To write or not to write: What to do with an English Literature degree?

What do you want to do in the future? is a daunting question for every student, but an especially prickly subject for English Literature students. Unsurprisingly, ‘recite lines of Shakespeare’ or ‘analyse character identity’ aren’t job requirements for many fields of work. English students’ brains are filled with anachronisms, metaphors, and the horrific scene in Orwell’s 1984 where Winston is tortured by rats. This interrogation process of our future is further complicated with the follow-up question: “Do you want to go into journalism in the future?”  

Now, I never thought I’d ‘get into’ journalism; it seemed a scary concept, and one that I was not ready for. Yet here I am, about to start my second year at Warwick, and 6 months into writing for the student newspaper. 

Being a journalist is a title that covers a dynamic variety of roles

As I’ve learned in the past year, there is so much more to journalism than ‘the news’. Being a journalist is a title that covers a dynamic variety of roles. As stereotypical as it sounds, studying an English Literature degree does provide you with the best outlook to write for a newspaper. We can edit, proofread, and edit again (which us humanities students are aware of painstakingly well). We know how to write for an audience, and to tailor our writing voice. You can write about popular culture, lifestyle, media… the list goes on. This one goes out to anyone who thought they weren’t interested in journalism, like me a few years ago, just go for it! Absolutely write for The Boar and get involved, and maybe one day your name could be printed in this paper.  

This critical literary eye means you could write for magazines or curate interviews. BBC film critic Ali Plumb, well known for his celebrity interviews, studied an English Literature degree (and wrote for The Boar) at Warwick. In an interview with the university, he advised that “the idea that you have to know who you are straight away, just don’t do it.” You don’t have to know what you want to be after graduation, but you can get a good idea during your time at Warwick.  

If you prefer to be creative rather than critical, a career as a writer is highly popular role with an English Literature degree. It could even get you into the door of the showbiz industry. With a little inspiration, Literature students can write all sorts of plotlines that fill scripts for tv series and feature films alike. After all, Warwick’s very own have gone on to captivate audiences for years.  Stephen Merchant, co-writer and co-director for the iconic British TV series The Office is Warwick alumni, having studied Film and Literature on this very campus. Ruth Jones, writer and star of hit BBC series Gavin and Stacey, also once walked this campus, studying Drama and Theatre Studies.  

The business side of the literary industry is one that attracts many Literature students. So, if you’re a genius at literary analysis or can’t get enough of reading, a role as an editorial assistant at a publishing house could be perfect for you. In the UK, this includes the big five publishing houses: Penguin Random House, Hachette UK, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster.  

I strongly believe that if you can write… you have the capacity for creativity

Inevitably, there are concerns about how careers in writing will progress in future, with the rise of AI. I strongly believe that if you can write – and as Literature students we do thousands of words of writing – you have the capacity for creativity. In short, you have a powerful, unique skill that can’t be replicated. It is this skill which can provide you with access to a wide range of industries. Having an English Literature degree, especially one from Warwick, means that you can go out into the world with a variety of options.  

As Malvolio says in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, “some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them”. We can’t all expect to have greatness thrust upon us, but there is a high possibility that we can achieve it ourselves.