If you’re looking for entry-level jobs with an English degree, here are some ideas to get you started.
- Proofreader
As a proofreader, you’ll be responsible for examining documents and making sure that they are free of errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and formatting. This is a great job for someone with an English degree because it requires a keen eye for detail and familiarity with the language. It also allows you to work from home, so if you have an interest in freelancing or entrepreneurship, this may be right up your alley!
- Writer/Editor
If you’re interested in writing or editing work but don’t want to go into academia or publishing as a career path, this might be a good option for you! You can specialize in any number of genres: fiction or nonfiction; journalistic writing or technical writing; blogging or copywriting; blogging about animals or blogging about business… the possibilities are endless!
- Editor-in-Chief (or Managing Editor, Senior Editor…)
If you have an eye for talent and an interest in developing writers’ careers, becoming an editor at an established magazine or publishing house could be right up your alley! You would work with other editors on
Entry Level Jobs English Degree
This article is about the general term. For the United Kingdom certification level, see Entry Level.
An entry-level job is a job that is normally designed or designated for recent graduates of a given discipline and typically does not require prior experience in the field or profession. These roles may require some on-site training. Many entry-level jobs are part-time and do not include employee benefits. Recent graduates from high school or college usually take entry-level positions. Entry-level jobs targeted at college graduates often offer a higher salary than those targeted at high school graduates. These positions are more likely to require specific skills, knowledge, or experience.[1] Most entry-level jobs offered to college graduates are full-time permanent positions and some offer more extensive graduate training programs. While entry-level jobs traditionally required no experience, the Great Recession produced a surplus of college graduates on the job market and eliminated many entry-level positions.[2][3]
See also
Employment
Labor union
Simultaneous recruiting of new graduates
English studies (usually called simply English) is an academic discipline taught in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education in English-speaking countries; it is not to be confused with English taught as a foreign language, which is a distinct discipline. It involves the study and exploration of texts created in English literature. English studies include: the study of literature (especially novels, plays, short stories, and poetry), the majority of which comes from Britain, the United States, and Ireland (although English-language literature from any country may be studied, and local or national literature is usually emphasized in any given country); English composition, including writing essays, short stories, and poetry; English language arts, including the study of grammar, usage, and style; and English sociolinguistics, including discourse analysis of written and spoken texts in the English language, the history of the English language, English language learning and teaching, and the study of World Englishes. English linguistics (syntax, morphology, phonetics, phonology, etc.) is usually[clarification needed] treated as a distinct discipline, taught in a department of linguistics.
The disciplinary divide between a dominant literature or usage orientation is one motivation for the division of the North American Modern Language Association (MLA) into two subgroups. At universities in non-English-speaking countries, the same department often covers all aspects of English studies, including linguistics: this is reflected, for example, in the structure and activities of the European Society for the Study of English (ESSE).
It is common for departments of English to offer courses and scholarship in the areas of the English language, literature (including literary criticism and literary theory), public speaking and speech-writing, rhetoric, composition studies, creative writing, philology and etymology, journalism, poetry, publishing, literacy, area studies (especially American studies), the philosophy of language, theater and play-writing, screenwriting, communication studies, technical communication, cultural studies, critical theory, gender studies, ethnic studies, disability studies, digital media and electronic publishing, film studies and other media studies, and various courses in the liberal arts and humanities, among others. In most English-speaking countries, the study at all educational levels of texts produced in non-English languages takes place in other departments, such as departments of foreign language or of comparative literature.
Contents
1 Fields
2 English major
2.1 History
2.2 Skills acquired
2.3 Examples of courses
2.4 Career opportunities
3 At High School
3.1 Britain
3.2 Ontario, Canada
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Fields
Literature
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Major forms
Drama Closet dramaPerformance
Folklore FableLegendMythOral literatureProverb
Poetry LyricNarrativeNonsense
Prose NovelNovellaShort story
Prose genres
Fiction Coming-of-age novelEroticHistoricalRomanceSpeculative FantasyHorrorScience fiction
Nonfiction AutobiographyBiographyDiaryDocumentaryEpistleEssayHistoryJournalismLettersMemoirNaturePhilosophySpeechTravel
Poetry genres
Narrative poetry EpicDramaticVerse novel
Lyric BalladElegyEpigramGhazalHaikuLimerickOdeQasidahSatireSonnetVillanelle
Dramatic genres
Morality playHistory playTragedyComedyTragicomedySatire
History and lists
History
OutlineGlossary of terms
BooksWritersLiterary awards poetry
Discussion
CriticismTheorySociologyMagazines
Literature portal
vte
See also Literature and linguistics, along with List of academic disciplines
English linguistics
English sociolinguistics
Discourse analysis in English
English Stylistics (linguistics)
World Englishes
History of the English language
Composition studies
Rhetoric
Technical communication
English language learning and teaching
English literature
American literature, including:
African American literature
Jewish American literature
Southern literature
Australian literature
British literature (literature from some regions of the United Kingdom may be written in Celtic languages)
Canadian literature (a significant amount of Canadian literature is also written in French)
Irish literature
New Zealand literature
Scottish literature
Welsh literature
South African literature (excluding works written in other languages)
Indian English literature
English major
The English Major (alternatively “English concentration,” “B.A. in English”) is a term in the United States and a few other countries for an undergraduate university degree focused around reading, analyzing, and writing texts in the English language. The term may also be used to describe a student who is pursuing such a degree.
Students who major in English reflect upon, analyse, and interpret literature and film, presenting their analyses in clear, cogent writing. Although help-wanted postings rarely solicit English majors specifically, a degree in English hones critical thinking skills essential to a number of career fields, including writing, editing, publishing, teaching, research, advertising, public relations, law, and finance.
History
The history of English studies at the modern university in Europe and America begins in the second half of the nineteenth century. Initially, English studies comprised a motley array of content: the practice of oratory, the study of rhetoric and grammar, the composition of poetry, and the appreciation of literature (mostly by authors from England, since American literature and language study was only added in the twentieth century).[1] In Germany and several other European countries, English philology, a strongly positivistic and historically interested practice of reading pre-modern texts, became the preferred scholarly paradigm, but English-speaking countries distanced themselves from philological paradigms soon after World War I.[2] At the end of this process, English departments tended to refocus their work on various forms of writing instruction (creative, professional, critical) and the interpreting of literary texts, and teacher education in English recovered from the neglect it had suffered because of more science-oriented paradigms.[3] Today, English departments in native-speaking countries re-evaluate their roles as sole guardians of the discipline because English is less and less native speakers’ unique ‘property’ and has to be shared with the millions of speakers and writers from other countries for whom English is an essential means of communication and artistic expression.[4]
English literature became an object of study in French universities as part of foreign (comparative) literature in the nineteenth century. A chair of foreign literature was established at the College de France in 1841.[5] English was first taught independently from other languages and literature in the University of Lille and in the University of Lyons and only afterwards in the Sorbonne. These three universities were the first major centres of English studies in France. The first lecturer and later professor of English studies would seem to have been Auguste Angellier. After spending several years teaching French in England in the 1860s and 1870s, he became a lecturer in English studies at the University of Lille in 1881 and a professor of English in 1893. In France nowadays, literature, civilisation, linguistics and the spoken and written language are all important in English studies in universities.[6]
The English major rose to prominence in American colleges during the first half of the 1970s.[7] It provided an opportunity for students to develop critical skills in analytical reading with the aim of improving their writing, as well as exercises in rhetoric and persuasive expression that had been traditionally only taught in classical studies and available to the very few due to language barriers and a shortage of professors who could actively engage students in the humanities. Outside the United States (originating in Scotland and then rippling out into the English-speaking world) the English major became popular in the latter half of the 19th century during a time when religious beliefs were shaken in the face of scientific discoveries.[8] Literature was thought[citation needed] to act as a replacement for religion in the retention and advancement of culture, and the English Major thus provided students with the chance to draw moral, ethical, and philosophical qualities and meanings of older studies from a richer and broader source of literature than that of the ancient Greek and Latin classics.
Since 2000, there have been questions about the specific function of English departments at the contemporary U.S. college and university.[by whom?] The absence of a clearly defined disciplinary identity and the increasingly utilitarian goals in U.S. society present a challenge to those academic units still mostly focusing on the printed book and the traditional division in historical periods and national literatures, and neglecting allegedly non-theoretical areas such as professional writing, composition, and multimodal communication.[9]
Skills acquired
In the past an academic degree in English usually meant an intensive study of British and American literary masterpieces. Now, however, an English Major encompasses a much broader range of topics which stretch over multiple disciplines. While the requirements for an English Major vary from university to university, most English departments emphasize three core skills: analyzing literature, a process which requires logic and reflective analysis; creativity and imagination with regard to the production of good writing; and an understanding of different cultures, civilizations, and literary styles from various time periods. The skills gained from studying English include acquiring tools that will never lose value, understanding the ever-changing media, to explain your own world, and more.[10] Prospective English Majors can expect to take college courses in academic writing, creative writing, literary theory, British and American literature, multicultural literature, several literary genres (such as poetry, drama, and film studies), and a number of elective multidisciplinary topics such as history, courses in the social sciences, and studies in a foreign language. To the end of studying these disciplines, candidates for a Major in English attain skills in professional writing with relations to rhetoric, literary analysis, an appreciation for the diversity of cultures, and an ability to clearly and persuasively express their ideas in writing.
