Major Exploration Project

Final Podcast

Framing Statement

The major exploration project is a deep dive into a specific major. Being an English major, I interviewed both an English professor, and a senior English student. With the conversations I had with them, I created a podcast to pull all the information together to make an informative episode discussing the English major at UNE.

Scavenger Hunt

The anticipated learning outcomes of the English major at UNE revolves a lot around understanding literature. There is an expectation to be able to look at a text, understand what it’s about, and then connect it to other things. It’s important that English majors become capable of analyzing texts from an editorial or critical standpoint rather than just reading for recreation. Beyond that, creating a well formulated analysis of the literature we experience is an expectation as well. 
Given the world we live in with so much technology, the English major allows a bit of a break from that. Using actual writing pieces as a source of analysis or even an example for our own writing keeps literature pretty alive. English majors, being relatively uncommon, will have the capability to communicate better than many of their peers in many forms of discussion. With this skill, English majors can work in many different fields, doing many different things.
The goal of the English major at UNE is to equip students with plenty of tools they can use in their lives after college. Learning how to think and understand literature are the primary focus, as you need these to be able to do the fun part, writing! Thinking is just a baby step to learn how to write effectively, and both are taught through the English major. With the ability to access resources as well, English majors will have all the tools they need to succeed. 
Michael Cripps is the director of the School of Arts and Humanities! Knowing how much experience he has, and how involved he is with the UNE English major, he would definitely be interesting to interview. There is also an assistant director named Andrew Rotondo, who I’ve yet to meet. These two would be the most helpful to speak if questions are raised about the major, but it would also be interesting to hear about their journey among English as a whole.

Careers Examination

1: After looking at Table 2, I found it interesting that as of 2023, only 2 percent of English degree holders become editors and writers/authors. The reason these stats catch my attention is because my goal is to become an editor, with a side job of book writing. Considering these are the fields I want to enter, it was a little bit disheartening to see such a low percentage. However, knowing how many English majors there must be in total, this could still mean a decent amount of people are working these jobs. 

2: After looking at Chart 2, I find it interesting to see how the employment distribution of workers with an English degree mostly leaned towards those in educational fields. I find this a little confusing knowing how teaching is seen as a pretty poor paying job. I do see how it could be the highest percentage, as there are so many teachers in the world, but it’s interesting to know most people choose education. 

3: Chart 1 had me wondering why such a few percentage of English majors focused on composition and rhetoric. Though there is a wide variety of what could fit under each category, I would have thought that there would be a more even divide between that and English Language and Literature. However it did not surprise me to see that 100% of English majors focused on one of these two, considering there really aren’t any other options.

Faculty Interview

The faculty member that I chose for this project was Jesse Miller! He had a lot of good information to pass along and provided a pretty hefty, useful interview..

  • The English major is one where you may have to face many fears, as there is a lot of connections with the public and your peers
  • There are so many career paths English majors can follow after graduation, there are more jobs than people realize that need a good writer
  • The learning outcomes can look different for everyone! Professors expect and hope that students will have individual takeaways depending on their focus

Student Interview

The student I chose to interview was Liz Huggins! She had an interesting viewpoint considering her double major and minor, and her major switch!

  • The English major is a tight nit community and people will want to help you every step of the way
  • The classes you can take is very vast, and you can really choose your own path compared to so many other majors
  • There are plenty of resources you can use both in the school and online, and you should use them to your advantage