Four Benefits of an English Major
An English major isn't a hobby, a useless degree, a waste of time, or only useful for education majors.
Introduction
When I declared English as my major, a lot of people thought I was going into education. Fellow students mentioned people told them they were wasting their time on a hobby. That’s why I want to clarify that an English major isn’t a hobby, a useless degree, a waste of time, or only useful for education majors.
If writing is your passion and you want to further your education in that field, don’t be afraid to pursue the degree you want to. An English degree isn’t “just for fun.” There's a lot more to an English major than meets the eye. Here are four benefits of being an English major (at least from my experience).
Writing Academically and Creatively
The first benefit of an English major is that you get to write. English courses put your writing skills to the test. I had to write 10 to 20-page papers every semester for multiple classes, many of them focused on literary analyses and writing my interpretations of a story using textual evidence and scholarly articles. I also learned how to use correct citations and formatting for papers.
In addition to academic writing, I also got to take creative writing classes. I’ve always struggled with story structure and finally got a grasp on the concept in college. I got to learn about world-building, character development, and story structure. I also got to branch out from just writing prose to writing poetry, screenplays, and plays. I also got to try out the different formats required for screenwriting, plays, and poems.
By taking English classes, I obtained opportunities for giving and receiving feedback. I developed the mindset to earnestly provide the best feedback I could to fellow students. Doing this helped me become a better writer as I sought to clearly express my thoughts to others in the written form. It also helped me better critique my own writing.
Before college, I feared receiving ridicule for my writing and never sent it out to anyone. However, my English classes required students to send their work to fellow students to give and receive feedback. That forced me out of my comfort zone and helped me to gain the confidence I needed to send out my work to people. Through that experience, I also learned how to thoughtfully apply the feedback I received for my writing instead of turning my nose up at it or getting offended. It also helped me develop a filter for whom I wanted feedback from as I discovered that some people give constructive criticism and others give destructive criticism.
Getting feedback from others helped me to become humble, something that I’ve realized is important for writers. It made me realize that my writing wouldn’t have progressed if I continued to refuse the feedback I received.
Through these classes, I was pushed beyond my comfort zone and my writing was put to the test. I made unexpected and meaningful connections with fellow students and professors, and I wouldn’t be where I am today as a writer without their influence.
Reading
The second benefit is reading. There's reading, reading, and more reading. The English courses I took introduced me to a variety of authors and stories I otherwise would never have read—let alone heard of. I read a range of short stories, novels, poems, and plays. Most of the stories I was required to read were weird and grotesque. Some of them I did like, though.
You don’t have to be a reader to be an English major. The truth is, I’m not. I’m a slow reader and I have trouble reading. I’ll space out, letters will flip, and sentences will switch with each other so I end up re-reading the same sentence over and over again. I often get frustrated and can’t finish what I’m reading. I was worried about this when I declared my major in English. I worried I wouldn’t be able to get everything read in time for classes. I tried audiobooks, but I quickly learned I’m not a fan of them. I never put ebooks to use until college. I was able to get access to the books I needed as ebooks with text-to-speech functions using a program called Bookshare. Each sentence is highlighted as it’s read aloud, and I love being able to follow along. I was able to use Bookshare for free through the university and that helped me through college tremendously.
The History of The English Language
The third benefit of an English major is that I got to learn the history of the English language. I got to read Old English and Middle English texts. Hint: it isn’t Shakespeare. Did you think Shakespeare was Old English? I did, and so did many other English students. However, after taking the Medieval/Renaissance course, we learned that Old English is much different than Shakespeare. In fact, Shakespeare is actually Early Modern English.
I had to memorize and recite an Old English text, The Lord’s Prayer, and I had the hardest time reading and pronouncing it. Old English is basically another language. Here’s a video of someone reading aloud The Lord's Prayer (Fæder Ure) in Old English.
Appreciation
The fourth benefit is appreciation. The world needs writers, and I think that is an underappreciated fact sometimes. I didn't appreciate the importance of writing until I learned about the various purposes writing serves. Think about everything you have ever seen that involves text. You wouldn’t have the books you love if it weren’t for writers. You wouldn’t have screenplays to turn into films, speeches to commemorate or quote, lyrics, transcripts, closed captioning, blogs, advertisements, magazines, prescription labels, recipes—you get the idea. What would the modern world be like without the written word? That's why English degrees pay off because writers write for those who don't want to.
Conclusion
Although I’m not perfect at writing, (who is?) I have learned a great deal of useful information that I wouldn’t have obtained on my own. There are so many elements to an English major other than “just for fun.” English majors create better writers, communicators, and storytellers. Pursuing an English degree offers knowledge, networking, and career opportunities. Therefore, having an English degree is not a hobby or useless. An English major prepares writers to become professionals in their chosen writing careers.