Fear of College English

<p>I like Math.
I hate English. With a passion.
I have no interest in being a well rounded student.
I don't want to take it in college.......but I have to to graduate.</p>

<p>I've always taken AP/honors English but only because my parents practically made me and I always end up with a low B for the grading period. And the only reason I get that is because English at my school is dumbed down (even AP level). I like writing but not the formulaic **** they make us write. No one would ever read that... so why are we learning to write that way? ajlfdk;jas dbut whatever whatever........ I'm okay.</p>

<p>I know it would be helpful to change my attitude towards this subject and I guess I'll try but to me its telling a religious person to change their attitude towards the devil...</p>

<p>Anyone else have this fear?</p>

<p>Is college English do-ableee? =-/</p>

<p>I’m afraid of college science</p>

<p>I used to be like you, but I’m in ENG 202 Critical Thinking and Composition and it’s awesome. It’s a little formulaic, but it’s mostly reading essays and finding flaws in other people’s arguments instead of making your own arguments. Take something that’s about critical thinking, or literary analysis, or whatever interests you. The more generic an English class sounds, the more boring it will be.</p>

<p>Oh and I’m afraid of Philosophy and beginning Economics classes, not due to the material, but because of the kind of the people who will proclaim themselves experts after the first two classes.</p>

<p>I’m not an English fan either, but more so because grading is usually entirely subjective.</p>

<p>Try taking a writing/composition class instead of an analysis class if you can. Those are usually easier.</p>

<p>Also, assuming you aren’t already in/accepted to a college—if you hate English, avoid LA colleges like the plague.</p>

<p>I remember in high school my English teachers funded a fear for College-level writing.</p>

<p>My senior year English teacher told me
“If u don’t know how to write MLA Format you’re screwed, you need to write a good paper now or you’re screwed, you need to firmament a thesis or you’re screwed!”</p>

<p>I was a pretty okay writer, I mostly lacked “clarity and flow” in my writing… but for my english teachers it was the “formats” that made them worry about our college success</p>

<p>I’m not sure yet how college english will be but I do agree with the dude up there who said to take a less generic english class</p>

<p>my friend at UCI already told me not to take the ordinary “writing 31a” class but rather take a “Fictional writing and composition” class instead</p>

<p>The more cool it sounds the better :)</p>

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<p>Ha! My teachers told me that too.
“If you don’t know how to properly conjugate Laothian verbs, you will fail at college. Fail!”</p>

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<p>haha. agreed.</p>

<p>Funny thing about english, well at least my freshman class, was that we didn’t learn anything, we just wrote papers on topics and our professor graded us. So basically if you weren’t a good writer going into the class you’d probably end up with a bad grade.</p>

<p>I actually like writing as well but English, ehhh. It was funny though because my first college English class the teacher told us to throw out all of our “high school, 5 paragraph, three prong thesis, formulaic ********.”</p>

<p>I was FREAKED out.</p>

<p>My high school teachers always told us that thats how English would be in college but it totally isn’t! Granted, I have only taken two English classes so far but they have both allowed me to write on topics that interest me and write in a form that makes sense to me. My last English teacher actually let us choose how we wanted to write the papers like we could do “creative writing” and write poetry or write a story. I know all classes aren’t like this but still, you shouldn’t be worried at all.</p>

<p>I’m dreading college English and hope I don’t have to take any of it. I’m planning on majoring in engineering and I’ll probably get some credits from my AP English class this year, so hopefully that will be enough for me to test out of it.</p>

<p>Nothing, NOTHING, is worse than reading a poem, analyzing and reanalyzing and re-reanalyzing it, which inevitably turns into extreme overanalyzation, resulting in pulling bits of “meaning” from a poem which weren’t intended…</p>

<p>Give me math/science any day of the week over English.</p>

<p>It’s ok, the thought of taking science and math in college legitimately makes me think I’m going to flunk out.</p>

<p>I had great English classes in high school and decent ones in college. I never had to worry about being formulaic. My essays were usually a little “edgy”, and the teachers usually appreciated that I spoke to them at a more personable, engaging level, rather than the typical student-to-teacher writing.</p>

<p>Isn’t there a whole idea about math people not liking English, and vice versa?</p>

<p>In either case, English is a breeze! As long as you follow the prompt, write how the professor asks you, and learn from the mistakes of your first paper, English can be a solid A.</p>

<p>Yes, the grading can be subjective, but there are several things you can do to increase your overall grade (see above ↑). You may want to write in your style, but that really doesn’t cut it. I have people come to me all the time complaining that their paper was given a low score because of this or that. You have no idea how many bad papers I’ve seen where people actually feel they did okay; I’m perplexed at how they graduated high school with such bad organization, punctuation, and incorrect grammar.</p>

<p>In reality, in the first couple English courses, you are at the mercy of your professor and their style. After you have proven yourself to write in the appropriate, more widely accepted style, you earn your right to do whatever the hell you want.</p>

<p>Until then, just suck it up and do it how they ask. You speak English; you may as well learn how to communicate with it in the correct way. Also, people do read the formulaic stuff!</p>

<p>a little tip for college writing and in life: it’s not about what you think is good, it’s about what your professor (or superior) thinks is good.</p>

<p>personally i’ve gotten worse as a writer in college, mostly because my major does not emphasize it. i’ve actually gotten used to writing very similar to how i speak. i remember one class last semester in which a professor would constantly write in red ink “colloquial” (that happens when you frequent too many forums). it definitely sucks when your in non-writing intensive majors and you have to take a class that requires a lot of writing. personally i feel my writing has gone worse since i started college. actually so have my analytical skills as far as literature goes. i can’t even come up with an original thought when it comes to literary analysis anymore because my mindset is focused so much on my major (and my major does require a lot of analysis, but it’s a lot more objective and subjective).</p>

<p>actually another tip for college: take all the classes you hate as early as possible in your college career.</p>