The Death of the English Degree, Brought on by Critical Analysis
In recent years, numerous publications and broadcasts highlight that an English Language & Literature degree could be a poor educational choice in the current marketplace.
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/fgek45hg/no-10-english-language-and-literature/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/opinion/sunday/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-english-major.html?_r=0
http://business.time.com/2013/10/02/foroohar-forget-unemployment-time-to-worry-about-mal-employment/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/01/10/the-college-degrees-with-the-highest-starting-salaries-2/
http://www.today.com/money/job-after-graduation-major-these-not-those-6C10112004
At New Jersey’s State Universities, and most other major colleges and universities, there seems to be a recent misguided approach that concentrates their undergraduate degree towards critical thinking. Critical thought and analysis are important skills for everyone to possess, but an entire undergraduate program should not stress critical analysis as a primary objective. These schools will offer one or two creative writing courses to compliment their sanitized critical analysis curriculum, but in order to delve into creative thought, one must pursue a master’s degree.
When discussing this topic with English majors, I have found that many are unhappy with their school’s emphasis on critical analysis as opposed to creative thought. Classes will require several critical analysis essays on topics such as how wealth might have an influence on one of Shakespeare’s plays, but that will only expose critical thought to a small subset of that one individual work. None of the students I have spoken with can write plays, write prose, or write poems nor can they rewrite the aforementioned. However, they can provide critical analysis on any part of a work that you desire.
This type of education yields graduates who are void of creative and dynamic thought. Three-dimensional thought is replaced by antiseptic analysis. The skills required to write creative works are missing, relegating the students to non-English employment or careers such as copy editors or technical writers. Instead of writing about the influence of privilege in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” students should be asked to submit a rewrite of a section of that work to make it better. Have the students write a better ending, one that does not appear to be as rushed as the original work while retaining the same look and feel of Shakespeare. Have the students alter the climax, extend the denouement, add more back story to the characters—something that adds a skill related to English! Instead, they are given critical analysis busy work, reinforcing a skill learned early in the sophomore year and required by other elective courses. It is just that…busy work and nothing more!
This mode of thought forces the students to obtain a master’s degree in order to learn creative writing skills, skills that they are woefully deficient in demonstrating. When they enter the master’s program, they have poorly developed creational foundations. Many students will become damaged goods in the literary world since their creative juices were dried up on analytical thought. Others will become disillusioned with a career in English and move on to other majors or concentrate on finding a job to survive. Once critical thought becomes infused in one’s writing skills, their creative abilities change. Although a critical reader can appreciate and analyze a fine piece of literary work, their ability to think abstractly and creatively diminishes to the point where they cannot readily produce such work. This is akin to a painter (fine arts) versus that of an art critic (art history). Meanwhile, most of these students will need to provide some kind of income to carry them through their graduate studies. Unfortunately, the majority will find careers outside of English, working in a field that does not reinforce their collegiate talents or goals. They will not be able to submit creative works to media, self-publish creative works, or provide support for others as an intern because they will lack the creative skills to do so.
It appears as though the academia that runs the English departments at many universities lose grasp of this issue. Having spent many years learning to submit journals for peer-review, they push that same structure as a requirement for their curriculum. Most students do not want to pursue a career in professorship, most want to develop their internal gifts and talents that they feel they possess and produce creative works in the very same manner the literary greats they study have. Most English students have dreams, dreams that get suffocated by the reality that they lack the skills to achieve them. If English needs to thrive, there needs to be diversity of thought. This thought diversity is what the majority of media groups look for in prospective job candidates, the ability to bring divergent talent to the workforce, not a common cookie cutter analytical thinker.
If the English departments need to stress critical thinking, they need to provide two learning tracks to the student body. One that emphasizes critical thought for careers in technical and educational trades, and one in creative thought to develop the next generation of literary greats. They could also blend the two and have their courses stress a critical analysis paper while also requiring the submission of original creativity projects. Anyone who calls him or herself a Christian or is interested in American history should perform a critical analysis of John Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity” and those who are English majors should submit an interpretative rewrite of such work. English Departments of various universities and colleges need to rethink their objectives, to ones that will better the students. The modern shift from creativity to analysis needs to find balance, especially if the needs of the undergraduate and graduate body are important to the university.
Note: If one were to pursue a career in academia, critical analysis is imperative. Unfortunately, those careers require a minimum of a master’s degree (ideally a Doctorate degree) and are extremely limited in their openings and are quite competitive.
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"The preferred major of lesbos, feminists, and fast food cashiers..."
If only I had a penny for every time I heard that during a get-together with friends...(I always heard it most often from engineering majors, for whatever reason)...
"Oh yeah, I forgot to ask -- Just what *ARE* you majoring in, Blue_tires?"
"I'm uh, you know, between majors right now or something...." 
Not English. When I got my degree the field was changing. You could have a wide variety of approaches when I started my MA. But already at some schools there were approved approaches to critical analysis and all others need not apply. You'd get through the basics of close reading and inferencing, of how to assemble an argument and critical thinking. Then a lot of doors were closed, paneled over, and wallpapered over--long forgotten and inaccessible. The licit approaches are really fairly self-centered. And all too often the analysis exists as a kind of Platonic ideal just waiting for some content to be centered on--the conclusions are the same, you just have to find the evidence to show that you're right. (Sort of the opposite of trying to falsify your hypothesis.)
Most of the approved approaches are useless for the business world. Your boss doesn't want you to undermine internal literature or have fancy, esoteric campaigns that target 1% of the community. You have an audience. Talk to it on their terms. (This is, to a large extent, what rendered "belles lettres" elitist, and made "fine arts music" alien to a wider audience. "I write for myself ... if others eavesdrop, I can't be bothered."
Once you get past the basics--up through critical thinking--there has to be a variety of options. Some might be creative writing, where if you write and have no audience you made the choice to have no income and be self-unemployed. But it should also focus on for-profit writing, where the writer is also a businessman and needs to bring in money for room and board. Another would be technical and informational writing. How to produce a good, crisp, clean narrative. How to present information in a way friendly to a specific audience or to a range of audiences. And how to sculpt your prose (etc.) for specific media--Twitter campaigns, Web pages, voice media, tv, etc.
High-school English is making baby-steps in this now. "Okay, you read The Great Gatsby. Discuss ______. Your audience is ...." a group of English teachers. Or perhaps "your parents." Or "your 6-year-old sister." "A group of students about to start reading the novel." "A group of inmates in prison." "A group of inner-city youth more interested in their gang than some dead white guy's take on the socio-cultural milieu from 85 years ago." "A group of bored suburban women at a library reading circle." "A group of teen girls." Yeah, there's stereotyping--but the goal isn't the stereotype, but linguistic and perspective flexibility on the part of the writer and speaker.
