writing

English majors are naturally qualified for positions in writing. Some universities offer undergraduate tracks, minors, and concentrations in specialized areas of writing such as composition and technical writing. Graduate degrees are offered in such specialized areas as creative writing, journalism, and science writing. There are many potential careers in writing for English majors, in such areas as:

Journalism
Creative Writing
Copywriting
Technical Writing
Science Writing
Freelance Writing
Grant Writing

You might consider finding an internship in journalism. Newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations take English interns, and allow them to perform tasks varying from clerical work, editing, writing, and actually reporting. Submitting freelance articles, columns, and reviews is a good way to gain a reputation and increase your chances of earning a living wage.

Creative writing is probably one of the hardest ways to make a living, but earning a living wage is not impossible. Publishing and education are good ways to make supplementary income; you might work for a literary magazine or teach writing. You can get a start by publishing in periodicals; by doing so, you build a reputation that can make you more marketable to book publishers and agents. When submitting full-length manuscripts for publication, you will want to submit by various means such as sending out the book yourself, through a literary agent, and to first-time author contests. A few universities, such as University of Wisconsin at Madison, offer postgraduate fellowships that give authors time to write, publicity, and teaching experience. Some authors make a substantial income by applying for artist grants through independently, locally, state, and nationally sponsored agencies.

English majors, especially those concentrating in writing and creative writing, could consider a job as a copywriter. Copywriting promotes a person, product, business, or idea. As a copywriter, you create headlines, direct mail, slogans, commercial scripts, and press releases. Recently, websites have hired specific types of copywriters that promote the traffic on the site by incorporating the appropriate searchwords; this has been termed content writing. Many writers work as freelancers, but companies also hire writers for full-time positions.

Being a technical writer usually consists of writing documents such as how-to or user guides, online help, and white papers. If you are interested in jobs in technical writing you should be a well-rounded student who has an ability to communicate and write clearly; you may also consider double-majoring in a field such as science, computer science, medicine, or engineering.

While a background in the field of science is a necessity in science writing, employers are looking for writers as opposed to scientists. In the field of science writing, you can either be a science journalist or a science public information officer. Science journalists mainly work for newspapers, book publishers, and other news outlets and write for the general public, but you can also write for the scientific community. Science public information officers write for the scientific community at universities, research foundations, and museums. Journalists and public information officers often work with one another; the public information officers sometimes analyze and provide research for journalists. There are many graduate programs that train writers specifically in the field, but some writers start out as regular journalists and cross over into the field. A resume outlining a journalism or writing background and a portfolio of science writing is a necessity at job interviews, as there are significantly fewer internship opportunities in this field.