Flex Those Fingers: Writing for a Living
You clicked on my link, that’s great. If you’re reading this chances are you’re at least a little bit interested in writing for a living. With the average attention span shrinking a traditional career in writing is becoming more and more difficult to live off of. With a little bit of hard work you could be in a cushy and stimulating field. Do I still have your attention? Fantastic, that’s the kind of can do attitude I like to see. The good news is we live in a great age for professional writing. With a 91% employment rate after graduation for people in the liberal arts program, things are looking up. For all those English Majors out there, you won’t be destined to be a teacher. Speech writing is a very rewarding job, like $78,000 median salary rewarding. Type away and let someone else get stage fright while you lay back and count all the money you’re bringing in. Even more impressive is the $88,000 median salary you can be making as a communication manager. If you’re an English major you’ve perfected getting ideas across, don’t you want a fat paycheck for it? Maybe that doesn’t appeal to you, no problem the list goes on. A little knowledge in web design will go a long way, especially as a web content manager. $79,000 median salary means that your 30-year earnings are $4,700,000. Yeah, you read that right. You can stop drooling over the thought of that in your bank account and get to writing. “Well Jake if I switch to an English major all of my current major courses will be for nothing.” Picking up a minor in English can be just as lucrative, the jobs I mentioned so far can all be reached with a minor in English.
For more information about these exciting new offerings in Professional Writing at UIC, students and faculty can
contact Jennifer J. Rupert, Program Coordinator of Undergraduate Studies in English at [email protected]. Or you can contact Dr. Margena A. Christian, the course instructor for English 381 and 383.
Jacob Annett is a junior at the University of Illinois at Chicago
For more information about these exciting new offerings in Professional Writing at UIC, students and faculty can
contact Jennifer J. Rupert, Program Coordinator of Undergraduate Studies in English at [email protected]. Or you can contact Dr. Margena A. Christian, the course instructor for English 381 and 383.
Jacob Annett is a junior at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Professional Writing at UICProfessional writing is quickly becoming one of the most lucrative fields for English majors. As a result the demand for courses teaching these invaluable skills are in high demand. Thanks to the effort of Dr. Lisa A. Freeman and the English department at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), students will have the opportunity to prepare for the career options available in professional writing.
The successor to Dr. Walter Benn Michaels, Dr. Freeman is breaking ground in more than one way. Come January 2017 Dr. Freeman will be the first ever female head of the UIC English department. Dr. Freeman has laid the foundation for the new professional writing concentration for UIC English majors. Dr. Freeman came up with the idea for the concentration when speaking to the internship directors at UIC, “Who were complaining about interns not being prepared so they should add a course.” However Dr. Freeman thought “why add one course? Let’s make a whole program.” -Dr. Freeman If you are interested in taking courses in the professional writing field, the University of Illinois at Chicago currently offers four classes you can take. English 381, Advanced Professional Writing English 382, Editing and Publishing English 383, Writing for Digital and New Media English 384, Technical Writing |
Looking for more information on careers with an English degree? Click those buttons up there.
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In the picture above, Dr. Lisa A. Freeman head of the University of Illinois English department. Picture supplied by Dr. Margena A. Christian.