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Professional Writing

The Professional Writing Program is for writers who want to take themselves, and be taken, seriously.

Like most writing programs, we offer courses—excellent courses—in fiction and poetry. But we also offer journalism, editing, reviewing, creative non-fiction, business writing, screenplay writing, copy-editing, playwriting, technical writing, writing oral history and travel writing.

You'll learn the art and craft of writing, and the skills needed to flourish in the writing business. You'll meet a wide variety of people who write professionally, and you'll have the chance to chat with them—to ask them not only about inspiration but about how they make a living.

By graduation, almost all of our students have had their writing published or performed, and one in five has earned money as a writer.

The Professional Writing Program will take you seriously from the first week. You'll never look back.

Program Details

  • Program Highlights
    • You'll be surrounded, perhaps for the first time in your life, with others who write as much as you do, and who have extraordinary ambitions for their writing.
    • You'll work with faculty from all walks of life who have published novels, poems, essays and articles in newspapers and magazines, who have had plays performed, screenplays filmed and personal essays broadcast on NPR.
    • You'll learn how to write clearly, coherently, creatively, comprehensively, concisely and correctly for a variety of audiences and purposes—in short, to be interesting.
    • You'll conduct interviews, maintain high ethical standards, meet deadlines, work in teams, and work with a variety of clients, peers, colleagues and editors.
    • You'll develop and maintain a Professional Writing Portfolio to showcase your work.
    • You'll find out about real-life environments from professional writers, and in some cases you'll collaborate with them.
    • You'll get involved in an internship with real-world opportunities to develop your skills.
    • After four years, you'll be a different person: you'll be the writer you always knew you could be.
  • Curriculum

    First Year

    First Semester:

    Second Semester:

    Second Year

    First Semester:

    Second Semester:

    Third Year

    First Semester:

    Second Semester:

    Fourth Year

    First Semester:

    Second Semester:

    BS Degree in Professional Writing

  • Career Opportunities

    The demand for writers, especially imaginative and technically proficient writers with a wide range of interests, has never been greater. Effective writing is an essential and powerful skill in virtually every profession. In addition, many writers work in a freelance fashion as entrepreneurs, and the Professional Writing Program teaches its majors how to survive and prosper in this demanding but liberating environment.

    What Are Our Recent Grads Up To?

    • Writing for Rolling Stone
    • Writing for Global Traveler magazine
    • Teaching English in Thailand
    • Writing grants for non-profit organizations
    • Studying for an MFA in poetry
    • Freelance book editing
    • Copy-editing for an academic press
    • Writing about wine in California
    • Working for AmeriCorps
    • Traveling in Alaska and China
    • Writing for a major global non-profit organization
    • Writing and editing an online magazine for teenagers with diabetes
  • Student Resources

    What resources and opportunities will I find on campus?

    Let's look at this two ways: what opportunities start with us, and what opportunities start with you?

    We're proud of the opportunities and resources that we have already started, such as the Vermont Poetry and Jazz Ensemble, or Po-Jazz for short, that has people hanging from the rafters of a downtown restaurant when students read their poetry, live, to the spontaneous accompaniment of a jazz band.

    But we're really excited about the opportunities that we're creating every week:

    • When two incoming students said they're interested in fantasy and science fiction writing, we introduced them to an upperclass student who has already started his own Web site for new sci-fi and fantasy writers;

    • Three incoming students said they were interested in songwriting, so we told them about The Grind, the weekly student live music showcase, and passed them on to Ashley Bilodeau a Professional Writing major who has performed her own songs locally and in New York City;

    • When a Professional Writing major discovered that she loved our playwriting class (and has a background in working with kids), we hooked her up with a local director who has just opened a local theater center and performing company for teenagers;

    • Half a dozen first-year students said they loved our literary magazine, Willard and Maple, but they wanted to publish a zine of their own that came out more frequently. We backed them while they applied for Student Life funds to start up Moss on the Moon, now hitting the streets every month;

    • We invited Chris Lawless, one of our resident poets, to create a words-and-images display to showcase his writing on the video display boards on campus;

    • And when another Professional Writing major let slip that he spends his spare time fixing up old Volkswagens, we helped him through a process that ended up with him writing for an international magazines for Volkswagen enthusiasts.

    It's our job to help you find out who you are and what you have to say; and then it's our job to find the resources to help you say that to a listening, reading or watching public.

  • Faculty

163 South Willard St.
Burlington, VT 05402, USA
Email: webmaster@champlain.edu
Phone: 802-860-2700 or 800-570-5858