Hi, I studied environmental science and am doing environmental writing in my free time - looking to be a full-time environmental writer / journalist soon.

What I'm trying to say is, you don't really have to take up language-related course to be good in writing. In fact, I recommend against it. Instead, pick any niche you're interested in, say computer science, and combine it with the writing skill you can hone in your free time - you will be able to have more insight and that gives you an edge over the others.

There are tons of writers out there. Everyone is picking every topics to write about everything. Having a niche separates you from the pack. If you're interested in computer science, good - be the greatest technology writer ever.

If you're serious in making a living out of writing - start doing it, you don't have wait until graduation, you don't even have to wait for your course to begin. Chew every books you can get your hands on, collect and organize the knowledge, and start writing. You can start on your blog. Once you've something to show, proceed to the most important part - networking. If you're in usm, identify who are the veteran technology writers in penang, email them and tell them you are young but eager to learn from them. Share with them some examples of articles in your blog. Set up a casual meetup in a cafe and talk to them. Chances are this will lead you to more connections and your articles can be published in their media. At least this is how I did it.

Remember, you don't have to wait for a degree cert to do all of these things. All the best to you.

To answer most of your questions, I encourage you to read this link (https://ringgitohringgit.com/earn-online-in-malaysia/) By having a picture of how you are going to earn money writing in the future, you should have a better bearing on what direction you want to head and what decision to make in your current phase. If it's any encouragement, this Malaysian lady is earning over 5 digits monthly by freelance writing. (One of the way she did it is freelance writing for foreign employers, which pay in USD. So you see, being good at English is just somewhat a basic, you need to be excellent in a certain niche to land the job. In her case, she is a finance writer.) Hey, if she can do it, surely you can too.

I would say you should continue experimenting on both creative writing and academic writing. See where your heart go. Obviously, you will excel in what you are passionate about. Of course scouring high mark in MUET is an impressive feat - and a band 6 at that - but let's not forget instead of judging your academic writing based solely on content, a lot of the marks in MUET actually go to the answer format, structure and things like that. So perhaps it's a sign that you are good at identifying what are the rules and you make sure you follow them in your writing?

With that said, like most arts such as photography or movie-making or etc., writing is about knowing what are the rules, and then knowing how to break them in a way that define you and make you stand out.

Personally, if I were you, I would consider what is the topic / field that I am passionate about, aside from writing, in this process of choosing major & university. But that's just me. All the best to you.

This post has been edited by cire2: Mar 19 2018, 11:42 PM