jobs for english majors – telecommuterguide

The best remote jobs for English majors involve Creative Writing, Marketing and Advertising, Education, and Support jobs. Some of these jobs require original ideas. Others require only a strong grasp of the English language. The best remote jobs for English majors include: blog writing, ghostwriting, copy writing, social media campaigns, grading, curriculum design, ESL teaching, proofreading, editing, technical writing, and translating. Read on to see a list of the best telecommuting jobs for English majors! Best Remote Jobs for English Majors - Creative Writing You need a creative mind for these jobs. You also need to come up with original content regularly. If you suffer from writer's block often, these jobs might not work for you. However, if you have more ideas than you know what to do with, read on! Blog Writing Some website owners write their own blog posts. However, this process can take up a lot of time and effort. Once a blog begins to generate enough revenue, the owner may hire a writer. He may want to start another website or have more free time. Whatever the reason, this gives you an opportunity to find work as a blog writer! Generally, you will write a blog post on a topic assigned by the site owner. In some cases, the owner may ask you to do research to find a topic. However, this probably will not happen until you have some experience. To write a good article, you will need to do some research to learn about the topic. If done well, your research will give you interesting tidbits for the reader. After doing research, you will need to create an outline to organize your thoughts on the topic. Then, you need to craft an interesting article that draws people in with some type of "hook". You will also want to keep visitors reading until the end of the article. Read some other popular blog posts to see how the pros do it! The site owner might pay you by the word or by the article. Starting out, you might not earn much money. To find your first few assignments, you will need to do some research. Scan through some smaller blogs in a topic that you can easily write about. Then, contact the site owners to ask if you can write an article for them. You should have a portfolio with a sample to offer them. You should also have a website, or at least a LinkedIn profile. Ghostwriting Many famous or successful people want to write a book. Some of them might have great ideas, but little time to write, and no interest in editing and proofreading. Instead, they will record their ideas on audio or video, and ask a ghostwriter to write the book. As a ghostwriter, you will organize these thoughts into a solid outline. Then, you will write the material, making it sound like the person you write for. This will require good writing skills. It will also require you to familiarize yourself with the person's way of speaking. You can do this by watching videos or listening to speeches by that person. Speaking of which, you can also become a speechwriter for a politician. However, keep in mind that you might never receive credit for your well-crafted words of wisdom! As a caveat, some ghostwriting is unethical. If someone working towards a degree asks you to ghostwrite a paper, you should not do it. That person should do the work himself. Hiring out the work cheapens the academic process, and deceives many people. Also, if anyone finds out that you ghostwrite academic papers, your reputation could suffer. Think twice before "going to the dark side"! Best Remote Jobs for English Majors - Marketing and Advertising These jobs also require a creative mind and original thinking. However, this does not mean using deception or dishonesty to sell something. A clever ad campaign is one thing, but you should avoid unscrupulous employers in this arena. Copy Writing Copy refers to the text you read in a magazine, brochure, email, or catalog, or on a website or billboard. The copy often has a goal of convincing readers to take a certain action. This might mean buying a product. It might also mean something less direct, such as calling a phone number. In this case, the person you call might ask for some information and call you back. This turns you from a cold lead into a warm lead. You are a cold lead when a salesman calls you out of the blue to sell you something. You are a warm lead when the salesman calls you because you requested information about the company or product. Another possibility involves email campaigns. At first, the copy on a website might have a goal of collecting people's email addresses. A website visitor might offer this information in exchange for an e-book, guide, or some other type of free information. The website owner can then send an email to the list. The email copy will try to convince these people to visit the website again or to buy a product. Many smaller websites that sell consulting services will write copy on web pages to draw people in. Then, they collect contact information from visitors, and convince them to "upgrade to paid". This means that the person buys the consulting or other service offered. To find these jobs, contact website owners that you can write for, and include a sample of your work. Social Media Campaigns This type of work mirrors copy writing, in that you will write to convince people to take an action. However, for a social media campaign, you will produce content for a platform such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Each of these platforms has its own distinct flavor. Decide which sandbox you want to play in, and then work to become great in that area! Best Remote Jobs for English Majors - Education In these jobs, you can teach people how to improve their writing or speaking skills. You can also help to find out where a person's weaknesses lie, and help to improve them over time. You need to have patience to work as a teacher or tutor, but many people find the work very rewarding. Grader As a grader, you will analyze a person's writing and find the strengths and weaknesses. For example, the ACT and SAT both have an optional writing component. These require a human being to grade them (for now!). Many thousands of students take these exams during the year. Thus, you might find work as a grader for a good part of the year. You might also find work as a Teaching Assistant for an online English class at a university. Obviously, you need to have solid writing skills. Reading quickly will help you to finish your work in less time. Curriculum Designer A curriculum designer creates interesting, engaging material that encourages people to learn. You might find work with a university creating online courses. You should also look into other providers of online education, such as sites like Udemy. Many people who have expertise would like to teach and monetize their knowledge. However, some of them have no interest in writing, or in proofreading and editing what they have written. This gives you an opportunity to make a job for yourself! Look at some of the content that people have produced online. If you can find errors, typos, or awkward phrasing, do a brief write-up. Tell the person (politely) about the mistakes, and offer a suggestion for how they could improve the course. Some of them will thank you for your effort - with a job offer! ESL Teacher or Tutor This job requires a good knowledge of written and spoken English. You should also have lots of patience. Knowing the first language of the person you tutor does not hurt either! Many of these jobs will require a Bachelor's degree. However, some only require a high school diploma. In fact, a friend of mine taught English in China for a couple years - no degree required! Best Remote Jobs for English Majors - Support These jobs require you to know the technical details of the English language. You might also need to know or learn about a complex technical topic. You could even find the opportunity to brush up on your foreign language skills! Proofreading In a proofreading job, you will read through text to find typos, misspellings, and other grammatical errors. This job might hold you over until you can find work in the categories above. It probably will not pay well. Editing This job will require you to have a good grasp of style in written English. For instance, you will need to ensure that text is not repetitive, and that the structure is solid. You will also need to make sure that transitions between paragraphs make sense. Further, the overall text should flow well. This means the reader should know what the author's main idea was, and what the supporting points were. Technical Writing This job might work well if you double majored in English and a technical subject. Technical subjects might include Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, or Chemistry. You will need to write precise, detailed text on topics that some people might find a little boring. However, you might enjoy this job if you are into the latest technology. Translating If you have excellent language skills in English and another language, you might have a great opportunity. Many U.S. companies could use your services to translate their websites into the language of a foreign market. Likewise, a foreign company might ask you to translate so that they can break into the U.S. market. Many translation services apply to the jobs mentioned above, such as blog writing, copy writing, and social media campaigns. You will need to do your share of research to find foreign or domestic companies in need of translation services. However, the payoff may end up far outweighing the work you do - many people will likely overlook this option! Conclusion: Best Remote Jobs for English Majors The best telecommuting jobs for English majors may take a bit of work to find. However, this holds true for almost every profession. The more creative jobs that give you autonomy will probably keep you happy for years to come. That goes double for when you build up your client list and find referrals coming to you for work! If the work interests you, it is time to think about whether the work environment is right for you. To learn more, check out my post on the pros and cons of telecommuting. I hope this article gave you some good ideas for jobs to pursue. If you have an idea for the best telecommuting jobs for English Majors, leave a comment below.