McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Maybe an English degree is a must?
Shecky:
--- Quote from: aikidoka on April 19, 2013, 06:00:55 PM ---I know what you mean. I have a friend who has a Masters in English, and one time she emailed me about how she was being a pre-madonna about some upcoming event. Wrote her back saying I always thought of her more as a post-madonna.
--- End quote ---
Deity-of-your-choice save us from "prefix" or "price fix" menus, too.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
I suspect that there's a scale at which any degree can be useful to an aspiring writer in that a degree is a project on roughly the same order of magnitude as a novel, and being able to manage yourself to complete a degree is bound to teach you useful things in terms of managing yourself to complete novels.
Shecky:
"Can be useful", certainly. But it's not a must by any stretch of the imagination. Might as well get a degree in math for the discipline/management skills.
The Deposed King:
--- Quote from: Shecky on April 19, 2013, 11:57:18 PM ---"Can be useful", certainly. But it's not a must by any stretch of the imagination. Might as well get a degree in math for the discipline/management skills.
--- End quote ---
I think we're all forgetting something here. We all (or 99.9%) of us have an english degree. Its just not an advanced degree, its not at masteral or bachelorate level but it is there. Its called going to school both elementary and highschool. There we are taught english each and every day. Then for those of us who are 'self taught' we read voraciously in sci-fi, fantasy, fiction, etc.
American Idol, as was mentioned before, doesn't really compare because how many of us are taught to use a musical instrument for one class each and every grade from kinder to high-school? Meanwhile we are all taught 'english' every year.
A different perspective is all.
Follow the dream, never give up and always remember you can get more out of one or two classes you really apply yourself to, than years of studying but not really caring what you're learning about.
The Deposed King
Shecky:
--- Quote from: The Deposed King on April 20, 2013, 02:28:20 AM ---I think we're all forgetting something here. We all (or 99.9%) of us have an english degree. Its just not an advanced degree, its not at masteral or bachelorate level but it is there. Its called going to school both elementary and highschool. There we are taught english each and every day. Then for those of us who are 'self taught' we read voraciously in sci-fi, fantasy, fiction, etc.
American Idol, as was mentioned before, doesn't really compare because how many of us are taught to use a musical instrument for one class each and every grade from kinder to high-school? Meanwhile we are all taught 'english' every year.
A different perspective is all.
Follow the dream, never give up and always remember you can get more out of one or two classes you really apply yourself to, than years of studying but not really caring what you're learning about.
The Deposed King
--- End quote ---
Pretty sure the OP was specifically referring to a bachelor's degree in English, since it does seem to be fairly common among published authors, but I take your point. Honestly, I learned correct English by reading good writing; discerning patterns can be even more useful than direct instruction, but they both do come down to willingness and desire to get something out of what's in front of us. The linguistics work I did, for the most part, merely confirmed what I already knew and added some more whys and wherefores. Which is utterly fascinating to me and which is why I like language in the first place. :)
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version