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Forensic Linguistics
If you have a talent for language, dialects, tones, and accents and would like to assist in solving crimes and mysteries, a career in forensic linguistics is perfect for you. This job requires intensive training and education but provides those who enter it with a place in an important, respected profession that will earn you a great salary. If this sounds like a job that is right for you, now is a great time to go back to college and get your traditional or online degree as a forensic linguist.
Forensic linguistics training
Most schools do not offer a degree in forensic linguistics so you will need to earn a minimum of a master’s degree in linguistics. Many positions require that you have a PhD in linguistics so make sure you know the requirements for the specific area and position in which you wish to work. To work in this field, you will also need to complete traditional or online courses in sociology, human behavior, and psychology. You may also be able to find a specialized course in forensic linguistics to add this certification to your linguistics skills.
Career details
A forensic linguist performs a wide variety of duties during the course of each day. These duties may include voice identification, author identification, linguistic proficiency assessment, discourse analysis, linguistic origin analysis, linguistic veracity analysis, dialectology analysis. You will also likely be required to testify in criminal and civil proceedings regarding the validity of confessions, analysis of ‘police talk’, plagiarism, word meaning, contract disputes, fraud, perjury, and the specifics of legal language. You may also be called upon to validate documents in a variety of settings.
Forensic linguists work in one of the top careers in criminal justice and are called upon to serve a variety of businesses and government agencies. Individuals who choose this career seldom find employment as a regular part of a staff but work instead as contractors who are called upon as needed by a variety of employers. These employers may include businesses, corporations, government agencies, and research departments. The average rate for forensic linguists is around $27 an hour so the yearly salary is only limited by the amount of time you work each year.
This career field is perfect for anyone who is fascinated with language and communication or who has a natural affinity for linguistics and analysis. If you have been looking for a new career that will allow you to work as a professional, independent contractor and to accept work that fits your schedule, forensic linguistics is ideal for you. The Bureau of labor Statistics predicts that this career field will continue to experience rapid growth over the next few years so it is the ideal time to go back to school and start your training. This will allow you to get in on this great job while there are many openings. It will also allow you to start now and build experience so you can work your way up the career ladder as more people become forensic linguists.
