To grad school or not to grad school

A few days ago, Michelle Goodman wrote about the reasons why grad school isn’t a total necessity, and it got me thinking. On and off for the past six years (yes, years), I’ve been entertaining the thought of going to grad school and taking either Web publishing, magazine journalism, or even going further with my History studies. Part of the reason why I want to go to grad school is a serious interest in those subjects; another reason is a desire to live abroad even for a year, because the schools I’m eyeing are located in the UK.

Her post enumerates the reasons why any freelance writer isn’t actually required to have a graduate degree, and that one good reason to actually pursue further studies is to improve your knowledge about the topic you’re most interested in writing about. Which makes perfect sense, because it’s important for you to learn as much as possible about a field in which you plan to specialize.

So that post pretty much bopped me on the head and diminished my desire to go to graduate school. Instead, I’ve chosen to look into taking the Editorial and Proofreading course at the London School of Publishing in the future. That is certainly more in step with my plans.