Majoring in English—why so much disrespect?

[Anonymous]

Looking at the grammar comments up above made me laugh, people think I know grammar because of my English degree, but not really. It was literally a book club where you got graded for participation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

dony898 wrote:Everyone dunks on English majors until they need help writing a single coherent sentence on LinkedIn.

I have nothing but respect for English and history majors, but writing a single coherent sentence on LinkedIn is a perfect example of what ChatGPT is good for.

If I come to the conclusion that a prospective employee used ChatGPT to write his or her profile / job search pitch on LinkedIn, that’s a hard pass

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dcum is particularly engineering or business only. I don't think that's real life. In the Instagram that announces where graduates of my child's school are going to college, I see plenty of intended social science and humanities majors.

+1. I've also noticed likely overlap with Reddit. Both seem to be heavily STEM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know women’s studies, studio art, and political science majors from my LAC, who went to medical school.

One of my best friends has been a doctor for 25 years. Majored in French

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

dony898 wrote:Everyone dunks on English majors until they need help writing a single coherent sentence on LinkedIn.

I have nothing but respect for English and history majors, but writing a single coherent sentence on LinkedIn is a perfect example of what ChatGPT is good for.

If I come to the conclusion that a prospective employee used ChatGPT to write his or her profile / job search pitch on LinkedIn, that’s a hard pass

How would you come to such conclusion? These aren’t novels being written.

You do know that the people who refuse to embrace Gen AI will be the ones shown the door, right? Also, that prospective employers are looking for candidates with advanced skill sets using it, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dcum is particularly engineering or business only. I don't think that's real life. In the Instagram that announces where graduates of my child's school are going to college, I see plenty of intended social science and humanities majors.

+1. I've also noticed likely overlap with Reddit. Both seem to be heavily STEM.

Because both are full of strivers who only care about making the most money.

[Anonymous]

There seems to be a pervasive belief by many here that education should be linear, that it is a waste of time to learn something with no practical value. I believe the opposite. Taking diverse classes stimulates the mind and allows us to approach problems from different perspectives and a broad education develops strong and flexible thinking, skills that are useful in any job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

dony898 wrote:Everyone dunks on English majors until they need help writing a single coherent sentence on LinkedIn.

I have nothing but respect for English and history majors, but writing a single coherent sentence on LinkedIn is a perfect example of what ChatGPT is good for.

If I come to the conclusion that a prospective employee used ChatGPT to write his or her profile / job search pitch on LinkedIn, that’s a hard pass

That’s a really weird thing to get hung up on. Of all the throwaways one shouldn’t spend too much time on, the LinkedIn profile is top of the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

dony898 wrote:Everyone dunks on English majors until they need help writing a single coherent sentence on LinkedIn.

I have nothing but respect for English and history majors, but writing a single coherent sentence on LinkedIn is a perfect example of what ChatGPT is good for.

If I come to the conclusion that a prospective employee used ChatGPT to write his or her profile / job search pitch on LinkedIn, that’s a hard pass

That’s a really weird thing to get hung up on. Of all the throwaways one shouldn’t spend too much time on, the LinkedIn profile is top of the list.

It’s the functional equivalent of penalizing someone who uses a calculator to multiply two six digit numbers instead of doing it by hand.

Also, many companies use AI to screen LinkedIn profiles and resumes and AI loves AI generated content.

So now you are going to penalize someone for using AI, when they wouldn’t even make it past the screeners without using AI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An example of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in Middle English. Understanding it is only the beginning.

"Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote

The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour,

Of which vertu engendred is the flour."

but, why do people need to understand this? I read Shakespeare, Flaubert, etc.. but I don't see the point in needing to understand very old English. My DH is English. He doesn't even like reading those types of books

Which then begs the question, why do I need to study so many subjects that I will never use in my career? It's not necessarily the specific subject matter that's important, its the the thought processes and skills that we develop that's important.

I can understand learning history, social science, but none of those classes are taught in ye olde English. So, again, why does one need to understand Chaucer's old English?

I think it's important to read some classics, but I don't think it's important to read every classic.

Majoring in English is not only (or primarily) about reading the classics. It's about thinking about literature and the ways that literature reflect (or doesn't reflect) society and our culture. It's about expanding our imaginations and empathy through seeing the world through others' perspectives. And it's about close reading and defending ideas with specific examples.

Like I said, I think reading some of the classics is important, to your point, understanding human nature. But, one does not need to read old English text to do that. That was my point. One does not need to have read all of Shakespeare's works to understand human nature. You can take psych, history, read a few books, too.

A friend of mine was an English major at a public ivy. They got a masters and became an editor. The other English major I know became a pastor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dcum is particularly engineering or business only. I don't think that's real life. In the Instagram that announces where graduates of my child's school are going to college, I see plenty of intended social science and humanities majors.

+1. I've also noticed likely overlap with Reddit. Both seem to be heavily STEM.

Because both are full of strivers who only care about making the most money.

Yes, most people don't come from money, and so they care about making money.

Try growing up poor, and taking care of elderly parents with dementia, and then tell me you wouldn't care about money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

dony898 wrote:Everyone dunks on English majors until they need help writing a single coherent sentence on LinkedIn.

I had to write a job description recently and used AI for the first to time to do it. It was pretty dam* good. I just had to tweak it a bit. I was a bit shocked.

I saw a video of a fake podcast created by Google Gemini for a technical manual. It was shockingly amazing.

I think many, if not most, people find it to be good because they can't write to save their arse so anything that's comprehensible is going to be good.

95% of all communication in the business world is simply communicating the equivalent of the chicken crossed the road.

Who cares if your company earnings press release is written well. It just needs to communicate that revenues were up 5% and earnings increased 10%.

Who cares if advertising copy is well written? Almost nobody which is why it’s literally being taken over by AI.

Who cares if a Company’s IPO perspectus is well written? Nobody considering few read them…however you do need to make sure AI doesn’t hallucinate something to cause a lawsuit down the road.

This isn’t about “good” writing…it’s just is it good enough. That’s all the corporate world cares about.

I disagree. You should see the unprofessional emails and memos that Doge sends me on a daily basis. Good writing matters.

Yes, there are some really bad writers in the professional world. But, the vast majority write well enough to understand the meaning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because we are living in a minor dark age.

oh yes, the age of space travel is such a dark age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dcum is particularly engineering or business only. I don't think that's real life. In the Instagram that announces where graduates of my child's school are going to college, I see plenty of intended social science and humanities majors.

+1. I've also noticed likely overlap with Reddit. Both seem to be heavily STEM.

Because both are full of strivers who only care about making the most money.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many people think its easy - I speak English, how difficult can it be? They don't understand (or don't want to understand) what the major entails. The breadth and type of literature that is read is not easy. Just try reading Chaucer's work in its original Middle English with a deep understanding followed by critical analysis and writing. I understand it's difficult to get a high paying job like in finance which is why many English majors do go on to grad school.

l

GMU English grad here again. No, it was really really easy. They even had movie classes, movies! And I skipped the hard books. Just pay attention in class and take some notes, I never read a single Faulkner book.

This is more a function of your college than the major.