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Would a joint honours English/History degree be useful?

Hello there, lovely TSR peoples. :tongue:

Just wondering if I could gather up some advice for a certain course decision.

Right now, I'm headed to study a single honours English course later this year. However, recently I've begun strongly considering a change to a joint honours English and History course instead, and for several reasons -- largely, the positive opinions I've heard about joint honours courses being particularly attractive to employers due to the greater work and flexibility required for a good result, as well as the great extent to which I really enjoyed History at A-level. The fact that they're both highly versatile subjects has also greatly attracted me.

However, I'm concerned that such a degree might not be entirely suitable for what I want to aim for, career-wise. Really, my ultimate ambition is to become a fiction novel writer, as well as pursuing other careers related to writing, such as journalism -- many careers, in other words, that seem more specific to English than History. :-/ But on the other hand, I've heard that many successful novellists and journalists originally studied a History degree, while becoming one of the former, I know, doesn't really require any qualifications at all. I'm also concerned that some universities may be more attracted to single honour English graduates than joint honours when it comes to recuiting postgraduate students, as I would like to study for a postgraduate qualification -- preferably one focusing on creative writing -- once I've graduated.

Any advice, please? :-/ What do you think I should go for?

[BTW, ignore the signiture -- I'm not McNuggets, I'm just his brother using his account. :p:

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Reply 1

lskdgjsj

10

Short and sweet:

As you said, there are no requirements for being a novelist: all you have to do is sit down and write something worth reading.

The National Union of Journalists has created a Web site for students thinking of a career in journalism: http://www.nuj.org.uk/inner.php?docid=86. They will be much better able to tell you what the best preparation is for that sort of work. That being said, journalism is very competitive, and most of your colleagues will have English degrees; a (good) degree in a different discipline can give you an edge.

Reply 2

McNuggets

OP

svidrigailov

Short and sweet:

As you said, there are no requirements for being a novelist: all you have to do is sit down and write something worth reading.

The National Union of Journalists has created a Web site for students thinking of a career in journalism: http://www.nuj.org.uk/inner.php?docid=86. They will be much better able to tell you what the best preparation is for that sort of work. That being said, journalism is very competitive, and most of your colleagues will have English degrees; a (good) degree in a different discipline can give you an edge.

Hmm. Well, some of the information I accessed through that website did seem quite useful. :tongue:

Thank you very much.

Reply 3

RachelBabyfrog

14

I know a journalist for a national who did History :smile:

Reply 4

leannemarie

11

One of my friends is doing Eng/Hist at Oxford and wants to be a journalist. Her advantage is that she has lots of experience at writing. We enter a newspaper into the TES competition every year and she used to be the editor (but now it's me!) and we have always won a distinction award. I have another friend who's doing Eng in 2006 after a gap year at Oxford who's also interested in journalism. Personally, I may enter journalism after doing an MML/Linguistics degree which is more to do with the language side of writing and how we specifically choose words for a certain effect. Anyway, in short, do what you want but make sure you have some experience.

Reply 5

Homesickalien

I want to do a degree in English and History, my two favorite subjects. Could you list some Universites offering it?

Reply 6

~Sam~

15

Homesickalien

I want to do a degree in English and History, my two favorite subjects. Could you list some Universites offering it?

Almost all unis will offer it. Go on www.ucas.com and have a look :smile:

Reply 7

peaseblossom

I've just finished a four year joint-honours degree in English Literature and Philosophy. Many of my friends chose English and History, others read English on its own. At this point, it barely matters what we chose. We are classified as 'Arts graduates'. Choose the combination you feel you will enjoy the most, because your degree is about more than feeding your CV for prospective careers in the future. Arts students, from my experience, perform best at that which they enjoy the most. So if you feel you want to spread your education between English and History, go for it. I'm glad I did what I did. I had originally intended to study English on its own, and changed my mind at the last minute. I was able to major in English (and thus finish Philosophy after three years and concentrate on English for my fourth and final year).

As for wanting to become a novelist... well join the club. Out of 120 final year students in my class, about 80 had dreams of writing 'the' canonical novel of the 21st century. We've just put those dreams aside for a while. Most of us have woken up to the harsh realities that (i) we need to earn a living first, and (ii) after reading works of high literature for four years (and longer), we won't live up to the high standards we have come to expect from a 'good book' when we're writing our own.

I don't mean to be harsh. All I would advise you to do is to write in your own time, write for the sake of writing, make the most of your lecturers' experience when it comes to constructive criticism, and get used to the idea that you may have to earn your crust elsewhere.

Reply 8

McNuggets

OP

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

To be honest, I do appreciate that becoming a novelist -- a bestselling one or otherwise -- is hardly a goal I'm going to achieve immediately. :frown:

But still, I have, ooohh, at least another sixty years of my life left in which to do so. :p:

And one of the reasons why I'm going for this kind of degree in the first place is to develop a lot of the life and employment skills I know I still need to develop, ie. communication, independence etc. ... And as touched upon earlier, it is a very versatile degree, which does attract me.

Would a joint honours English/History degree be useful?

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