r/englishmajors

Hello everyone, I'm currently in my first year of English hons. I got into literature because of my love for teaching and the subject. But the more I discover things around me the more I feel naive. Recently the UGC net paper leak was definitely a hit for me, then also the fact there's no vacancies for professoring jobs. I'm feeling lost and disturbed. I've looked into other tech fields as I heard that they're in demand but I am pretty sure they don't interest me.

Every degree is useless if one doesn't have any skills. I'm lacking proper guidance and feeling alone. Is my degree useless? Should I change it all together? Or gain skills beside my degree? If yes then what skills and how to gain them? Is Coursera really worth it? How should I do proceed and what to do? What qualifications should I chase to get proper office jobs?

​

Hi everyone,

I need to write a research paper for my English assessment. I’m looking for original or under-explored topic ideas that feel everyday and paradoxical (for example: the bubble gum cheing theory like when we chew a gum while reading and we do that again in the exam we can recollect it faster).

I want topics that:

Seem simple but don’t have one clear answer

Allow me to form a hypothesis

Have arguments on both sides

Any suggestions would be really helpful. Thank you!

.

hello! i'm 27 and just started going back to school to pursue english this year. i'm rly excited to get a bachelors, esp after feeling very lost and unmotivated the past few years.

i honestly don't know what exactly i want to do in terms of a job afterwards. i'm very passionate about writing, but that isn't something i expect to make a career out of. i was wondering what you guys do/plan to do?

i want to get a masters degree eventually as well. i have so many interests. all i know is i don't want to be a teacher. i'm interested in creative writing, linguistics, languages + translation, history, cultural anthropology, archival work, library science etc.

does have advice pertaining to those things or work in any of those fields? i'm curious about what its like and how you got there !!

Hello everyone! I’m in dire need of someone to
answer something for me. I’m currently unable to do some of my tasks due to over fatigue.
The deadline is in a few hours!

I'm a freshman studying BS English literature. My major courses for the first semester is Greek and renaissance literature. I want to learn from other people's experiences. Any advice or tips would be appreciated. I don't have anything specific to ask for now so please drop anything you think might be helpful for me. Thanks!

what kind of job opportunities were you able to attain after graduation?
In your opinion what volunteer opportunities help land good job positions?

Hello! I am going into my senior year of high school and have plans on hopefully becoming a doctor in the future. Just yesterday my dad sat me down and told me that he wasn’t going to force me to do science or math when my test scores reflect my strengths in other aspects. I’m really excited because I love English class, writing and ESPECIALLY reading. The only issue is I don’t know if it’s 100% a good idea to apply to colleges as an English major. Both my parents have biochemistry degrees, my brother is at case western for stats and everyone in my immediate circle( both family and friends) are pursuing stem degrees. I’m scared they’ll make fun of me and I don’t know if I’m 100% ready to take on their comments even though I love English so much and no matter what I’ll be doing a pre med track. If any of you guys have any advice on what I should do or what you did in this situation I would greatly appreciate it :)!!

Hi everyone! This is my first post on Reddit ever but I just wanted to ask all the English majors in the room my dilemma and wanted to hear any nice encouragement or kind advice from anyone here.

Context: So I am currently in my 2nd year of community college and am supposed to transfer out after this and apply to universities now. All my life I have wanted to become a teacher, at first in elementary but I have evolved to wanting to teach older kids like high school or college. I love writing, reading and teaching people this. I have had experience doing this, confirming my love to teach. Not exactly in a K-12 classroom yet, I don't have the right circumstances in my life to work in one with other things I have to manage but I will soon. NOW I know what people say about teaching, I know the realities, but this is the job I feel would match my dreams, goals, workload and everything. I truly have a love to help people with literacy and writing. Secondary to this would be working in marketing / PR / advertising / journalism adjacent jobs as I love doing stuff in that too and have experience in it as well.

Dilemma: I have always been beaten down by people's opinions, words of my major in English. I am doubtful and fear I need to choose a more stable major, like communications or marketing to satisfy that media edge I have. Or, to satisfy more security in wanting to teach entirely, I would want to do a child development teaching focused degree for younger kids. However, communications feels more broad than English, and child development is more specific. English feels just right. PLUS, my major specifically is English Education which will fast track me into teaching in California (their credential program, and skipping tests to take for it). Though, I do struggle in reading nowadays due to my ruined attention span and mental health, like a reading block, for about 2 years now- I still try but it is hard. Yet I have always loved reading in my life, and analyzing literature and things, and especially writing-it is my top skill.

How can I be assured that I am on the right path? I am told by my counselors, and people who support me to keep going and trust the process. Then, there are people who like to make fun of me saying I could do better and my major will take me nowhere in life. I refuse to believe it, because I have been doing lots of leadership work on campus, different kinds of internships, so I am not someone without a plan, yet still I doubt.

Any thoughts or encouragement you have may be appreciated! :) Thank you for reading.

I am so far taking Spanish 101, 101 ethics, and some kind of English I forgot what. I’m good at literature as well I thought I should mention. I already took American lit last semester

Hello!

I need to cite the Marvel show Echo in a paper using MLA 9th edition. My problem is, Purdue tells me to list the creators of the show, but nobody is expliccitly listed as a creator. Do I just list the two directors instead?
Edit: Also, which date do I list when the episodes came out over the span of 2 years?

Will not have any student loans What i specifically mean is corporate/office work

basically, how society decides whose lives and suffering are considered worthy of mourning and whose are overlooked or treated as less significant. I’m thinking of exploring this through literature + some fieldwork on how readers respond to representations of marginalised grief.

do you think this is worth pursuing as a dissertation topic? for my bachelors i had worked on gendered existentialism in the stranger and the bell jar.

English Dept chair here. Next week, I have a meeting with our incoming English majors before classes start. It's a new event this year--the orientation office asked all of us to meet with our new students. I've already checked everybody's schedule and made sure it looked good for the fall, and most of them are registered in our one-credit intro to the major class, so they'll be getting all kinds of details soon.

So I want to keep it light, maybe fun. Those of you who are or were English majors, what would you have wanted to learn about or do or hear in a meeting with the department chair and the other new English majors before your first semester? (Or maybe what did your department do that you loved?)

According to Non-English Majors, English Majors are the kind of people to challenge their classmates to a duel if they strongly disagree with them on their interpretation of a text and speak fluently in Shakespearean English while dueling.

I recently finished my major in English language and literature and currently finishing my minor in German language and literature, but I'm struggling to pick, where to continue for my masters. I was always influenced by my environment and also convinced by myself that I would automatically go study "translation" for my masters but I'm no longer sure about it, as I realized that literature and culture interest me more. I found numerous MA programs that I find interesting such as: "theater, film and media studies", "media, communication and culture studies" or "journalism and communication studies". The thing is, I am not sure about my career path as I am a bit confused and lost in life, which essentially hinders my process of choosing the MA program. Any tips on which path would be ideal or which is worth it?

I am pursuing Master in English Literature what do you think I should ho after like any career scope of study advice?

hello, just a little help. English is not really my first language so im quite bad at it but does saying "don't lie to me" to someone a way of saying or calling them a liar?

Hello! I’m entering my senior year of undergrad, and I’m currently majoring in Art with a minor in Performing arts. My college advisor let me know at the end of last spring that I was in a position where I could actually add on an English minor if I just take 2 more classes (6 credits total), which I was super down for at first. However, after looking at the class offerings, I really can’t find any that pique my interest or stand out as something I’d really like to study, and I’ve already taken the only other two English classes that might be interesting to me (Screenwriting and Playwriting). If I were to do this, the only plan I can think of that might work out to be fun is taking a basic CW class in fiction and then hope I can get a teacher to sponsor me for an independent study in CW in the spring.

My biggest concern is that I have a history of doing really well in classes that I’m interested in and enjoy, and doing pretty crappy in classes that I don’t really like, and I’m worried that if I try to just suck it up, do the minor, and end up in classes that I don’t really like, then I won’t do very well in them. Additionally, I haven’t had much of an opportunity to do many “fun” classes, and I also feel like I should be doing more art classes instead to try and build up my portfolio, since I’ll be going into the professional world soon. However, I don’t want to throw away the opportunity to add on another minor if it might help me career wise in the future, especially since it’s only 2 more classes. My thoughts are that since both my other subjects are in the arts, maybe this might be a better/more stable option to pursue just in case I can’t find opportunities related directly to the arts. People also seem to think that an English major doesn’t get you much, let alone a minor, but I think in this particular situation it might be helpful.

Should I take the chance and for the minor? Or should I take other classes that I might have a better chance of enjoying? Does either seem like a better choice career-wise?

TLDR; I’m an Art major with a performing arts minor with a chance to add an English minor with 2 extra classes, but no classes are interesting which might hurt my performance. Is it worth it to try for the English minor, or should I go with more art/other classes?

If so, does an english degree find you a job in that country? Have you done anything with it over there?