How I'm Using My Bachelor's Degree in Communications as a Professional Freelance Writer

Choosing a degree to launch a career path while still in your teens is beyond difficult. Some might even argue it's unnecessary, that no one could possibly predict where their talents will lie five, ten or even fifteen years down the road. But for lack of a better strategy, most teens are expected to enroll in college the minute they graduate high school.

It's almost cliché that most college graduates don't get jobs in their fields the minute they receive their diplomas. I know of too many young adults who graduated from an expensive institution or trade school only to work at a fast food restaurant or the mall.

Had I taken the route I was planning, I could've been one of them. Thankfully I have two parents who thought better of it and strongly recommended choosing a different course.

In May of 2009, I graduated with my Bachelor's degree in communications from Louisiana Baptist University. In the three years between my enrollment and completion, I spent long hours studying music theory, orchestral conducting, in-depth Bible research (the practical sort, not the seminary type), literature, government and piano improvisation. My major was in music, but technically, I was doing a lot more essay writing and research than piano playing.

During my last semester, my counselor gave me the option of taking three courses from any department as long as it was in the undergraduate category, a choice not uncommon for most seniors. One class in particular, Journalism 400, caught my eye and that pretty much determined the near future of my career.

Journalism 400 featured Rene J. Cappon's The Associated Press Guide to News Writing. Infusing humor with technique and tongue in cheek flair with reserved sarcasm, Cappon's book essentially modernized William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White's Elements of Style , but with an even stronger emphasis on appropriate diction, print friendly tone and word economy.

An Aside

At this point I'd like to insert a side note. Just before taking courses full-throttle through LBU (I was earning dual credit through the university and another institution at the time), an academic advisor and close friend forewarned me of the university's penchant for requiring students to write, write, write. He informed me I would be spending most of my time writing essays. He couldn't have put those true words any more plainly than that.

Professors at LBU got a lot of mileage out of relatively small course books. They might squeeze 8 assignments out of a mere handbook. I considered it overkill at the time, but the more I wrote, the more writing came naturally to me. I became accustomed to typing several thousand words per week and could turn out one or two essays per day. All that writing was turning me into a fairly capable author.

One day, I reflected on how few errors my professors marked on my essays. Whenever I turned in my papers, I always received an "A" grade with no comments or criticism in the margins. I almost began to think they weren't even reading my essays.

Then one afternoon, I looked over one of my recently graded papers and noticed a small mark. It was so small I could barely see it. Written in red pencil, it should have jumped out of the page, but it didn't. That red mark encircled a typo near the end of a paragraph.

That's right.

One miniscule typo.

Someone was paying very close attention.

Out of 100+ essays, that singular typo is the only mark I ever received on a paper. So I figured, hey, maybe I'm pretty good at writing after all. And so I solidified my decision to take Journalism 400.

How I Use My Degree

Of all the classes I took during my college years, I consider my journalism one to be, by far, the most applicable. Couple that with all the writing I did in my five previous semesters, and I suppose I was practically setting myself up for a writing career all along.

Now as I mentioned earlier, I was majoring in music - piano, to be precise. A month before I graduated, I secured a one-time songwriting contract from a small ministry down south. But the day I enrolled for my degree, I knew I wouldn't be able to stay afloat in the music business unless I became a piano teacher - something I dread becoming and wish to avoid at all costs.

So I focused on the bigger picture of my degree - the communications aspect. All that writing made me quick and proficient at turning at fairly well-written articles (which unfortunately, as you'll notice in my other writings, still contains typographical errors and lacks some desirable qualities).

During my enrollment, I submitted each of my lengthy essays to Associated Content and earned upfront payment for each of them. Between the performance payments and the upfront payments, I've earned a tidy bundle from all that writing, which goes to waste after graduation for the typical college student. So I figured, why not keep writing for Associated Content and look for an additional writing position while I'm at it?

Thanks to a tip from fellow AC contributor Nina Rotz, I'm now working part-time as a professional freelance writer for Demand Studios. I write about any topic in which I'm the least bit knowledgeable, from technical how-to articles and digital music management to vacation destination skin care and hairstyles.

As for my career at Associated Content? As of this writing I am a Featured Travel Contributor, PMA 2009 Award Winner, Top 1,000 Contributor and Clout 10 author. I am currently building a membership website, GetPaidWriting.org, where I will use my writing expertise to help single moms, college students, the unemployed and anyone else who wants or needs to work at home become as successful at freelance writing as I have.

So am I using my degree? Absolutely, and in a pleasantly unexpected way.