I became an English major because of my passion for reading and especially for writing, and look forward to graduating with the degree. Throughout my college career, I've noticed some patterns in my major, some that I think my other fellow English majors can relate to:
1. Animal Lovers
English majors tend to love animals, and more commonly, cats. I hear English majors carry on long conversations about their cats quite frequently, and although I'm a definitely a dog person, I appreciate this commonality all the same.
2. The Perpetual To-Read List
I get asked if I've read a specific book fairly often, and generally my answer is no, but there are now a whole bunch of new reads for me to get through. Unfortunately, that's usually delayed by my required class readings. So, the list continues to grow...
3. "So you want to be a teacher?"
I'm sure plenty of other English majors have heard this one or something similar. While I respect that quite a few English majors are also Education majors, not all of us desire to teach and the reality is you can do more with the degree than just become a teacher. Essentially, don't assume.
4. Group Effort
Many majors employ group work; however, I've noticed that English classes tend to use multiple instances of it. Peer review/editing, small group discussions, and collaborative projects are just some of the many examples used several times in many types of English classes - anywhere from the intro level to the grad level.
5. Textbooks Galore
Required textbooks for English classes are either massive, or there are a lot of them. Worst case scenario, it's both. Our bags are rarely light for these courses.
6. Introverts Everywhere
Although not all inclusive, a lot of us English majors are introverts. I've been in several classes where either nobody said anything to each other or we got extra assignments from the professor for not contributing to the discussion.
7. Grammar Police
Since we work with the English language as part of our studies, we have a much easier time spotting incorrect word usage, etc. in others' texts, speech, and more. After reminding the same people of the proper use of your/you're or there/their/they're numerous times, I can't help but sigh. Don't even get me started on over-analyzing meaning in things.
I love being an English major, and maybe when I'm done with my coffee, my required class readings, group projects and papers, and finally graduate, I can get to those fun reads.
