An Exploration of Themes and Genres in English Education Student Creative Writing Projects

Abstract

Creative writing instruction plays a vital role in developing students’ language proficiency, creativity, and emotional awareness. This study aims to describe the trends regarding genres, themes, and issues addressed in the creative writing projects of English Education students at an Indonesian university in 2026. The study used a descriptive qualitative approach with content analysis. The data comprised 33 student creative writing project documents, comprising various forms of writing: short stories, memoirs, poetry, drama, and narrative journalism. Data analysis followed the Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña model, involving data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The results indicate that the short story was the most dominant genre (60,61%), followed by memoirs (15,15%), poetry (12,12%), drama (9,09%), and narrative journalism (3,03%). The student’s works not only represented personal experiences but also demonstrated sensitivity toward social issues-such as bullying, academic pressure, social inequality, the impact of technology, and matters of power and philanthropy within historical contexts. This study underscores that creative writing instruction contributes to the development of student’s creative literacy, reflective capabilities, and social empathy. Consequently, there is a need to develop instructional strategies that provide students with the space to explore personal experiences and social realities through creative writing.