Ways to explain being an English Major???

[edcoaching]

In a rather typical NF fashion I majored in English because I like to read and write. An ST friend just made a sarcastic comment about the stupidity of English essays, saying "When you're done, what good is it?" He didn't buy my line about critical thinking or about providing insights into human nature that build leadership and even marketing skills...

Anyone else had success explaining "fluff" majors to STs???

 

[disregard]

I wouldn't deign to explain myself to someone like that.

 

[Jack Flak]

Try explaining it to me sometime. Nevermind, bad idea.

 

[Dwigie]

Use metaphors, what does your friend like? Tell him that this is to you what "x" is to him, he should leave you alone soon enough.
Things can be useful without producing "palpable" results, like a person having a mental break down and going in therapy, all you see a smile but there's so much more .
There's gotta be someone making the darn books he's reading, the TV scripts for the shows he or she watches and what not!
practical ways to use an english major:
- imagine how much more effective someone who majored in english would be at writing a motivational speech for employees encouraging them to work better(he knows what words to use better, the person who majored just needs to get a little grasp of a few concepts here and there first)?

 

[ptgatsby]

In a rather typical NF fashion I majored in English because I like to read and write. An ST friend just made a sarcastic comment about the stupidity of English essays, saying "When you're done, what good is it?" He didn't buy my line about critical thinking or about providing insights into human nature that build leadership and even marketing skills...

Anyone else had success explaining "fluff" majors to STs???

Well, I wouldn't buy that reason either, but I have no real problem with the choices people make - so long as they make them for themselves.

Least for myself, and I would think more for Ps than SJs, you can generally explain it as "I know it may not be as financially viable, but I love it and can't imagine doing anything else". They may not *understand*, but they tend to accept that.

SJs? Uhh... Good luck. I haven't had any luck with them either

 

[A Schnitzel]

You like English courses.

 

[Cimarron]

In a rather typical NF fashion I majored in English because I like to read and write. An ST friend just made a sarcastic comment about the stupidity of English essays, saying "When you're done, what good is it?" He didn't buy my line about critical thinking or about providing insights into human nature that build leadership and even marketing skills...

Anyone else had success explaining "fluff" majors to STs???

Don't know if you thought you were making up excuses, but your reasons sound partially convincing to me. But as fluff majors...I didn't even decide to go into History, and I love history! I decided to keep it as a hobby. (no offense at all)

 

[StoryOfMyLife]

*shrugs* You really shouldn't have to justify the major you're taking because someone else lacks the ability to appreciate that you have a free choice in what you study.

However, I'm going to agree with the metaphoric approach...that often worked with my younger brother when he would interrupt something I was doing [mainly if I was working on writing a story and he would be doing something to distract me]. He would tell me that it wasn't important or worth anything-- and the way I'd put it was-- his drumming and music was important to him, and it may or may not get him somewhere in the future- that is what writing was to me. We seemed to reach an understanding there... So perhaps taking that approach would be helpful, in the very least.

Or else, to put it most simply, just tell your friend it is something which makes you happy and what you do with your life and make of your major after school will be in your own hands...you'll cross that bridge when you come to it.

 

[edcoaching]

Ah, reminding him that those TV scripts need to be written is a good one. And come to think of it he does have a few hobbies that serve no useful purpose

I do think "fluff" majors tend to be populated by N's, unless the S does it as a second major or a minor. College is just so danged expensive to waste it on something that may not pay off, like the odds of writing the greatest 21st century novel...

 

[Tallulah]

I wouldn't deign to explain myself to someone like that.

Agreed. The attitude implies he doesn't value what you chose to do, so I wouldn't try to explain it. If he was actually curious, that would be different. It just seems like an indirect way of judging you.

 

[hermeticdancer]

An English major is not fluff, it's a hard ass major. You have writing skills, thats huge. but you should tell them you are going to become a journalist with it and plan on running for VP someday...lol

 

[A Schnitzel]

An English major is not fluff, it's a hard ass major. You have writing skills, thats huge. but you should tell them you are going to become a journalist with it and plan on running for VP someday...lol

It is fluff.
Quality fluff is difficult to write and an art form in itself. If you're not a quality stylist no one will read your work.

 

[Usehername]

In a rather typical NF fashion I majored in English because I like to read and write. An ST friend just made a sarcastic comment about the stupidity of English essays, saying "When you're done, what good is it?" He didn't buy my line about critical thinking or about providing insights into human nature that build leadership and even marketing skills...

Anyone else had success explaining "fluff" majors to STs???

As a Rhetoric (Bachelor of Arts, no direct application) major, I would say this:

Essays are really dumb. (In the sense that they have no direct real-world application.) Where are you ever going to write an essay again outside of school? Nowhere! BUT, you can learn something from them, with different outcomes varying according to what you put into it.

If you choose to write it you have few options; these options have consequences:
a) Give the prof what they want. Be very passive in your thinking: you know what the prof wants, put it on paper.
b) Be a little bit of a slacker and not do the proper readings and work to "properly" write the essay; pull things from an assortment of sources to amalgamate into a new perspective (because you didn't do the proper, expected course of work to see A + B + C = D, you went A + H + M = R and you get a new perspective)
c) actually cognate about it for a long while and write a paper that reflects your critical thinking, which incorporated the lecture's insights, etc.

Outcomes:
a) teaches you to be a straight-up "yes-man." What is more valuable to your success in a bureaucratic society?
b) The most benefit for your effort. ROI-efficient. Great skill to learn.
c) You become a person who has grown; "A mind once expanded by a new idea never retains its previous dimensions."


Basically, writing papers teaches you to work the bureaucratic system. Extraordinarily important skill. (Seriously.) Can you learn this working your way up the ladder at McDonalds? Yes. But does McDonalds management come with the snobby prestige that people want when they're hiring someone to work in their bureaucratic business?

/external rewards.

It also gives you internal rewards, which is what most liberal arts majors see. But the ST probably wanted external and measurable rewards.

 

[Usehername]

An English major is not fluff, it's a hard ass major. You have writing skills, thats huge. but you should tell them you are going to become a journalist with it and plan on running for VP someday...lol

Writing isn't a skill. It's a discipline.

 

[Anja]

You could ask your friend how well he thinks anything could be achieved if none of us could read or communicate our ideas effectively. Seems like that's the basis of all human achievement to me.

 

[StoryOfMyLife]

Writing isn't a skill. It's a discipline.

Yes and no?

Writing is a skill. Not everyone can be fantastic at it. Some people lack the ability to draw in a reader, no matter how much they try. Voice in writing is everything, it's what personifies a piece of literature, and if someone has not found their voice, it doesn't matter how much 'discipline' they have had, it just won't be interesting.

What does take discipline is the perseverance of keeping oneself motivated to write despite the downfalls a writer is bound to come across, especially in freelance work.

 

[Cimarron]

Voice in writing is everything, it's what personifies a piece of literature, and if someone has not found their voice, it doesn't matter how much 'discipline' they have had, it just won't be interesting.

My English teacher always talks about this, too: We have to find our "voice" and not just use others'. Come on, I don't know what my voice is! More to it than meets the eye.

 

[StoryOfMyLife]

My English teacher always talks about this, too: We have to find our "voice" and not just use others'. Come on, I don't know what my voice is! More to it than meets the eye.

Aw *lol* You wouldn't be alone in not knowing what your voice is. Not everyone can or will find it, but it doesn't happen overnight. It's a lot of hard work. You might find that you have more than one voice- that you're capable of so many different kinds of storytelling [I've discovered this about myself-- depending on what the tale calls for, I can change my voice on a dime]. What it takes is just taking something and making it your own. We have influences by our favorite authors, but if you are a..careful reader, you can tell they each have their own unique way of story-telling. Even journalists do this-- some are candid, some are brutal, some are impeccably witty...and within those groups, there are individual voices..those who stand out among the rest.

It just takes practice If it's something you want you'll find it. Hey, you might even stumble across it quite by accident. I think it happens when...what you are writing suddenly comes so easily to you, when words just flow magically from your pen like water over a cliff...it's an epiphany.

 

[Orangey]

I hate when people criticize others for their choices of major on the basis of career utility. I mean, by that logic, we could well justify the termination of every college of arts, sciences and letters in the country.

 

[edcoaching]

I hate when people criticize others for their choices of major on the basis of career utility. I mean, by that logic, we could well justify the termination of every college of arts, sciences and letters in the country.

Very good point. Although I wonder sometimes if that isn't where our politicians are trying to take things, with what they're dictating for k-12 schools...