Being an English major may be one of the most complicated majors to explain. Studying English is one of the most broad studies you can have because there is so much to learn. When you say your major to friends and family, you might get a lot of confused glances or comments such as, “What do you plan to do? Wow, you must like reading! Wow, you must really hate math!” While some of this may be true, I am personally terrible at math, certainly it is not the case for all English majors. If you choose English as your major, it is not as much reading other people’s stories, but creating your own.
Before I begin trying to debunk English major stereotypes, I will confirm one: it is a lot of reading and writing. On average this past year, I probably read about a book a week and most of the time I was reading multiple books at once. In addition, most of the time I had a paper due for a class almost every two weeks. If you are considering English as your major, you have to really love reading and writing to enjoy what you are doing.
With this still being true, sometimes you do not write simply a paper. Many classes, like in AL 110 which you will take your first year, allow students to create videos and presentations in addition to other forms of writing. It allows you to be more creative and expand beyond what you may have always been taught writing is. The same can be said for literature. In high school, you may have only read books from at least 50 years ago, whereas in many of my classes we read very modern books and even comic books. In my ENG 210 class, we read The Picture of Dorian Grey, which is a classic, but also books like Lying and Close to The Knives, which are both very modern.
One of the great things about studying English is it opens your eyes to a new world around you. Professors are very good at choosing great books by authors you’ve never heard of. Also, Michigan State has a great set of classes that you are required to take, for example a Diversity Literature class. These can include Women’s literature, African American literature, and Latino literature. This will allow you to see topics from a new perspective outside of your own, and allow you to read more diverse authors than you ever had before. Through my experience with even classes outside of this, I understand more about different cultures that I was not raised in and I hear more voices that are typically not heard by a mainstream audience.
Finally, when you think of English majors, you probably think of authors and teachers, but in reality people who go into English go into a variety of careers. According to Business Insider, Bustle, and Buzzfeed, Steven Speilberg (director of Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Jaws, and much more), Micheal Isner (former CEO of Disney), Sally Ride (astronaut), and Emma Watson (actress), all have English majors. At Michigan State, you can have an English major and add additions onto it, such as education, pop culture, and creative writing. Each have their own specific classes to take to enhance your major.
Being an English major is like having a choose your own adventure novel in real life. You can take so many paths beyond what some may think English majors do. If you wanted to be an English major, I would tell you to go for it, because you are not trapped in a box of what you can do. Through being an English major, the world is literally an open book.