How To Become A Creative Writing English Professor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a creative writing english professor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Dennis Wise Professor Practice

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a creative writing english professor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $33.57 an hour? That's $69,822 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 159,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a creative writing english professor?

Dr. Dennis Wise Professor Practice

Director of Undergraduate Studies, University of Arizona

It's an extremely challenging moment to be entering the profession. Since 2008, state legislatures have been cutting back funding for higher education, and that has hurt English Departments because courses that require writing instruction (as our do) can't be run at ultra-large, 200-students a class levels. That has limited the willingness of administrations to hire tenure-track faculty, and has contributed to a proliferation of contingent (or year-to-year) labor. In addition, graduate programs across the country tend to significantly over-produce doctoral students, graduating far more each year than the job market can handle. All this goes to make the job prospects of anyone fresh out of graduate school relatively bleak. Many are forced into adjuncting, more and more of the former professoriate are becoming adjuncts.

ScoreCreative Writing English ProfessorUS Average

Salary

5.5

Avg. Salary $69,822

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.9

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.27%

Asian 12.18%

Black or African American 4.93%

Hispanic or Latino 7.22%

Unknown 4.56%

White 70.84%

Gender

female 55.17%

male 44.83%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

4.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.6

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.3

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a creative writing english professor

Explore creative writing english professor education requirements

Most common creative writing english professor degrees

Bachelor's

59.3 %

Master's

37.0 %

Associate

3.7 %

Start to develop specific creative writing english professor skills

Skills	Percentages
Literature	52.27%
Syllabus	27.83%
Grammar	19.90%

Research creative writing english professor duties and responsibilities

Train ESL students in basic English skills in order for them to achieve satisfactory scores on the TOEFL.
Maintain oral communication skill to increase vocabulary and syntax and have students practice in a professional setting.
Develop university-level preparation course for TOEFL exam design to increase reading skills and essay writing skills.

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