Alumni Succeed Along Various Career Paths
English/Writing Club Activities and Events
High school English classes might cover a range of activities from plays to creative writing, and styles from exciting to sleep-inducing. Whatever they are, they're mostly required, so you might not think about English as a college major or preparation for life and career. How does it occur to someone to study English in college, then?
Here's a likely scenario: you've looked around in high school, and many of the subjects interested you. You may have aced a chemistry class that bothered everyone else, or become a first-rate computer master, or devoured your last history course. You feel that you can do or become anything you want, so it's off to college and a great future.
Here's another: you laid back a little in high school, maybe sang in the choir, acted in a play, wrote creatively now and then, and wondered what all the fuss was. Why was everyone so concerned with high school, when you (and a few friends) knew there wasn't much to it? Nevertheless, you kept up your secret vice, reading . Your teachers might never have guessed it, or maybe they wondered when you'd make a passing reference to Kurt Vonnegut or Toni Morrison. You feel obliged to go to college just to exercise your curiosity, pursue your vice in a less hostile climate, and find out whether anyone speaks your language.
If either of those fits you -- or neither one does but the company sounds good -- you're a prime candidate for study of English and writing. What do we do in college English? More than anything else, we share. We read and write and talk and laugh and become passionate and reflect. And we listen to our elders, the great voices that (thank God) have been preserved through literature. In some deep way, we even become them as we read, slightly more observant and thoughtful with each new encounter; and we rejoice that people still talk, read, write and live at a level above Wheel of Fortune.
Obviously it's not all fun and games. English students work hard at reading and writing, and our minds are stretched "like gold to airy thinness beat" by the greatness of what we try to encompass and achieve. The results are difficult to describe briefly, but being in English finally has to do with joy; with articulateness; with long thought; with a sense of adventure in being human; with compassion; with truth in all its voices; and with defining oneself and the genuinely good society.
Or, glorious talk aside, maybe you're just crazy about good books and/or putting your best words on paper, and you hear we've got a running conversation going. You hear right; come and join us.
The college says that you must declare a major before completing your sophomore year. One procedure is common to all majors: to fill out an APPLICATION FOR DECLARATION OF MAJOR form, available from the department chairperson. The English department likes to make that a pleasant, casual occasion, with some talk about your decision (and excellent taste). Except for students entering education, you usually have your choice of advisor in the department. Tell your former advisor of the change so that your folder is transferred. You'll be given some useful scheduling tools by your advisor, and you and s/he will frequently explore options. You'll also learn about typical course sequences and major requirements, so that you can get a long-term perspective of your schedule to graduation. With any luck, you'll have more questions than anyone can answer quickly, but share them with your advisor all the same.
Completing the major may look like a jungle safari at first, but we haven't lost anyone yet. Declaring the major is just the beginning, of course; in the process of completing the major, you'll also meet the all-college writing competency graduation requirement, administered by each department. For English, IR 1 (Analyzing Poetry) is the site for assessing juniors' writing skills and responding as needed, and ENGL 460 (Senior Seminar) is the senior-level site. An English major is finally a fascinating experience, one that can make you look forward to class. It will cover great stretches of history and great volumes of reading, but think of it as being like the way you can eat an elephant: one bite at a time.
Someday someone is going to ask you what you can do with an English major and you're going to wish you had a ready- made answer: Butcher, baker, candlestick maker, doctor, lawyer, Indian chief. You may be better prepared for this question if you begin to think of the major as developing in you a number of career competencies. Combined in the right ways, these career assets will prepare you to enter and excel in any number of professions. Here are some of the many capabilities the English major will develop in you and (in bold) the words you can use to talk about these skills to a prospective employer. Because of your training in reading literary texts, you will have some valuable skills:
~ -- interpretation : grasp what another person is saying, even when the message is phrased in difficult or obscure language
~ -- perception , insight : look beneath the surface to understand motivation, implicit messages, unstated intentions
~ -- analysis : see a general situation in terms of its specific parts
~ -- reading, decoding : handle large volumes of information and locate and clarify important passages
~ -- reporting, summarizing, mediation : restate to someone else their own position or state the position of another without distortion or omission of important details.
~ -- human relations, empathy : listen and observe perceptively and actively; accept differences constructively and humanely
~ -- synthesis : understand things in terms of their larger contexts and discern overall patterns
Because of your training in writing, you will be able to
~ -- communicate clearly and effectively
~ -- research by determining when information is needed and where to find that information ~ -- create ideas, scenarios, scripts, documents
~ -- analyze and organize material through classification and analysis
~ -- diagnose problems with communications and their values in human relationships
~ -- place in context and evaluate details as they relate to broader and more general issues
~ -- negotiate and mediate by examining several sides of an issue and seeking the optimum outcome
~ -- argue and persuade by backing up opinions and ideas with evidence, testimony and reasoning
~ -- make decisions about what is important or useful, or how to conduct a process or solve a problem
~ -- promote and market by becoming aware of an audience and tailoring a message or product to that audience
~ -- edit to improve the structure, style and correctness of written work, and consult in helping others do so
Experience with tutoring in the writing lab, active involvement in the English Club, work on publications (like The Briar Cliff Review or Cliff News )and other activities may develop other skills such as organizing, managing, leadership and diplomacy. In the end, it is not your specific answer to the question "what can you do with an English major?" is not as important as your self- concept. Through the major you can become a person of ability and experience who has developed talents that the world needs -- and is willing to pay for.
What you do now will, to some extent, determine what you become when you leave Briar Cliff. Each activity you do, however small it may seem now , makes a statement about your values -- and it may also develop a talent you will use later. Usually, the kinds of activities you choose will depend upon your personal inclination, your ambitions, and your abilities; but most important is that you DO SOMETHING. Here are some suggestions:
~ attend conferences of professional associations ~ read widely -- general-interest publications and those in career fields ~ learn and use the college's and the city's VALUABLE information and career resources ~ investigate local employers whose businesses are like those you might want to work for ~ join a worthwhile organization and ~ run for an office ~ put out a newsletter ~ do publicity ~ work on one of the college publications ~ learn to use technology related to likely careers -- World Wide Web, word processing, educational media, etc ~ take a work study job that dovetails with your major ~ (library or admissions, etc.) ~ do tutoring on- or off-campus ~ do volunteer work (political campaigns, Boy/Girl Scouts, March of Dimes, Soup Kitchen, etc.) ~ become active in your church ~ enter writing contests ~ apply for scholarships ~ take an internship
Keep a detailed record of what you do, and don't be bashful about using it when you write your resume and take an interview.
It doesn't matter that your prospective job has nothing to do with the volunteer work you did with the Scouts.
What matters is that you are (and therefore appear to an employer to be) an energetic, self-motivated, committed person who can learn and perform in the workplace.
These departmental pages were designed by Mary Corbin, '97 graduate, and are maintained by Jim Redmond(redmondj@briarcliff.edu)