Hi, my name is Laura and today I'm going to talk with you about how to become an English professor. In order to become an English professor of course you're going to have to first of all, go to school for it. You're going to want to major in English in undergrad. But you're also maybe going to want to minor in education, especially if you're thinking about you know, an English professor is going to be my career, you know, how can I get there. You're going to want to get as much under your belt in the first years of school in college as you can. Next, while you're in college you're going to want to read as much as possible. Don't worry about the things you don't like reading. If you don't like reading Chaucer for example, you don't have to spend all of your time trying to jam down all the Chaucer that you can or all the James Joyce that you can, that doesn't make any sense to you. You can sort of say, I know who these people are, but they're not what I'm really interested in. What I'm really interested in is Shakespeare or John Donne or whoever you're interested in. So concentrate during your time in undergrad on the stuff that you love so that you can start to build up a body of work on that. That's my next point, is to actually sit down and write essays on the work that you like. You could even, I mean if you have time, you could even sort of go out of class and write about things that you know you're going to want to teach about and that little observations from works that you've read that you know you're really going to want to use in your career. Next, once you've graduated from undergrad, congratulations, you're going to want to apply to school again. Because in order to be a professor, you're going to have to have more than one degree. Usually you're going to have to have a PHD. Sometimes, you may only need a Masters in English. So you're going to want to get in to grad school. In grad school you're going to be able to develop your personal writing style a little bit more. You're going to be writing longer things, more in depth analysis of works and you also might be able to start teaching, if you're lucky enough to go to a school where they'll let you teach part time in grad school. So you're going to be able to wet your feet a little bit. And then from there, with most schools you're going to need a PHD. So from there you're going to want to go on and get that advanced degree in your specialty. And of course by then you'll know what your specialty is, because you've gone through you know, years and years of school to get there. So, it's not an easy process, but if you love it, you know, and that's what you want to do, then you're probably going to be willing to dedicate that time and that effort to it. So good luck on your journey becoming an English professor.
