Talk:English studies

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QUESTION: Is a college degree (BA) in "English" or "English Studies" viable (i.e., 'worth a damn') in today's tricky market? It is the de-facto 'world-language' so it seems that it should have some marketable value... --Jittery English Major 08:23, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

ANSWER: Sorry to break this to you, but this is something you should probably hear: despite what your self-interested advisors might say, a general English degree by itself is not "worth" a whole lot job-wise. English BAs go on to do many good things, but they usually end up searching around for their career niche, and virtually none of them find work directly related to the subject of "English" proper. Too many of them go on to graduate school, meaning that a graduate degree won't necessarily land you a sure job either; the gross overproduction of English literature graduates since the mid-1970s means that even PhDs don't have an easy time of it. There are areas within English studies that are exceptions, however, and whose degree holders fare much better. These include technical writing/communication, English education, and composition-rhetoric.

But you don't have to take my word for it. Look up contact info for some recent BAs in your program, and get in touch with them to hear their career stories. Ask your department chair about placement rates for recent graduates. And always remember that your advisors--while many of them do in fact have your interests at heart--frequently also have their program's and department's interests at heart. Take what they say with a grain of salt. --71.113.129.134 15:33, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

ANOTHER ANSWER: Much of what ANON said is true, but you could apply this to people that major in History, American Studies, Theatre/Dance, Religious Studies, Communications, Philosophy, Sociology, and so forth: it seems that all of these depts. (plus more) don't really teach any JOB related skills, so in effect they are teaching students to become teachers (teaching to teach). In other words, while majoring in English is good in that you will obtain a broad base of knowledge (a 'liberal arts education,' for what it's worth), it is a degree (like so many others) that's all theory and no practicality. However, it IS better to have a college degree (in WHATEVER) than not to have one at all, so there you have it. --152.163.100.5 23:21, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Please remember that Wikipedia Talk pages are for discussion directly related to improving the article, not for general discussion of the article's topic. -- Rbellin|Talk 16:06, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Bug off.

Please see Wikipedia:Civility. -- Rbellin|Talk 19:47, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Noticeable Shift Towards a More 'Technical' English B.A.?

It seems like a great many English Depts. (in the USA, at least) keep offering more and more classes on technical communication, technical-writing, journalism, or electronic/web-based publishing whilst moving away from the traditional literature/linguistics laden curriculum, though of course linguistics as an academic discipline is obviously very technical, if indeed 'technical' is the right word. Has anyone else noticed this shift AWAY from the 'liberal-arts English Literature BA' that was a staple of every college/university in the Western World for so long? Perhaps this relatively recent phenomenon (if we can find some reliable links on the web) deserves a mention somewhere in this article? If one thing is certain, it is that the traditional field known as "English Studies" is undergoing some major changes at the present time; a cynical part of me even thinks the field is in 'crisis mode,' though that may be a bit too harsh. --172.150.85.200 10:58, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

At the risk of ticking off Rbellin by adding even more off-task conversation here ;), let me say that your read of the current state of the field is pretty accurate. However, the "'liberal-arts English Literature BA'" that you contend "was a staple of every college/university in the Western World for so long" wasnt really a staple for very long at all. Study in the modern languages (that is, reading non-Greek/Latin texts) only dates back to the late 19th century and the founding of the MLA. Even after that, the study of literature remained pretty much "technical," concentrating on philolgical and historical aspects of the text. Not until the New Critics of the mid-20th century do we see English departments doing what we would recognize as familiar work.

As for "calls to crisis" in the field—they've been a perennial part of English scholarship in America since at least the mid-1970s, when employment really started to deteriorate for English PhDs. —Kairotic 17:21, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] revision needed

This article is in serious need of revision. I tried revising it, but there were so many problems I scrapped the initial attempt. Right now the article is not much more than a rambling list of topics relating to English as an academic discipline, with nothing on literary theory, linguisitcs, or any people (including but not exclusive to) influential professors within the field. - IstvanWolf 21:22, 12 November 2006 (UTC)