Why Major in English?
Frequently, students ask why they should major in English. Behind that concern often lies another set of questions: How can students pick any major at the point in their college career when they’re required to choose? What can students tell their parents when they ask why their children have chosen to be an English major? What do English majors do for a living once they have graduated from the university, in addition to teaching? What training and experience is needed for teaching English on the high school, community college, college and university levels? How can I translate my love of literature into a viable future?
For years, those of us who have taught English have answered the question “Why major in English?” with this answer: It’s an excellent liberal arts degree. Answers to this question, however, are as varied and complex as our students themselves; that may be the greatest single virtue of the major. Among the most common reasons are: a deep enthusiasm for words and ideas, a desire to become a more proficient and intelligent reader and writer, and a conviction that a deeper, broader understanding of culture is important in everyone’s future.
Apart from the inherent rewards of studying literature and language, a degree in English offers intensive training in skills essential in the modern job market, training that is rarely offered by other fields of study. The major also aspires to nurture the kinds of thoughtfulness essential for an intelligent, diverse, and harmonious society, a society that appreciates traditions without following them blindly.
We believe the major provides the foundation for a lifetime’s education. It is unlikely that today’s college graduates will end up working exclusively in the field in which they began. We know that our graduates are not likely to hold a single job when they leave this university, but that they will probably find employment in four to six different ways before retirement. English majors traditionally enter careers in teaching, publication, the arts, public relations, social services, politics, administration, fundraising, advertising, broadcasting, law, and other fields that require verbal sophistication, interpretive intelligence, interpersonal skills, and wide exposure to literary forms.