What Can I Do With an English Degree?

We hear often from students who are frustrated by having had to respond, yet again, in conversations with peers, friends, or family members, to the question: “English! What are you gonna do with that major?” Our answer: More than you might think!

As a department with an alumni community that includes doctors, lawyers, tech and media entrepreneurs, business professionals, successful fundraisers, executive editors, and internationally renowned authors (R.L. Stine, for example), we know exactly how skilled and how valuable our English majors are to the communities, technologies, and workplaces of the twenty-first century. Indeed, we agree wholeheartedly with the late Steve Jobs’s assessment that “technology alone is not enough–it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”

The Skills You’ll Get

Having spent much of their undergraduate careers analyzing the arguments and perspectives of some of our most important writers, thinkers, and leaders–William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Frederick Douglass, Edith Wharton, William Faulkner, George Orwell, Martin Luther King Jr., Audre Lorde, Octavia Butler, Salman Rushdie, Sandra Cisernos, Junot Diaz, and Toni Morrison, to name just a few–English majors are well prepared to think critically about our most pressing social, political, economic, and environmental challenges. Coursework centers around small- and large-group discussions, the analysis of others’ ideas and viewpoints, and the preparation of written arguments and in-person presentations.

Coursework in the English major also encourages students to value and draw on their creativity. In addition to traditional essay and writing assignments, our faculty regularly invite students to express themselves through artistic productions as well as multimedia presentations. Students in our courses write television scripts and screenplays. They draft blog posts and film reviews. They write poems, novels, and short stories. They make short films. They prepare technical reports and grant proposals. They develop social media campaigns and public service announcements. They conduct archival research and in-person interviews. In short, our students are constantly called upon to exercise their creativity–to think, write, strategize, and communicate “outside the box.”

The World Needs You

A degree in English Studies is more than a familiarity with world literature and analytical essay writing. Our students are critical, creative thinkers, skilled communicators in both written and spoken contexts, and adept at analyzing people and situations from all angles and viewpoints. With an English degree, students can pursue a career in education or writing, but they can also do so much more: every field needs good writers and good communicators, flexible and analytical thinkers, and creative personalities. An education in English Studies at the Ohio State University gives students all of these tools and more, preparing them for careers in any field.

Further Reading

Don’t take our word for it! Ask the world:

• “World’s Top Economists Agree: We Need More English Majors”
• “Why ‘Worthless’ Humanities Degrees May Set You Up for Life”
• “The Best Argument for Studying English? The Employment Numbers”
• “Surprise: Humanities Degrees Provide Great Return on Investment”
• “Why A Liberal Arts Education Matters”
• “The Ideal English Major”
• “Why English Majors Are the Hot New Hires”
• “Graduates Weigh In: What is the Value of a Humanities Degree”
• “16 Wildly Succesful People Who Majored in English”
• “Relax English Majors. You’re Still Plenty Employable”

Need more convincing? Check out just a few of the job titles and transferable skills English majors can obtain below!

Career Areas/Job Titles

Transferable Skills

Professional Links

American Library Association
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Association of Writers & Writing Programs
Modern Language Association
National Council of Teachers of English
Society for Technical Communication