The creative writing major requires a total of 44 credit hours, including five creative writing workshops (20 credits), two cognate courses (8 credits), and either four English electives or three English electives and an additional creative writing workshop (16 credits). Students choose one track from the four offered: fiction, poetry, screenwriting or literary nonfiction. One of the creative writing workshops must be a 4000-level course (either CW 4200, CW 4300, CW 4400 or CW 4500); this class will provide a capstone experience and require a creative thesis (i.e., a collection of poetry or short fiction, a screenplay, or a work of literary nonfiction). Students are encouraged to take at least three of their five required workshop classes before taking the capstone.