English Major Graduates Can Do More Than Being a Teacher
Conventionally, people
always assume that the only thing the English major graduates can do is
teaching, and that old school, the narrow-minded assumption still exists
superiorly among communities. Graduated students, however, whose major are
English, have proved that they can be more than being teachers with their
capabilities such as critical thinking, academic writing, analytic prowess, and
linguistic skills.
Criticizing is what the
English major students do in all of their academic training time at university.
Due to the nature of the field involved with language, English major students
ought to deal with myriad kinds of knowledge from an astronomical amount of
literary works. Literatures is a type of art which rarely has the exact and
unique meaning, for that reason, the students shall be trained by their
instructors or professors to understand, appreciate, and then to give their own
criticisms. Through the process of criticizing, the students learn how to think
and perceive the issues from different perspectives to draw out the
conclusion for them. This skill, therefore, is very suitable for those who want
to be the literary critic after graduation. Of course, it is not easy to become
a literary critic because one must possess a great deal of knowledge of
literature. In fact, the literary critics usually are the writers or poets who
are masters in this field. Edgar Allan Poe (Jan 19th, 1809 – Oct 7th,
1849) and John Updike (Mar 18th, 1932 – Jan 27th, 2009) 2 American
famous poets and writer in 19th and 20th century
respectively, not only prove their talents by many poetry and literary works
but also leave their remarks in criticism (Wikipedia). Also, both of
them graduate with an English degree and they do not become a teacher as people
often assume that one can only be an educational instructor with a Bachelor’s
or Master’s degree in English.
There is a saying
“language is a dress of thought,”1 emphasizing the language’s function is to arrange, to shape, to sharpen, and to express one’s thoughts;
the relationship between language and thought is as the same as that between
academic writing and critical thinking. Without academic writing skill, ones
barely transmit their thoughts and ideas into words clearly and sophistically.
Indeed, good writing shall make the papers more engaging to the readers. What’s
more, possessing a good academic writing skill shall help ones strengthen their
ideas, to prove ones’ points and convince their counterparts to agree to
them. These two advantages mentioned above are necessary for ones who want to
pursue future professionals such as journalists, screenwriters, public relation
specialists, content strategists2, and speechwriters. Moreover, jobs
such as technical writers, attorneys, legislators, and even medical assistants
need the writing skill of English’s degree holders who can write and
demonstrate any ideas succinctly and coherently. Lastly, it will be
inadequate, if the professional of a writer is not mentioned. To
become a writer, ones must have creative writing skills. More or less, the
English’s degree holders own the skills, and they might consider it as their
future careers. Stephen King, the American prominent author of horror,
science and fantasy fiction, whose books have been sold more than 350 million
copies around the world, also graduated from the university with a degree in
English (Wikipedia). Doubtlessly, he is the ideal role model for ones
wishing to pursue the writing career.
As critical thinking
helps students of English Department approach the issues from a different
perspective, analysis prowess supports them in segmenting and dissecting
any factors of a particular issue. As a result, English’s majors who have been
honed their analysis skill during the time at university, can grab the key
points of any subjects quickly and then, identify the strengths or weaknesses
effectively. Editor and technical editor are two professionals longing for this
prowess because these jobs’ duties are finding the mistakes and fixing them
rightly. Reasonably, they ought to have this skill to pick out any
mistakes and errors of the matters. Furthermore, another advantage of
the analysis prowess is to evaluate or assess a subject to understand
it deeply. Marketing analyzers, who deal with the variableness
of market daily, need strong analysis ability to analyze and assess
the raw data so that they can predict and make appropriate decisions.
If academic writing is
the most practical and essential capability, linguistic skills are as important
as it is. Linguistic skills provide several advantages to the English majors in
finding future jobs. First, the students shall be able to communicate
efficiently. For the non-English-speaking English major students such as
Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Korean, and
other non-speaking-English students, being able to speak English as
the second language helps them greatly for future careers, and creates more job
opportunities. In Taiwan, English is considered the essential skill that many
universities set the teaching of English is at the top priority. According to
the 2018 annual official report of Soochow University’s English
Department studying the English graduates’ professional status after 3 years of
graduation, the percentage of English graduates involving in the educational domain was over 12 percent, but the highest rate was the number of graduates
students working in the marketing and sales area by the rate of over 24 percent.
Furthermore, the report also showed the variety of professional choices of the
English graduates such as business management, information technology, public
services, art, and video production. As the world is under the process of
globalizing, proficiency in communicating in English is an essential demand
that the employers require from the job seekers. Therefore, tour guide, flight
attendant and interpreter are the three most suitable jobs for the
non-English-speaking English major graduates. Besides, having an excellent
English communicating skill shall be an advantage for those who long to become
the social workers, multinational recruiters or consider studying Law after
getting a bachelor’s degree in English.
Second, those who can
master the linguistic skills will master the pragmatic uses of the English
language. Indeed, the pragmatic uses of English are the crucial requirements
that English’s degree holder is expected to have by the recruiters.
Specifically, the pragmatic uses are the knowledge of the practical uses of
English such as how to speak and write in English based on different
situations, how to apply the English into a real conversation and workplaces,
and how to make the English more engaging. Thus, translator, interpreter, and
content strategist are in need these linguistic skills. To non-native English
majors, interpreting and translating are two jobs that strongly require the
pragmatic uses of the English language. To native English majors who have enough
knowledge of linguistics, a content strategist is a good choice of the future
career. While most English’s degree holders are eager to develop their future
careers in business except for the educational field, a few of them want to study
more about the English language. For that purpose, becoming a linguist is a
perfect choice for them. Last but not least, the linguistic skills level
up English major graduates’ reading ability in term of speed, accuracy, and
productivity. Whoever the English major graduate acquires this reading skill,
the editor and proofreader are two most suitable professionals for them,
because these jobs require ones to pick out the errors and mistakes in plenty
of texts and to correct them quickly and effectively under the pressure of limitation
of time.
In conclusion, English’s
major graduates’ choices of future careers are various and promising. Except
for being an educational instructor, English’s degree holders who equip
themselves with critical thinking and analytic competence, academic writing and
linguistic skills are also able to take part in other fields such as Law,
Business and Finance, Art and Literature, and many different kinds of Services.
Simply put, future careers and job opportunities for English major graduates
are equal to other majors, but whether the English’s degree holders can
successfully seize those opportunities or nor, it depends on them.
Works cited
Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Updike. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_King.
Notes
1By Dr. Samuel Johnson (18 Sep
1709 – 13 Dec 1784). He is an English writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, and
lexicographer. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson
2Content
A strategist is the one who creates and develops content for a branded website.
More reference mediabistro.com
