Minors

Our five minors include a wide variety of writing courses that allow you to hone your skills.

Whether you want to concentrate on reading, writing, or creative work (or some combination of the three), we always offer a diversity of courses to meet your needs and interests. You can also get academic credit for internships—whether working on our online literary journal, Blackbird, our series of scholarly editions, British Virginia, pursuing other internship opportunities in social media, or working with other local or online journals, publishers, or schools.

Each minor consists of 18 credits (six classes) of coursework. Students of all majors, including English, are welcome to pursue these minors, although English majors cannot minor in English.

Declare a Minor

To declare a minor, or if you have questions, contact english@vcu.edu. It is suggested that students complete at least half of a minor before declaring it officially.

Minor Offerings

English

The English minor consists of six classes chosen from the categories of literature, criticism, and linguistics, two of which can be at the 200-level.

American Studies

The American studies minor is an interdisciplinary minor for students not only interested in U.S. literature, but U.S. history and the impact that the U.S. has had on the world.

British Studies

The British studies minor is an interdisciplinary minor for students not only interested in British literature, but British history and the impact that Britain has had on the world.

Creative Writing

The creative writing minor allows a student to explore the writing of fiction, poetry, screenplays, and creative nonfiction, with the option to focus specifically on one of the genres. More workshop oriented than the writing minor, the minor in creative writing only allows for one expository writing course.

Professional Writing and Editing

The professional writing and editing minor comprises writing, rhetoric, editing, and publishing courses to develop writing skills across media, industries, audiences, and genres. Six credits may be taken in internship courses.