felis_ultharus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
felis_ultharus) wrote2007-04-12 05:36 pm
felis_ultharus) wrote2007-04-12 05:36 pm
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What can you do with an MA in English?
Well, it turns out I passed my exam, so I have all my requirements for my Master's degree.
This means I've completed all my requirements to get my Master's in English.
This means I'm (not-yet-officially) a Master of English. So eat your hearts out, all you peons of English!
Of course, the inability to do anything with an MA in English is proverbial. Can't teach it in high school without an Education degree. Can't teach it overseas without a TESL degree. Can't teach it university without a PhD.
But it's not entirely useless. It can be used to smack people over the head with when they disagree with me about the interpretation of a novel. Then I can say, "Do you have an MA in English?"
I can attend seminars on endangered and extinct languages, and the troubles some languages face against the onslaught of English -- and wave it around, yelling, "Woo hoo! We're number one!"
I believe it also gives me the right to have people who misuse the word "ironic" executed. We have a secret English ninja deathsquad for that.
So it's really not all that useless after all.
Of course, the best use is making people squirm. Even before I got it, saying, "I'm doing my Master's in English Lit" made 90% of the people I told it to either a) list all the books they read recently, to prove they read, or b) offer their excuses and apologies as to why they weren't reading as much as they should. We make people as nervous as priests once did!
This means I've completed all my requirements to get my Master's in English.
This means I'm (not-yet-officially) a Master of English. So eat your hearts out, all you peons of English!
Of course, the inability to do anything with an MA in English is proverbial. Can't teach it in high school without an Education degree. Can't teach it overseas without a TESL degree. Can't teach it university without a PhD.
But it's not entirely useless. It can be used to smack people over the head with when they disagree with me about the interpretation of a novel. Then I can say, "Do you have an MA in English?"
I can attend seminars on endangered and extinct languages, and the troubles some languages face against the onslaught of English -- and wave it around, yelling, "Woo hoo! We're number one!"
I believe it also gives me the right to have people who misuse the word "ironic" executed. We have a secret English ninja deathsquad for that.
So it's really not all that useless after all.
Of course, the best use is making people squirm. Even before I got it, saying, "I'm doing my Master's in English Lit" made 90% of the people I told it to either a) list all the books they read recently, to prove they read, or b) offer their excuses and apologies as to why they weren't reading as much as they should. We make people as nervous as priests once did!
Congratulations!
There's actually quite a lot of money in making people squirm. Maybe not as much as making them wriggle, but still...
Seriously, though - congratulations. You've worked hard for this degree, and you've earned it.
As to what you can do with an MA in English - I don't think it really matters. I think it's more important to figure out what you want to do, and then see how your degree can help.
Re: Congratulations!
What I really wanted it forwas a) to see how other writers write, b) to study the various periods of history through the eyes of the people who lived them.
I also obtained an infinite amount of comedic material for mocking academia.