I love English. I love literature and reading. I love writing and editing. I love media and journalism. I love just every facet of English you can imagine. So, after a full year in school, I switched my major to English with a minor in Writing and Editing. Check out my article here about that whole situation and see why I changed my major. Even though I didn't change my major that long ago, I've already had a bunch of stereotypes that come with being an English major. As trivial as it is, it bothers me. So, here are six things you should know about English majors!
1. Teaching is not our only option.
If there is one question I've gotten more than any other it's this: do you want to teach? No. No, I don't. It is definitely not my cup of tea. While some English majors do choose to teach, the rest of us do not want to limit ourselves to one option. Majoring in English offers one of the widest, if not the widest, pools of options for future jobs and careers. The need for English majors are everywhere and in every field!
2. We get annoyed when someone says English is an easy major.
It's not. Reading an entire book or two and several articles for the next class is not fun. We constantly go to bed really late and get up really early to continue doing what we love and often have a large coffee in one of our hands. English also isn't an easy major because we are our own worst critics. We analyze each and every word, phrase, and syllable of our own writing and are constantly wondering whether what we just wrote is good enough. More often than not, we scratch what we wrote and start over.
3. We may or may not edit your papers for you.
Even before I changed my major to English, I had several people occasionally ask me to look over their papers, give them some advice, and even edit their papers. Most of the time, I'd be happy to help! But please don't make a nuisance out of yourself by asking too much. We are not your servants.
4. We probably criticize every social media post.
Yes, we do know that social media is informal most of the time. But, that doesn't stop us from cringing at the wrong use of words, incorrect punctuation, and just overall bad grammar. We do it to everyone, including ourselves. If we make a mistake anywhere it's almost like the end of the world because a lot of people make the assumption that English majors don't and shouldn't make any mistakes. Wrong. No one is perfect but we're especially hard on ourselves when we see even the tiniest error.
5. Unpaid internships are gold.
So is any other legitimate job for an undergraduate student in this field. It is not easy to get your foot even an inch in the door in this field no matter what you want to do with your degree. For me, I'd love to go into something editorial or journalistic. To be quite honest, I wouldn't mind working for Odyssey at their New York office. It would be so fun to work alongside my current Managing Editor Shannon and all of the other managing editors as well. But, seriously, unpaid internships are often that push to get our feet in the door for our desired careers. We jump at the chance to get one - and so should you, no matter what your major is.
6. Getting published is #careergoals.
English majors often work long and hard on each piece that they write. Each piece written is like a little piece of the heart, mind, and soul put into words on paper or in a word document. There is also a lot of rejection in this business because not a lot of organizations publish college students' work. So, when we do get published we feel accomplished and like we are actually doing some good in the world. Odyssey does such a great job of this. You are guaranteed to be published when you write an article for Odyssey. Sure, there will probably be some suggestions offered and corrections made but we aren't going to say no flat out to any article. I've loved writing for Odyssey for the past five or so months and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Keep these things in mind the next time you talk to an English major. We love what we do and our major is just as important as anyone else's.
