Category: Volume 2 Issue 1

Undecided English major? Pick Professional Writing

By Haley Townsend

The English major is flexible and open to countless career possibilities because of the lack of focus on a specific trade or profession.

Literature is lovely, and exercises the mind by transporting you to other worlds while the study of literature enables you to form arguments, perform research, and write competently. However, the storied openness of English often leaves students with uncertainty. Unless you see the career pathway to teaching or professorship laid out in yellow brick before you, you are probably a little worried about the ever looming graduation with your degree: Bachelor of Arts in English.

While English as a major provides a foundation for future career endeavors, a concentration can make all the difference in job preparedness. Professional writing: A concentration often misunderstood. You may think, well I write as an English major all the time, how could professional writing help me? Well, professional writing teaches skills for numerous jobs–jobs that you might actually want to do, that you may even find fun!

In the words of Tim Lemire, (author of I’m an English Major–Now What?) “a real job [is] any job that pays you a livable wage for doing something that you would do even if you weren’t paid to do it.” Well gosh golly gee, that’s some great advice. But now what? Now, you start asking the hard (actually not so hard!) questions. First:What do you enjoy? Second: What are your hobbies? Third: If you had a week off from school, jobs, and all other obligations, what would you do?

Many English majors, myself included, would love to take that time to write and read for enjoyment. How long has it been since I had time to curl up with a good book that wasn’t assigned? f your answer is anything like mine, follow up with: What would you write? What would you read?

The concentration of professional writing has given me the ability to explore courses that I never would have dreamed of taking in my former major of business management. I’m still a business minor, but that openness of the English major was so enticing to my creative side. The professional writing program taught me trade-specific skills that I would have missed had I not switched my concentration from literature to professional writing.

Thanks to the professional writing concentration, I am able to assist with design choices at my job. I am able to put on my resume that I am familiar with Adobe Creative Suite, software normally inaccessible to students on a budget. One day soon, when I am applying for jobs where I can create advertising copy, or strategize communications for corporations, I will be able to list the numerous skills that professional writing courses have taught me.

For me, copywriting might be the ideal marriage of my interests. But while this career is perfect for me, it isn’t the end-all be-all of job opportunities for English majors who major in professional writing. Everywhere you look, there is written content. Digital or printed, these words are written by someone who understands how to reach and speak to the masses through written word.

The English major allows its students to find jobs across many varying fields, industries, and professions. English majors can produce well written, audience specific content, and this role is called a content writer. Aspiring content writers need to develop a wide portfolio of clips that are non-academic. There are many websites that hire freelance content writers. This is a career to consider if you have a wide range of interests and knowledge, enjoy researching new topics, meeting deadlines, and writing a lot.

Business writing, or corporate communications, is a career field that calls for skills cultivated in professional writing. Communications from a corporation can be anything from a Tweet, to a new product line, to a press conference. Directors of communication have to consider stakeholders, tone, style, inherent values, mission, and brand identity of the corporation when composing messages that convey thought of all of these variables in a market friendly package. This career path can be high-stakes, and can be pursued through communications internships that may start with social media accounts and grow into much more.

The openness of the English major can be a blessing and a curse. The concentration of professional writing and the many minors offered in a variety of disciplines can strengthen an English major’s resume, opening a wealth of job opportunities that can be, as Lemire says, a real job.

The Implications of Evolving Literacy Standards

By Andrew Atchison

Before the dawn of the computer, literacy was measured by a person’s ability to read. Over the years, however, technology has advanced so greatly and became so intertwined with education, professions, and social life that the quality of being literate not only includes reading abilities, but also the ability to manipulate technology to gain information. Increasing digital literacy involves learning about the new technologies available in order to use them to gain knowledge. In the past, high schools and colleges offered courses designed to introduce the students to information technology, but in modern times, it is expected of most students to have a wide variety of knowledge in the technological field before they enroll in classes. According to the Alabama Association of School Librarians, “The degree to which students can read and understand text in all formats (e.g., picture, video, print) and all contexts is a key indicator of success in school and in life” (http://www.ala.org/aasl/standards-guidelines/learning-standards). It seems as if the standard to be successful has evolved as well.

Some good…

With such an advancement in the area of information technology, most students and professionals alike have seen a significant reduction in the complexity of their respective work. With the click of a mouse, the internet opens the door to what seems like an infinite amount of knowledge just waiting to be read. In the Professional Writing community, the once daunting tasks of finding, viewing, and citing sources for academic work have been made dramatically easier and less time consuming. Sites like “citationmachine.com” and “knightcite.com” have made the once tedious task of writing citations a breeze. Now, all you have to do is type in the necessary information and the website places all of the punctuation marks where they are supposed to be.

Some not so good…

It seems as if the change in literacy standards has worked out for the best, but still, we must think of the older population and those who are in a lower socioeconomic class. While the use of computers and the internet is relatively wide spread, there are still some that have no desire to learn how to use them, the older population in particular. Does this make them illiterate? In a traditional sense, not if they have the ability to read, but in the mindset of the Information Age, they are illiterate. If there is no reason for one to use the latest and greatest technology in their daily lives, then why learn about it? Conforming to the societal standard of literacy is of no use to a retiree who spends his or her time fishing, golfing, or relaxing. Even though it is expected for students to have and use technology on a regular basis, those who are less fortunate see internet as a luxury. The problem in society used to be educating children to read, but that problem has been almost eradicated with the expansion of the educational system. Now, the problem is poverty and internet accessibility. Cheap, reliable internet access is not available in all areas.

Are the advancements in technology helping us or not?

Although the internet contains a vast amount of educational information, are people actually using it for educational purposes? Someone once told me that all the internet is good for is sharing pictures of cute cats. Even with the wide range of information available, it seems that most find the internet to be a source of entertainment rather than knowledge. Since smartphones have gained popularity, owners have had infinite knowledge at their fingertips, but smartphones are mainly used for sharing pictures of cute cats. Social websites, created for connecting with friends, are more often used for this purpose. One must question whether social media is truly social. Some find it easier to socialize online rather than in person, but is it really socializing if not in a physical setting? The implications of technology’s rapid advancement are numerous but not always in its favor. With the creation of websites like “citationmachine.com,” is the academic population losing its ability to manually cite sources? Maybe. Why does one need to know where all the correct punctuation marks in a citation go if there is a website that generates the citation for us? As long as there is a citation generator, that particular knowledge is not necessary. Society is losing its ability to go to the library and manually research information. While technology has made academic lives dramatically easier, it has also dumbed them down quite a bit. With the use of technology, we must be careful not to lose the ability to do work manually.

Birmingham Creative Round Table

There’s creative writing, there’s professional writing—then there come along opportunities to blend the two. Every professional writer dreams of doing the best work, getting ahead in the industry, or bursting onto the scene with fresh innovations and a sense of personal style, but the Birmingham professional might be wondering: “Where can I get the support I need to bounce off ideas and connect with other aspiring go-getters in this little metropolitan area?” The answer is closer to home than you think, and only takes an hour out of your monthly time.

The Birmingham Creative Round Table is a blossoming meeting group of professionals, creatives, entrepreneurs, and even bloggers that come together once a month to discuss ways of cultivating new ideas for the business and professional world. The coffee is local, the pastries are fresh, and the faces are friendly. Each month, the Birmingham Creative Round Table brings together those who want to thrive in today’s workforce, seeking to uplift those who might be struggling creatively and to energize ideas that might have run dry. An hour-long meeting with a guest speaker specially chosen from the creative and professional spheres sparks intriguing conversations in an informal setting, where guests can ask questions they may be too apprehensive to email to an employer. The concept of networking is not lost at the Round Table. In fact, it is encouraged, and there is no better way to step out of the box and shake a future employer’s hand than with face-to-face interaction and guidance from professionals who want to broaden their industries as well.

The budding professional writer might ask “Do I fit into to this creative group?” The Birmingham Creative Round Table is meant not only for analysts, designers, creative directors, and local brick-and-mortar managers, but writers of all styles and inspirations. In fact, professional writers should flock to these monthly meetings; there is no better way to make your writing stand out in the world than to surround yourself with positive industry feedback and ideas. Copywriters from local advertising agencies and rhetorical designers that work with local businesses congregate there frequently. A hopeful professional writer may find themselves swamped with competition to fulfill the duties of a strictly safe document designer and provide the best examples of a creative craft in order to garner clients and gain company attention. The Creative Round Table is a perfect safe space to hone one’s abilities and designs while getting a sense of what it means to be a professional writer from people who live and breathe the industry.