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Hi everyone,
I'm a new member here :oops:
I'm interested in English Literature,
I wanted to ask you this question to see if you are obliged to read literature or you love it!
Because I really love English Literature but I don't study it,,,and I wanna be better at understanding it...how can I? :rolleyes:
And how did you become a good English Literature reader?specially if your native language is not English?
Yes, I am an English student, I took few literature courses and I am fond of it, my major is education, but I just love literature more ...
I will be beginning my major in English next Monday. I'll be obliged to read literature but at the same time I love it. All of my classes deal with the same kind of books that I read for fun.
I think probably the best way to understanding English literature is practice. It might also help to do a little research on the author and the setting that they lived in. Oh, and discussing the books on a site like this also helps a lot!
I'm an english literature student in the sense that I'm taking AP Literature and Composition in high school. I've loved high school english so far (honors up to this point) because we actually read good literature, and classic stuff too, not just novels written in the last 50-100 years or so. But I read a lot on the side, too; I finished Something Wicked This Way Comes earlier this summer and it was really good, Bradbury is king.
Do you all plan to teach when you get out of college, or what?
Yes, I do. I'd like to start teaching at the high school level, while taking courses to eventually earn a PhD. I know that's a lot of work even just to be a high school teacher, but we don't have any children yet, and it's only a plan anyway. 8)Quote:
Originally Posted by AbdoRinbo
Shea, I hope you do get your PhD, that's something I've always wanted
to do but I don't know how I'd ever afford that much education. Besides, while I'm good at reading and understanding literature I'm not so good at writing about it. In fact I'm procrastinating right now!
Chrissy
Teaching literature would get really boring after a while, if you ask me. Just how much do you expect to learn from a bunch of 15 year-old kids? Granted, I think that sort of education is important, but I always felt sorry for English teachers; they were either bored out of their minds (and those were the truly inspired ones) or they were on a caffeine kick and were too emotionally overwhelming to 'educate'.
I study Languages at University and thankfully Literature is a part of it... I like studying literature even if of course I don't like everything...
I DON'T want to teach... Actually after a bit of thinking I realised recently that I wouldn't mind teaching a language to adults, workers or such... never-ever make me work with kids, I'd only make the teenage-mortality rise! ;)
I'm proud of you anyway, Chrissy.Quote:
Originally Posted by chrissy
Well, I don't want to be the one necessarily "learning" when I become a teacher, that's the student's postition. But I do want to have lots of discussions with them about the books we study. I always had wonderful English teachers. I don't know, maybe it had to do with the fact that I went to an art school, but my teachers were able to invoke a real passion for literature in me. The weird thing was is that I got most of that passion after high school, when I started thinking about those classes that I took. :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by AbdoRinbo
I have one year left to go before I get my Bachelor's in English. Then I plan to take a year off and then apply to library school. I don't have to patience for teaching, but I think I have aptitude for librarianship.
Like Blackadder said, I really don't have the patience to teach other people. I think teaching English would ruin it for me, constantly dissecting great novels and poems year after year (with an unchanging syllabus)...I hate bashing literature to death even as a yet-to-be-educated student. I'd be a terrible teacher, as well.
I actually don't think it would bother me to study the same literature year after year. For one thing, I love re-reading books. Also, I remember in High school and college acting in plays was one of my favorites. Some of the other actors would get annoyed because we'd be doing the same thing over and over and over again everyday for a week sometimes two for performances. But I loved it. To me it was always different every night because the audiences would react in different ways. I guess that can be comparable to teaching. :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackadder
I have plenty of patience for teaching. What I DON'T have patience for is all the mindless rigamarole, plolicies, rules, "see this person", "see that person", garbage and torture that they put you through just to go to school to be a teacher! :evil: :evil: :evil: Oh, and I just found out that there is nothing I can do with a BA in English. I have to go straight for my masters. There is no teaching highschool and going on to the college level. But if they had any competant advisors there to tell me that in the first place I wouldn't be so upset! I don't mind studing longer to get my masters, but I was expecting to be able to work after the first two years! :evil: :evil: :evil:Quote:
Originally Posted by Munro
I'm sorry for ranting, I've had a really rotten day and had to express it somewhere.
Oh, and I also hate it when a doublefaced employer will poison someone's mind with fancies of "one day owning the store!" all the while delaying her applying for school so long, that by the time she's allowed to register, every class in her major is full!!! :evil: :evil: :evil: Why do I listen to idiots!!
Sorry once again!
Oh my . . . so you're one of those people who wants to become a teacher because you had such a fun time when you were in high school? You might want to reconsider, for your own sake.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shea
You can teach with a BA. You just have to go for a few education classes so you can become certified to teach. A BA is a more intensive degree, so once you get certified to teach, you shouldn't have any trouble finding a teaching position. You can get a BSE with a focus in English, but you won't have a very stong English background compared to the background of someone with a BA. There are also some universities that offer BA with certification options. It is probably easier to acquire your BA first and get your certification through the alternate route. The alternate route is available only to individuals who already possess a bachelor's degree. Good Luck.
Ok, I'll have to keep on searching. I can't stand policies :x they just cause me mass confusion. Anyway, my main concern today is trying to add the classes I need as people start dropping them. (I also hate leaving things up to chance. Isn't that somewhat of a paradox?)
Abdo, actually, I've had more fun in college with books than in high school, I just want to teach because I'm more interested in books than anything else.
Hi ,Everybody!!
I major in Chemistry which turned out to be a bad choice.I like Literature very much so i choose Chinese as my second major in my university as English Departments here mostly focus on linguistics.At first I loved to read a lot of foreign novels which are all in Chinese versions.Later i realise i have to read the original book,so i started to read English books.It's not easy and goes very slow,but i do have fun.Especially when i go with both versions.
I remember once i read the Wuthering Heights,the name of Heathcliff means nothing when translated into chinese,so when i turned back to the original book ,i was led to a deeper understanding of the cold environment and Heathcliff's character.It's very simple to you guys,but to me,it means a lot.
I loved the comparative literature course in my second grade.I even thought of having my postgraduate course on it.Although things don't go as i wish ,i still hope someday i will have a chance to study that .Sometimes i think my experience of reading English books are funny as my background is quite different.
Oh,by the way,i am definitely not obliged to read books.Literature provides me a space to think and to imagine,which offers me a lot of support in the chaotic world.
shea, i really hope u do get ur phD, because i am still in highschool and hardly any of the teachers bothered to get more than a BA, and so few of them know what they're talking about it's ridiculous. i can't believe it-it seems like half the ppl on this forum r studying to be teachers, or studying lit. i don't do lit, though i wish i did; i do english (this means i study books as well as junk like tv drama-and then have to write essays on them), because i thought it would be more interesting, but it turns out i was dead WRONG.
anyway, last semester i got a C on my exam, so does that mean u can help me with english? roll wink
I have my PH.D in English Literature and I've been teaching at the MA level for five years. I'm from India and neither I nor my students are native speakers of English. I've never felt that to be a disadvantage though, if anything it has only seemed to make for more interest and effort. While I HATE the inevitable red-tapism associated with academics, I have NEVER been bored by the actual learning or teaching of literature. Maybe I've just been lucky and had great teachers and great students,but on the whole it has been a marvellous adventure. Of course I would be very unfulfilled if I had restricted my involvement with literature to purely professional activity. But no one eer said teaching means you have to confine yourself to that!
Luckily, I got past all the red tape and am thoroughly enjoying my classes, (especially now, that I got past Whitman, understand his work, don't like it) The first competant advisor I was able to see agreed that it was a good idea to for me to teach at the high school level first and then move on to my masters and PhD (that's what she did). But she said that teaching high school, although more work, was a lot more fun than teaching college. You get to know your students better, you see them more often, etc... Have you taught in an American high school Sindhu? What do you think?
No, I'm not. I don't study english literature (but with the way things are going, maybe I'll start literature in a little while), and I'm not an englishman studying literature.
No, I've worked only in India and only at the college level. But I rather think the college system in India is different from the USA or UK systems in the sense that in involves more regular teaching hours, compulsory classes etc, even at the PG level. So there's been no question of not seeing my students regularly, it's minimum three hours five days a week as a group apart from individual sessions.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shea
Technically, I was a student of American Literature, but I studied all English-language literatures. I have my Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina, and I am currently teaching part-time at various colleges near my home.
I love teaching literature. However, as a part-time instructor, I often am forced to teach composition, which is mostly boring and mind-numbing. :rolleyes: Recently, I have had the chance to teach World Literature surveys and upper level American Literature surveys, and these classes completely make up for all of the composition courses. They are fun, and they allow me to use my expertise. :D
I refuse to teach at a lower level than college because, as several people have already noted, the bureaucracy in high schools is totally unreasonable. Especially here in the Southern US, the list of books that cannot be taught in public schools is so long that I don't know what I could possibly teach! When Steinbeck became an unacceptable author, I gave up any consideration of teaching at the high school level!
KLO, I am interested in earning a PhD for personal reasons, and don't want to teach professionally. (I want to be a psychotherapist). Could you tell me if programs accept students that don't want to be academics? Thanks.
Hi, Rotty1021.
I believe that most doctoral programs will accept you, no matter what you want to do. Some of the Ivy League schools or private universities may have preferences for Academics, but at most of the state universities, they want anyone who is interested in literature, even if they do not plan to teach.
There is one catch for some programs, though. For example, the University of South Carolina would not admit me unless they could give me a teaching assistanceship. I needed the money and I wanted to teach, so this was not a problem for me. However, I had also applied to Ohio, and they admitted me but told me I could apply for a teaching assistanceship after my first term. So, I guess the lesson is that you have to contact the departments you might be interested in and ask what their policies for admission are.
Anyway, that's as much as I know for sure. I wish you the best of luck, and I think it's great that you wish to pursue a degree in this field even though your profession is in another area!
I'll have no problem teaching during the course of my studies, it's just that once I complete the degree I don't want to do that. At the state university that I would like to attend (the University of Florida) I believe they offer a tuition waiver for students who become teaching assistants.
I want to get a lot of things out of life, and don't want to wind up down one road. Part of me earning the PhD is getting life experience by studying the philosophies and characters of writers, and this, I hope, will help with me performing psychotherapy.
By the way, how long did it take you to complete the PhD?
Thanks.
I sort of stormed through my degree. I finished my coursework in 3 semesters, my dissertation prospectus in 1 semester, and my dissertation in 3 more semesters. So, my whole degree took 3 and 1/2 years.
I wanted to move back to Texas, so that is why I took a full load every term at South Carolina for my 3 semesters of coursework. And luckily, my dissertation committee was willing to let me send them my chapters via e-mail and send responses back. Having to pay out-of-state tuition also inspired me to finish my dissertation as quickly as possible. :D
Most of the people I knew at SC and at UNT were averaging about 5 years for their Ph.D.s, but the national average is something like 7 years.
Anyway, good luck with U of F; it's a great school, and I bet you can find some really interesting philosophies there.
Thanks for your good word. I have a while before I work towards my PhD, though, because I'm still in high school. I have a feeling that I'll complete my PhD quickly because when I study something I love (i.e. lit or psychology) I can storm through the material, working at an uncanny pace.
Once again, thanks for helping me out.
On a different note, does anybody at the high school level feel that the English programs in the public schools are a joke? I do, as we read no more than five novels per year and have lousy discussions on th stuff. Plus, the whole English program seems to be chock full of esoteric grammar. I am motivated about English; but it seems that as soon as we finish a story in class, I am the one doing all of the background readings on the author. This stuff never comes up in class. I also read very advanced stuff for my age. The reading comprehension tests say I have a college reading level.
KLO, sorry to bother you again, but I have two more questions.
(1. Did the 3.5 years to finish your PhD include your masters?
(2. Does reading speed play a factor in success in a PhD program? I am neither slow or fast (more like above average), yet was wondering about this.
No problem...
The 3.5 years did not include my master's degree. I got my master's in 2 years at the University of North Texas.
As for reading speed, I don't think it is a particularly significant factor in success in a Ph.D. program. Probably, it is the ability to read, analyze, and write quickly that is most important. Also, much depends on your topic of specialization; the more traditional the topic, the more you would have to read, so reading quickly would be an asset. Since I focused on a topic that was not particularly traditional, there were few background texts or even examples for me to examine, so reading speed was not really a factor.
Thanks for your speedy response.
Hi all,
Just jumping into the fray a bit late I'm afraid. I just finished my MA (completed on a part time basis because of family concerns) and am now in the process of applying for a doctoral program. The desire to obtain this degree is not a light decision. The years spent reading and researching followed by years in Academia are not for everyone. IMO, it's almost an obsession to willingly devote that many of your waking hours to the pursuit of such, knowing that the long-time financial rewards may never equate with the time and money spent obtaining the degree. But, I know that nothing else would ever make me happy....
doing phd is a good idea till you get a good guide or you're attached to a good university.the point is that what should a person living in a remote area do..........with limited resources.???
i am in final year of m.a english literature.i have not been able to get material for topics in M.A .......think what would happen in phd program.
sindhu which topics have you been teaching?. i have some questions .i'll appreciate if you could answer
1.how to choose optional paper in ugc -net exam.is it that one option is more scoring than the other.
2for ugc net -----should i go in for some postal course like brilliants or not .kindly recommend some books if you can
thanks
I do like your name: LoveyDovey, are you? I mean LoveyDovey.
I'm a student in English lit struggling toward my MA. Did anyone else find their MA really hard? Part of it is probably that I'm in my first year back in school after 3 years off, but I also feel hugely unguided (my advisor is way too busy and I've only met with him twice all year). It's really frustrating. I don't have trouble with the material itself, so much, but I feel like I'm having to relearn doing research a bit and I never was much exposed to literary theory in my undergraduate so I feel woefully inadequate in that area. Additionally my mother is ill, which means I can't spend as much time at school as I'd like and am doing much of this from home on a part-time basis. Excuses, excuses. Add to this the fact that the scholarly aspects of the program are very irritating to me - I really want to teach, not do research. I enjoy teaching writing and I enjoy discussing literature. In my first two terms I considered forgetting about the MA but now I have the bug.
I guess this has been kind of a rant, so I apologize. But does anybody else relate to this? Anybody have any advice?
Hi!
I have just participated in this forum.I am an english literature student.I hope we share together all we need
I'm still in high school, but I plan on majoring in English because I want to be a novelist and at the moment can't think of a more productive (or interesting) degree. No way in hell am I teaching. I guess I look to Cormac McCarthy for inspiration in my apathy (if not full blown revulsion) at having a job (at least a nine to five job). I honestly don't know how I'll make money when I'm older if my writing doesn't get published. And even if they do, that's no guarantee of success. Oh well. It's just money.
Hi everybody
I am a university student of English Literature and Language in Iran, and therefore a non-native. Anyway, I have devoted the last 4 years of my life to literature (both Persian and English). I've written some articles on comparative literature, some criticisms(2 of them published in Firdawsi department of English Language and Literature) and also a collection of short stories which if god will, will be published in 3 monthes. This is the first time, I am writing here in this site. Hope I find some good friends here to have literary discussions with.
Mazi