
  • WA Major
    • Writing Arts Journey
    • Required Courses >
      • General Education >
        • Science and Mathematics
        • Social and Behavioral Sciences
        • Literature, History, Humanities, and Language
      • Introduction to Writing Arts >
        • History & Materiality of Writing
        • Issues in Writing
        • Technologies & the Future of Writing
      • Methods Choice >
        • How Writers Read
        • Tutoring Writing
        • Communication Theory
      • Creative Choice >
        • Creative Writing I
        • Writing Children's Stories
      • The Writer's Mind
      • Writing, Research & Technology
      • Senior Seminar: Methods of Analysis and Evaluation of Writing
      • Portfolio Seminar
      • Free Electives
      • Literacy Studies >
        • Writing With Technologies
        • Situating Writing
    • Elements of Language >
      • Rhetorics of Style
      • Linguistics
      • Semantics
      • Editing for Publication
      • American English Grammar
      • Introduction to Anthropological Linguistics
    • Concentrations >
      • Creative Writing >
        • Writing Comedy
        • Writing the Young Adult Novel
        • Creative Writing I
        • Creative Writing II
        • Writing Children's Stories
        • Writing and Craft for Elementary Students
        • Writing Fiction
        • Writing Poetry
        • Writing Creative Nonfiction
        • Screenwriting I: Writing the Short
        • Screen Writing II: Writing the Feature
        • Magazine Article Writing
        • Fundamentals of Playwriting
        • Film Scenario Writing
        • Tutoring Writing
        • The Publishing Industry
        • Professions in Writing Arts
        • Internship
        • Research Practicum
      • Publishing & Writing for the Public >
        • Introduction to New Media
        • Self Publishing
        • The Publishing Industry
        • Writing for Popular Culture
        • Publication Layout & Design
        • Rhetorical Theory
        • Environmental Writing & Rhetoric
        • Writing for the Workplace
        • Writing Comedy
        • Professions in Writing Arts
        • Fiction to Film
        • Participatory Media
        • Photojournalism
        • Online Journalism I
        • Media Law
        • Applied Media Aesthetics: Sight, Sound and Story
        • Internship
        • Research Practicum
      • Technical & Professional Writing >
        • Introduction to Technical Writing
        • Writing for Nonprofits
        • Scientific Writing and Rhetoric
        • Medical Writing and Rhetoric
        • Tutoring Writing
        • Writing for the Workplace
        • The Publishing Industry
        • Professions in Writing Arts
        • Internship
        • Research Practicum
    • WA Learning Community >
      • Publishers
    • Portfolio Seminar Overview >
      • PS Analysis Statement Assignment
      • Checklist
      • Core Values
      • Questions Concerning Core Values
      • PS AS Peer Group Instructions
      • Portfolio Contents and Uploading
      • PS AS Rubric
      • FAQs: Students
      • FAQs: Instructors
  • Internships
  • Careers
  • Faculty
    • Faculty Resources >
      • Best Practices in Online Learning
      • Syllabus Requirements
      • HyFlex/Remote Learning
      • Canvas Support >
        • Writing Comedy
      • Accessibility in Online Courses
      • Racial Equity Online
      • Supporting Developmental Writers Remotely
      • Building an Online Classroom Community
    • Acknowledgements
  • Blogs
    • Writer's Insider Blog >
      • Fall 2020
      • Spring 2020
      • Fall 2019
      • Spring 2019 >
        • An Interview with Devon James & Rachel Barton
        • Confession Travel Writer
        • Self-Publishing: A Change in Perspective
        • CCCA Career Fair: Having Your Future in Mind
        • Alumni Success: Entering the Working World
        • Behind the Scenes of Rowan's Hiring Process
      • Fall 2018 >
        • Singularity Press: Rowan's New Start Up
        • Writing Arts Club
        • How Can We Evaluate Creative Writing?
        • More Inclusive Events for Technical Writers
        • Guest Speaker Manuela Soares
        • Glassworks Reading
        • Spotlight: Taylor Henry, Recently Published Rowan Alum
      • Spring 2018 >
        • Publishing and Writing for the Public: A Reconstructed Concentration
        • What You Think You Know About Technical and Professional Writing is Wrong
        • The Toni Libro Medallion Award Winner: Myriah Stubee
        • An Interview with a Publisher
        • Excellence in Writing Arts Medallion Winner: Sara Skipp
        • The College of Communcation and Creative Arts 6th Annual Student Awards and Showcase Ceremony
        • Rowan Alum, Marissa Cohen, On Self Publishing and Advocacy
      • Fall 2017 >
        • Upcoming Classes in the Writing Arts Department
        • The Writer's Journey Blog by Earl Garcia
        • Rewriting The Department's Social Media Platforms
        • Rowan University Writing Arts Club Reinvents Mission
        • Glassworks Launches Issue Fifteen
        • For Futuristic Consideration: An Exploration of Careers in Writing
      • Spring 2017 >
        • Technical Communication: An Overview
        • A More Inclusive Future for Technical Writers
        • Easing the Tension: Breaking Down Technical and Professional Writing
        • Growing the Technical and Professional Writing Concentration
      • Fall 2016
      • Spring 2016
      • Winter 2015
      • Fall 2015 >
        • 2014 and Prior >
          • Archive
    • The Bulletin Board
    • RU Writing? Podcast
  • Creative Writing
  • Writing Center
  • Alumni
    • Undergraduate
    • Graduate
  • Awards
    • 2021 Emerging Writers Scholarship
    • Denise Gess Literary Awards >
      • Rowan University Award for Poetry
      • Edward J. Czwartacki Award for Fiction
      • Pat B. Tweedie Award for Creative Nonfiction
      • Award Winners
    • Excellence in Writing Arts Medallion Award
    • AnToinette Libro Graduate Medallion Award
    • Past Awards >
      • 2008 Hollybush Writing Competition
      • Write Rowan, Right Now! Contest
  • Student Groups
    • Rowan Writing Arts Club
    • Avant Literary Magazine
    • The Whit Newspaper
    • Her Campus Rowan
    • Odyssey at Rowan
    • Singularity Press
  • Calendar
  • ECCCA
    • RU Deptartment of Writing Arts - Home
    • News & Announcements
    • Rowan University - Home
    • Ric Edelman College of Communication & Creative Arts at Rowan University - Home
    • Student Groups