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
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:
Writing Arts alumni with the focus in New Media and Publishing have been employed by companies such as:
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:
Alumni have also pursued writing for platforms such as:
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.
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.
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.