Survey style courses are often a requirement of English literature or writing programs, and usually first-year and second-year students must take one or more courses of this type in order to move on to more advanced classes. Called survey courses because they cover such a large amount of material, these types of classes generally include a variety of subjects from a certain period of history or region of the world (such as literature of the 19th century, Chinese literature before 1500 A.D. or medieval English literature).
In contrast to large (and usually beginner-level) survey courses, topic courses cover more specific and advanced literature. For example, one might focus on socialist writings during the 1800s, while another might have the theme of literature written by women. One course might focus on a certain genre and another might center on journeys and travel narratives. Each selection discussed throughout the course may present any number of other subjects or ideas, but still each one has that one topic in common.
Once students reach the most advanced level of their college studies, specialized literature courses become available to them. These classes delve into less general areas of literature, such as comparative literature, which asks the student to group and contrast the literature of different groups (whether, cultural, national, linguistic, etc), or sometimes even different expressive forms such as film and literature. In other specialized courses, students might probe further into literary theory or criticism.
Creative writing courses focus on how to better write and understand fiction. They can cover many forms, including poetry, short stories and novel writing. Creative writing classes usually contain a workshop component where students spend a certain amount of time during each class discussing one student's (or several students') work up until that point, critiquing, criticizing and offering advice.
Nonfiction writing courses generally cover methods of writing some of the most popular types of non-fiction, such as biography, memoir and essay writing. Nonfiction courses might also focus on business writing, persuasive writing or expository writing. Nonfiction courses, depending on the area of focus, may use some of the same strategies to improve students' writing as fiction classes, like workshopping pieces in progress with the entire group. These courses may also teach skills often employed in journalism classes, like interviewing and researching in order to obtain accurate information.
Journalism, though a type of nonfiction writing, is usually relegated to its own category, and many colleges and universities create separate programs or departments within their larger school dedicated to the study of this field. Journalism courses focus on how to tell true stories and relate news and current events in the most accurate and concise manner possible. They also cover useful skills such as interviewing, researching and fact-checking. Many courses and programs will cover various forms of journalism, so students might study journalistic writing as well as television or radio journalism.