4 ms·
Do you really need to study a full English major to learn to write properly? Seems like one or two classes would do.
by gms 13y ago
Do you really need to study a full English major to learn to write properly? Seems like one or two classes would do.
- Kylekramer 13y agoI like to imagine a bizarro literature based Hacker News where a person is saying "Do you really need a full Comp Sci major to write code? Seems like one or two classes would do." Of course you don't need to take an English major to write properly. But that is rarely the goal of taking an English major. Very few majors are actually about the mastery of one skill.
- jacques_chester 13y ago> I like to imagine a bizarro literature based Hacker News where a person is saying "Do you really need a full Comp Sci major to write code? Seems like one or two classes would do." Just such claims are made in the "You need to have a degree" / "degrees are worthless" debates held hereabouts on a bi-monthly basis.
- krakensden 13y agoOne or two classes would do, for the vast majority of tasks people accomplish with code. Lots of the more `advanced' topics aren't really that hard to learn on your own. Besides, when was the last time you looked at the curriculum for a CS or CSE major? There are some code courses, but also lots and lots of of writing, math, and physics.
- jlgreco 13y ago> bizarro literature based Hacker News where a person is saying "Do you really need a full Comp Sci major to write code? Seems like one or two classes would do." I didn't know this Hacker News was literature based. Interesting. Where is the non-bizarro one?
- sk5t 13y agoNo, it's the alternate universe HN that would be literature-based. This one is loosely oriented around topics such as general interest, startup-financing, and social/political dealings, with the fans of each occasionally arguing that the others don't belong.
- jlgreco 13y agoYou appear to have missed my joke. This clearly is a HN that largely believes that CS degrees are unnecessary.
- SilasX 13y agoThat would be the normal world, not the bizarro one. Most people here don't even have CS degrees, but picked up the relevant material as a hobby or on the job. And furthermore, would recognize that such real-world experience is much more important for what they do than what you learn in an artificial academic environment.
- foobarbazqux 13y ago> Do you really need to study a full English major to learn to write properly? It's not clear to me that majors are things that are studied, especially English ones.
- fibbery 13y agoI don't follow you. To complete a major you take a certain number of courses in a subject. Or are you suggesting that English majors don't learn anything?
- foobarbazqux 13y agoIf a major is a program of study, then to study a major is to study a program of study. It's possible, of course, but I don't think that's what most majors do. And English ones especially would see the subtle language implications here. (As you can see we're both already abusing the term: majors are also those that enroll in a particular program of study, but I'm quite sure he didn't mean to study them.) It just seemed ironic that a question about the validity of an English major was perhaps incorrect in its use of English, that's all. Not a big deal. Not even sure if I'm right, I've just never heard "to study a major" before.
- abraininavat 13y agoThanks for illuminating the conversation by demonstrating pedantry of the type so often heard from English majors. You've done so to cleverly illustrate part of the reason the major is on its way to irrelevance, no doubt.
- foobarbazqux 13y agoIt seems like you're having a bad day, so I've given you an upvote.
- pjbrunet 13y agoI'm just wondering if your username is a reference to Virek from Count Zero.
- epc 13y agoDo you need the degree to learn the technical details about how to write in English properly? No. Do you need the degree to learn a small sampling of the breadth of English literature to draw on for examples, metaphors, similes, tropes and what-not to use in written communications? Probably not, if you're quite well-read. Do you need the degree to learn how to craft an argument and the differences among presenting it as an essay, a dialogue, a monologue, or poetry? Probably not, especially if you've got the Philosophy degree. But, if your goal is to communicate effectively, with a wide audience, it doesn't hurt. And it does not necessarily prevent one from excelling in I/T.
- Yhippa 13y agoThis is something you build up to over a long period of time, not in one or two classes or even cramming it into four years.