English majors can become professors

The argument

English majors who want to continue pursuing academia will probably become professors at a college or university. The path to becoming a professor is long, requiring many promotions and a lot of experience in teaching. After obtaining a Bachelor's degree, one would have to continue on to a Master’s and maybe even a doctoral degree, become a Teaching Assistant during those periods of study, and work their way up from there. This would be a great path for those who are interested in reading, reviewing, and writing academic papers. It would also be a great path for those who want to share their passion for English with students. In primary or secondary schools, English is almost always a required subject and students cannot choose whether they want to take it or not. It’s a different story for college and university. Students choose to major in English because they want to, and that means students are interested in the subject. Teaching English, which will have become your profession, at tertiary levels means that you are sharing your wealth of knowledge assimilated from years of academia and maybe even inspiring them to do the same.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Critics reply that becoming a professor is an exceptionally long, competitive and increasingly precarious path: it demands years of graduate study, the academic job market is glutted, and universities lean heavily on low-paid adjuncts rather than tenured hires. Presenting it as a leading viable option for English majors is therefore misleading for most. They add that the far more common and attainable education route is primary or secondary teaching, which the entry treats as an afterthought, and that a majority of English majors build careers outside academia entirely. Enjoying reading and sharing knowledge does not, by itself, make professorship a realistic destination.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The professor track is exceptionally long and competitive, with a glutted academic job market and heavy reliance on low-paid adjuncts, so it is not a reliable option for most English majors. [Rejecting P2] The far more common and attainable education route is primary or secondary teaching, which the entry treats as secondary to professorship. [Rejecting P3] Enjoying reading and sharing knowledge doesn't translate into a professorship without years of graduate study and uncertain prospects, so the path suits only a small minority.