Majoring in English:
A Student Guide
A Warm Welcome to You!
In this guide, you’ll find helpful information on suggested timelines, campus publications, tools and literary New York. In addition, you’ll access advice on how to make the most of your time at Fordham and how to strategize job-planning for English Majors. Faculty and alums from across the country have come together to lead you on your journey.
First Things First….
Join our online community and sign up for English Connect.
Subscribe to our English Newsletter & Roundups.
Join our Friends of English LinkedIn Group.
Read this Roadmap and get connected to all things English.
Suggested Timelines
It can sometimes feel like the path from college courses to one’s dream profession is unclear for an English major or prospective English major. That’s because there are so many paths for an English major to take; the challenge is finding the right one for you. Don’t let these four years pass you by without finding what it is that you want to do. Along the way, you can gain practical knowledge and hands-on skills that will complement your English degree and make you stand out in the job market.
This is your guide to navigating your four years at Fordham as an English major in a way that will best prepare you for post-college life.
Freshman Year
Courses
Take introductory English courses: Composition II and Texts & Contexts. You’ll get a sense of whether the English major is right for you.
Explore other English and Creative Writing courses that interest you while completing the Core Curriculum.
Keep an open mind to topics of English courses you might not have considered before!
Tools/Research
Contact your dream writers, publications, and/or media companies to see if you can volunteer as a researcher or an intern. Follow all of these on social media.
Read the Advice section of this Guide.
Visit the Office of Career Services to take Workshops 1 and 2. You’ll gain practical skills, learn about job applications and professionalism as well as receive access to Fordham’s Career Link.
Research potential career paths for English majors—there are so many more possibilities than you may know of! Think about the skills you have & activities you’ve enjoyed in the past (even if they don’t seem directly connected to the English major) & explore potential intersections of careers that incorporate these!
Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived Joyful Life has some excellent advice on how to "design" your way into a life that you love. One exercise they recommend is coming up with 3 Odyssey Plans.
Once you have created your Odyssey Plans, think through the dream resume that you would like to graduate with in four years. Boom! Now you have goals and your own individualized plan to work from.
Look for dream jobs on databases like this or this. What experience and knowledge is required? Plan your time at Fordham accordingly.
Use LinkedIn and Career Services to arrange for informational interviews for advice from Fordham alums in the fields you are interested in.
Think about your passions beyond school & explore how they can inform your career paths! Try to keep an open mind & avoid feeling like you have to walk down one linear path—this is the time for you to explore & figure out the things you enjoy and do not enjoy.
Clubs/Extracurricular Activities
Join clubs and extracurricular activities that interest you. See the list of Campus Publications.
Try to find an activity to supplement your academic interests. It’s great to show that you are a multifaceted person & complement your skills—plus this can keep you grounded! Don’t wait to develop hobbies & your sense of self, this is ultimately intertwined with your academic and professional path!
Take advantage of the cultural cornucopia that is New York City. Cultivating your tastes in the arts and culture will sharpen your sense of who you are, what makes you happy, and what kind of job you will thrive in.
Work on developing your own distinctive writing style.
Submit to a campus publication!
Be willing to explore & remember that everyone else is just as nervous as you are—even if they’re not willing to show it!
Program Application
If interested, explore applying for the 3-3 Law Program. An English major is excellent preparation for law school.
Sophomore Year
Courses
Continue completing the Core Curriculum, focusing on classes and subjects that interest you.
Declare your English Major or English Major with a concentration in Creative Writing by the end of the fall semester.
Begin taking courses in the English Major in the spring semester.
Work on fulfilling one or more of the Race & Social Justice and Historical Distribution requirements.
Consider trying out courses that explore new topics or perspectives!
Tools/Research
Contact your dream writers, publications, and/or media companies to see if you can volunteer as a researcher or an intern. Follow all of these on social media.
Apply to internships through Career Services for the summer after sophomore year and the fall semester of junior year.
Compose your resume with feedback from Career Services. Have a friend or trusted upperclassman look it over too!
Commit to developing an online portfolio of work or tangible results from your extracurricular involvement. Some tools to build your online portfolio include Squarespace, Wix, and Tumblr.
Use LinkedIn and Career Services to arrange for informational interviews for advice from Fordham alums in the fields you are interested in.
Talk to upperclassmen about their career & internship experience.
Continue exploring various career paths & discovering where your genuine interest & engagement lies. Often, there are paths you discover in college that you may not have even known about before. Be open to change but intentional in your actions.
Clubs/Extracurricular Activities
Take a leadership role in publication, clubs/extracurricular activities that interest you. See the list of Campus Publications.
Continue fostering your own hobbies & interests and developing your sense of self in all spheres of your life.
Go to events on campus & in the city that you haven’t experienced before! Invite friends along & share experiences.
Program Application
If interested, apply to the Creative Writing Concentration in October of your sophomore year.
Junior Year
Courses
Take the Theory course.
Continue working towards completing your English major.
Continue completing the Race & Social Justice and Historical Distribution requirements.
Take classes outside of the English major that interest you and align with your professional goals.
Tools/Research
Contact your dream writers, publications, and/or media companies to see if you can volunteer as a researcher or an intern. Follow all of these on social media.
Polish your resume and receive feedback from Career Services. Share with a trusted friend and/or mentor.
Attend Career Fairs offered by Career Services
Use LinkedIn and Career Services to arrange for informational interviews for advice from Fordham alums in the fields you are interested in.
Search the internet for internship opportunities that you’re curious about. Apply widely and follow where your interests take you.
Begin finding a solid sense of direction/path toward your career after Fordham.
Clubs/Extracurricular Activities
Take a leadership role in publication, clubs/extracurricular activities that interest you.
Continue developing your skills & interests that tell the story of who you are as a person, student, and future professional.
Program Applications
If interested, apply to the Creative Writing Concentration in October of your junior year.
If interested, apply to the Teaching Certification or (Early Admission) English MA programs.
Senior Year
Courses
Finish up the necessary courses to complete your English major.
Take classes outside of the English major that interest you and align with your professional goals.
Take courses you might not have been exposed to before! Give yourself the opportunity to be challenged & continue to explore.
Tools/Research
Contact your dream writers, publications, and/or media companies to see if you can volunteer as a researcher or an intern. Follow all of these on social media.
Polish your resume and receive feedback from Career Services.
Attend Career Fairs offered by Career Services
Use LinkedIn and Career Services to arrange for informational interviews for advice from Fordham alums in the fields you are interested in.
Apply widely for internships related to the path you’ve begun on. Try to get a recognizable “name” on your resume experience but also be open to smaller companies/organizations.
Build & maintain relationships with people from current and previous internships.
Apply to the Fordham Mentorship Network to be matched with a mentor related to your career path.
Be proactive rather than getting overwhelmed about the future. Things will fall into place, but it’s your intentionality that will allow them to do so.
Clubs/Extracurricular Activities
Take a leadership role in publication, clubs/extracurricular activities that interest you.
Continue to develop your hobbies & activities in a way that can be sustained beyond the college environment.
Program Applications
If interested, apply to the Teaching Certification or English MA programs.
Advice
Advice from Alums
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Notes from the Field
Advice on Career Tracks
You already know that an English major or minor prepares you well for careers in teaching, publishing, the legal world, and public relations. But that’s just the beginning. These days, your degree in English can lead you to all sorts of places....
Medical Humanities:
This emerging interdisciplinary field merges literature with medicine to better understand illness narratives, bioethics, women’s health history, and cultural understandings of the body.
The medical humanities field “helps physicians, nurses, social workers, mental health professionals, chaplains, social workers, academics, and all those interested in the intersection between narrative and medicine improve the effectiveness of care by developing these skills with patients and colleagues” (Columbia University Program in Narrative Medicine).
“The humanities and arts provide insight into the human condition, suffering, personhood, and our responsibility to each other... Attention to literature and the arts helps to develop and nurture skills of observation, analysis, empathy, and self-reflection -- skills that are essential for humane healthcare. The social sciences help us to understand how bioscience and medicine take place within cultural and social contexts and how culture interacts with the individual experience of illness and the way healthcare is practiced” (NYU Langone Medical Center).
Business and Tech:
More and more businesses are looking to English majors for hires. Studies show that humanities majors demonstrate abilities that many tech and financial businesses seek in employees, including communication skills, interpersonal development, and recognizing and assessing complex situations and deals.
"The older I get, the more I realize the power of words and the power of words in making you think...The best CEOs and leaders are extremely good writers and have this ability to articulate and verbalize what they're thinking,"
– Logitech CEO Bracken Darrell.
Engineering:
“By its very nature, engineering is creative and directed to human uses...Like literature, engineering sometimes works not by satisfying recognized needs but by creating the needs it satisfies” (Chronicle of Higher Education).
MIT Professor Deborah Fitzgerald on the humanities and engineering: “The Institute’s mission is to advance knowledge and educate students who are prepared to help solve the world’s most challenging problems...But the world’s problems are never tidily confined to the laboratory or spreadsheet. From climate change to poverty to disease, the challenges of our age are unwaveringly human in nature and scale, and engineering and science issues are always embedded in broader human realities. So our students also need an in-depth understanding of human complexities — the political, cultural, and economic realities that shape our existence — as well as fluency in the powerful forms of thinking and creativity cultivated by the humanities, arts, and social sciences.”
Sources:
http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/about
http://www.narrativemedicine.org/mission.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/logitech-ceo-bracken-darrell-loves-hiring-english-majors-2013-6
http://chronicle.com/article/Building-a-Bridge-Between/235305/
Campus Publications
All CAMPUS PUBLICATIONS
ROSE HILL PUBLICATIONS
LINCOLN CENTER PUBLICATIONS
Literary New York
Find yourself,
lose yourself...
Institutions
Literary Institutions (General Listing)
Brooklyn Public Library (scroll down to Featured Events and Classes)
Book Life
Tools
Literary Community Publications
Online Portfolio Solutions
Writing Tools
The Most Dangerous Writing App Get it all out there—or else.
Ulysses Write. Anything. Anywhere.
Google Keep Save your thoughts, wherever you are.
Scrivener Your digital writing studio.
Job / Internship Databases
Getting Published
Publishing Resources
Where to send your work
Guidelines
Before submitting your work, familiarize yourself with a publication or press.
Follow the publisher’s exact directions when submitting your work. For example, word count, genres requested, etc.
Resources
Faculty Advice on Publishing
Publish where you can--for now, if you're an undergraduate, that means publish as much as you can in campus publications. And enter literary contests, even on campus. If you have a resume or web page, links to your publications can be included as can mention of any awards you win.
Here's the Poets & Writers website with lots of information about how to start sending your work out, and lots of information about journals to consider. Look for journals that are specially interested in new or young writers. Everyone (or nearly everyone) has to pay his or dues...and start somewhere.
~ Elizabeth Stone
It's important to have an agent, unless you're writing poetry. Agents act as the gate-keepers for publishers; it's almost impossible to get published in print format without a publisher. Self-publishing is, of course, a viable option, but it is very hard to be discovered by readers in the vastness of the internet. A publisher can put your books into Barnes & Noble; they can pay for advertising; they can even send you on tour. You can get an agent by writing a brisk, informative letter and pasting the entire first chapter of your novel below the signature line. Include information about your audience. Who writes books like yours? Agents are looking for "will be enjoyed by readers of Mary Higgins Clark," for example. That's how they will sell your book -- by telling editors who the audience is. ~ Mary Bly
My advice to students depends on their goals. A lot want to be published right away and with the digital tools available to us now, that can be possible. But I encourage all students to focus on their work. To put in the time and try not to think too much about the end game. I try to give the advice the has always been most difficult for me to take which is: Be patient. The work has to be great to break through and if you do what you do really well-do not follow trends-you will be rewarded.
For those anxious to work in the business I encourage trying to get internships at literary agencies, newspapers, publishing houses, literary journals, magazines, etc. But before that, one has to read. If you're going to work at a publishing house, or want to, read their list. Have an idea what you like to read and why. Be able to talk about books you love and books you don't. That's a lot of what matters in publishing: having a point of view. Whatever you do, familiarize yourself with the contemporary world of letters. Look at literary magazines. Spend time in bookstores. Become a literary citizen by going to readings and lectures.
There are countless ways to be a writer and to work in publishing. I encourage students to find the best way that works for their lives, always bearing in mind you need to carve out the time to work, no matter what. ~ Jennifer Gilmore
I write nonfiction, and my general suggestion is that you not allow your reach to exceed your grasp. Unlike fiction--where all imagination is equla, at least in theory--publishable nonfiction depends on a position of expertise. You're more likely to get a piece on Van Gogh published if you're an art historian than if you're an economist. On the other hand, expertise doesn't have to come from training: if you have a sibling who's a gymnast, you're more qualified to write about the trials of the athletic life than someone who only watches sports on tv. No matter where you get it, then, you're seeking a place of authority, which translates into a reason that people should take you seriously. That usually means writing your way up the ladder. You might want to write for The New Yorker (and who doesn't?), but in nonfiction, it's especially important to recognize the need to proceed incrementally, to climb the ladder rung by rung. ~ Lenny Cassuto
The first question to ask yourself about publishing is what you mean by the word. Do you mean: a Facebook post, a blog entry, a contribution to a Fordham literary journal, a submission to The New Yorker, a book, a newspaper article? All of these are forms of publishing with different standards for acceptance. Anyone, obviously, can post on Facebook in less than a minute. Getting published in The New Yorker or writing a book are considerably more difficult enterprises and generally take much more time. They are also taken more seriously by a larger number of people and potentially have a greater impact on the culture. So be honest with yourself: what commitment of time and effort are you willing to make and how long are you willing to wait to see something you've written in print or circulated online? How widely and deeply have you read in the area in which you'd like to publish? If you are wishing to publish in a reputable literary magazine, periodical, or with a publishing house, have you taken your manuscript through as many drafts as it might need to achieve what you have envisioned for it? Have you had your best, most trusted writing colleagues read it and give you critiques? Have you taken their critiques to heart in revision? When you have answered these questions to your own satisfaction, you are ready to think about publishing. ~ Stacey D'Erasmo
The thing I tell a writer when they ask for advice about writing is this: read. That may sound sort of basic, sort of obvious, but I started to suggest this as advice precisely because I meet so many wannabe writers who don’t actually read. Or read that much.
Read because you will only become a better writer by studying other writers. Read as a writer—that is, read for what you don’t see on the page as much as for what you do see there. Read to hear how the voice of that writer sounds in your head as much as for how the words impact your brain when you see them on the page. Read for the rhythm of the prose as much as for the sounds of the sentences. Read not just attain information, or entertainment, but to deconstruct what the writer is doing, and why she is doing it. Read so that you will have models in your head, in the databank of your imagination, so that when you encounter the blank page, you already have a wealth of ways to fill that page. Read everything: magazine articles, poems, short stories. There is narrative everywhere. And a story will, more than likely, be at the core of everything you create.
As for publishing, I stand by my reading advice, because to write for a publication is to know the voice and style and rhythms of said publication. Every publication doesn’t—and shouldn’t—sound the same. And if you want to write for that publication, if you want to pitch a story to an editor at that publication, you will need to know how the stories in that publication perform on the page. You will need to know how you can wed your voice to the tone and style of that publication, so that you create something new and viable while operating in an established context.
Before you pitch though, before you venture out into public space of publication, you have to do this: you have to write. You have to discover your voice; you have to know what your voice actually sounds like, as it transitions from your head to your fingertips to the page. You have to learn to trust that voice to translate your thoughts from that inchoate state they occupy in your brain to an engaged, engaging set of words that tell a story and impart an idea. You will only figure out your voice by putting it on the page and having a conversation with it, learning it, sharing it. Journals can be your friend.
And finally: never be married to your words. Everything you write—even as you find and after you’ve found your voice—will not be brilliant or earth-shattering good or smart or necessary to the piece you’re writing at that moment. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t still have viability, doesn’t still have usability. Remove it, but save it—always save it—as it just might generate something else later, something better, something brilliant and earth-shattering and good and smart. And necessary.
The publishing industry—books, articles, essays—depends on, relies on, voice. Make your voice yours. Editors look for writers who can tell a story in a unique way, in a unique style, which engages readers as it informs them. Make your voice shine. ~ Scott Poulson-Bryant
After Graduation
NYC Resources
Writing Workshops
Many independent writing and literary centers in New York City offer high-quality workshops in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and all things written creatively. Here is a selection of the best ones we know.
New York is also home to many colleges and universities, including The New School, New York University, Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, and others. Many if not all of these offer creative writing workshops through their schools of continuing education.
And, you could always START YOUR OWN WRITING GROUP. It’s friendly, it’s free, and many writers have found deeply sustaining community and productivity in writing groups.
Info for Grants / Job Opportunities for Writers/Artists
Considering an MFA in Creative Writing?
We do strongly recommend that you do not pay for an MFA program. Here’s a list of fully-funded MFA programs. There are many of these now, and many are not only full-tuition rides, but also come with stipends. Funding changes from year to year. So, also make sure to conduct your own search for fully funded MFA programs.
Why Get an MFA, NYTimes
Tuition, Debt, and Graduate Creative Writing Programs, Inside Higher Ed
Also check out the website of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs and the MFA page on Poets & Writers, which are packed with information not only about writing programs, but also about all things related to the writing life.
Ready to apply? An excellent tool is Interfolio, a dossier service to which you upload all your materials and from which you can then send them out as needed to meet your various deadlines. A particularly important feature of Interfolio is the fact that your recommenders also upload their recommendations once there, and you can send them out when you need them. It works better for all concerned.
A word of advice on recommendations: Make sure to ask professor/mentors who know you deeply as student and writer or else they will not be able to write you a strong recommendation. A rule of thumb is to select a professor/mentor who has known you and your writing at least one year. The fall is recommendation season, when professors/mentors are likely being flooded with requests for recommendations. As much as they may like you and admire your writing, any recommender needs at least 30 days notice that you need a recommendation. Also, that request should come with a link to Interfolio, any pertinent information about the program(s) to which you’re applying, and a recent writing sample, especially if it’s been several years since you were in that professor or mentor’s company.