What Can You Do with a Major in English?

The book titled What Can You Do with a Major in English? Real People, Real Jobs, Real Rewards by Shelley O’Hara works as a guide for English majors that helps them pursue a career once they graduate. It gives helpful information such as how to conduct a job search, and how to find the different salary levels that people must look. This article would be beneficial to English majors because it helps them with those big questions of “What am I going to do once I am done?” and “How am I ever going to find a job?” This book purpose helps ease student’s minds by showing them that they are going to be able to find work, no matter how hard it is going to be. It can also serve as a guide for resources that they might not be able to find on their own. 

Overall, this resource can benefit English majors in terms of what they need to do to find the job that they really strive for, and how they will be able to acquire that job. This resource is valuable to English majors because it touches on the important aspects that one will face when finding a job in this career. For example, the book discusses topics such as: “Breaking into the Job Market with an English Degree,” and “Career Possibilities for an English Major.” (O’Hara) These chapters both discuss the different things that an English major can do, while all of the previous chapters discuss how one chooses where to go to school, what makes them pick English, etc. Throughout these chapters, there are also many specific things that someone going into this career field can use. In one chapter, O’Hara writes, “You can find a wealth of job-related sites on the internet.” (O’Hara, p.57) With this part of the chapter, she is describing the different methods and websites that you can use on the internet to look for and apply to jobs. This can be very valuable, because most English majors may have not ever looked into the complexities of the job market before.

Works Cited

O’Hara, Shelley. What Can You Do with a Major in English? Cliffs Notes, 2005. Web.

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Harvard College Writing Center

Harvard College Writing Center is a website that can be a useful tool for any person who is looking to improve writing skills and find information to help fine-tune skills they already possess. The website has free access for the public, however, it’s specifically geared towards students that are at least on the high school level, but can be helpful for many students. Their website is composed of various links that allow students to pick topics that can be useful to their academic ventures. It could also be useful for educators to give to their students to help them form proper habits when they are writing. 

The skills that the website deals with a range from how to close read to how to write a comparative essay. The website’s topics cover material that every student will use in various subjects throughout their academic careers. For example, if a student needs information about outlining, they would find the tab labeled outlining and click on it. From there they would be directed to a page with an informational article about how to make a proper outline. In this specific example, the article’s sections include a definition, first steps in the process, generalizing information, and how to put it all together. Another useful section included in the example is what a standard outline will look like. Students would struggle with outlining can find helpful information on how to structure theirs.  

Overall Harvard College Writing Center has set up a wonderful website that can be utilized to teach and guide students to strengthen their writing abilities. It can be the most useful to English students of all backgrounds as well as educators.