: Re: What does a typical creative writing course look like? Many universities offer degrees in creative writing with courses such as “Short Story Writing” or “Fiction Writing”. I would imagine

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My graduate level creative writing courses worked like this, more or less.

You sign up or volunteer to bring in work. You sign up in advance. In classes of 10-18 people, everyone shared work about three times a semester.
On your day to bring in work, you make copies for the entire class and distribute.
There was always some variation here. Either you read your work in class and then have it critiqued immediately following the reading, or you hand out your work on the turn in day and then have it verbally critiqued the following class after everyone has read it over and marked it up.
I was commonly graded on word count, though some writing professors graded on a vague notion of content. In-class participation contributed to my grade as well.

In terms of assignments, I had a few professors who would give writing prompts based around certain thematic elements. This was rare. Normally, a class on Short Fiction meant that you were expected to write short pieces and not novel chapters or poetry. Likewise with a Screenwriting class. The professor would initiate discussion and the class would function as a "workshop". There were never tests.

I think you'll find that a writing workshop takes on the personality of the professor. Typically, students gravitate towards the professors who teach workshops that speak to their style. You're right. The classes are not like math or history classes. They're much more colloquial and student run. Occasionally professors will run a workshop rigorously, but usually they will just facilitate discussion.

I stress, though, that this was my experience at a small college at the graduate level.

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