This summer I said farewell to my friends at Hile Design and hopped on a plane to spend a 5-week stint in England, where I studied literature at Oxford University and learned the correct way to drink tea and play croquet. I did fairly well academically, but how does an A in English translate to quality work in the office?

I’d like to think that the expenses of this trip paid for more than college credit and that what I learned while across the pond may be applied to the work I’m doing here at Hile.

So, besides finally being able to define a “crumpet,” what have I learned? My literature courses revolved around legendary writers such as Jane Austen, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll. But, at Hile I’m not writing about ill-fated courtships or magical rings. Now that I’m out of the classroom and back in the office I feel like I’ve taken a tumble through a rabbit hole to land on my head in the world of advertising.

However, my job here can really be boiled down to one thing: words. Constructing, organizing, manipulating, sometimes even creating words is really what my job as an assistant copywriter comes down to. And what were Tolkien and Austen really doing but stringing together words to fashion a plot and characters? I realize it’s a simplification, but the realm of words is where literature and advertising live before they each evolve into something greater.

Now that I’m working on websites and press releases again, I’ve found the extensive reading and essay writing that I did in Oxford does not end with a letter grade. Words are constantly transforming as we apply them to different mediums and the work I’m doing now is part of that future growth. In Oxford I was able to see a glimpse of where these words have already been and studying that literary history makes me better equipped to use them today.

Besides bragging rights for studying in the same library where they filmed Harry Potter, my time in Oxford has shown me how a degree in English Writing may be applied to careers beyond being a teacher or a starving poet. Give me a job in advertising, a cup of tea and a warm scone and I’ll be happy. Note to Dave: feel free to make those last two a part of my pay.

Tags: copywriting intern, English Writing degree, Hile Design, literary history, literature and advertising, Maggie Tibus, Oxford University, study abroad

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 17th, 2011 at 3:44 pm and is filed under Fun. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.