Careers

Honors Options in English

The English department offers a degree with Honors in English to qualified students who complete a substantial project in literary or rhetorical criticism or creative writing. Students must have at least a 3.50 GPA in English courses and a 3.30 GPA overall. Candidates must fulfill the following requirements:

  • Enroll in ENGL 498H and/or ENGL 499H and receive an “A” on the honors thesis. The paper should display originality and sophistication of thought, as well as stylistic excellence.
  • Successfully defend the thesis at an open colloquium. Although anyone from the academic community may attend the colloquium, the student meets primarily with a committee of readers who will decide whether to award honors. The committee is composed of the project director, a second reader from the English department, and the chair of the department. The colloquium is usually held during the week of final exams.

The Washington Experience: Fisher Semester in Washington

English majors may avail themselves of The Washington Experience, a semester in Washington, D.C. Please refer to The Washington Experience for details.

What English Majors Do After Graduation

English majors will be prepared for careers in a number of fields. English majors from St. John Fisher College are currently employed in advertising, public relations, fundraising and grant writing, publishing, law, technical writing, public administration, and teaching. The work an English major does in his or her courses builds many valuable skills that the student can offer prospective employers, such as:

  • Clear, correct, and forceful writing.
  • Careful, analytical thinking and a creative approach to problem-solving.
  • Research and organizational skills, such as knowing how to find information, how to separate relevant from irrelevant facts and issues, how to synthesize material from varied sources, and how to organize and present material to particular audiences with different expertise and interests.
  • The ability to learn new information quickly and to adapt to it, a flexibility that is very important in a working world where technical training is apt to become obsolete in three to five years and where most people change careers several times.