They can write whatever they want. But let me present some data.
Here are some linkedin filters for McKinsey analyst jobs in the US.
There are 16k people with the words analyst and united states on their linkedin pages.
Of those, people with Philosophy on their linkedin page are the following:
Perhaps there is an increasing perception and actuality that jobs and careers are more competitive than they were a generation or few ago. A generation or few ago, any bachelorâs degree was considered a distinction, and the US economy shared more of its growth with labor, and employers were more willing to do on-the-job training, so the pressure to get on the âeliteâ job and career path, at at least be job-ready upon completion of school, may have been less.
There may also be financial pressure for the kids growing up in upper middle class households who âneedâ a high income to continue the living standard that they grew up with. The kid who would be happy with a $25,000 per year living standard will have more financially doable job and career paths than the kid who âneedsâ $250,000 per year to live.
Many of the elite private colleges used to have much higher percentages of students admitted as scions of the then-current elites, rather than their own academic achievements â think of that as a much larger form of LDC-type hooks. For those students, it probably did not matter what they majored in, or if their grades were mostly âgentleman Câ grades, since they were well-hooked for employment after graduation.
Well, my kid is an English and History double major at UCLA. So, sheâs holding up the torch for humanities. She is exploring journalism, library science, academia, publishing, perhaps law school and even the Peace Corps as possible next steps âŠ
As far as reading goes, she is an avid reader⊠classics and current literary fiction, mostly. And sheâs pretty judgy about it when she meets people who donât read or consume books in some way shape or form (she loves audio books, too).
The English major does involve written and oral communication. English majors are taught critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Contrary to popular belief, the major is not just analyzing literature and literary criticism. (And the texts they analyze and write about include more than literature.)
The fact that people think an English major is simply about reading and analyzing literature reflects the decline weâre discussing. I consider posters on CC knowledgeable. If they donât understand the major then it really is doomed.
Indeed this is what we see much of the time in high school english classes. It is natural to think there will be more of this in college, especially in an english major.
Probably because that is what most people saw in high school English. However, most subjects are broader in college than they are in high school, so high school impressions of a subject may not reflect the full breadth of the subject.
I really didnât mean to create a tangent on whether young people are reading these days, in bed or on the subway. Letâs focus on what is going on in academia. Apologies.
I am aware that there are writing courses, creative writing, and a whole range of such things run by the English department, but the prestige end of the profession is not devoted to that.
Just to pull an example, the Harvard graduate course âQueer/Medievalâ includes this description:
That kind of course persists - the kind of thing that would have been perceiving as cutting-edge theory back in the 90s, but it viewed as suspect and less useful by todayâs undergraduates.
I would argue graduate whose expertise is in writing about slippage and friction will not have the same kind of in-demand communication skills that a journalism major would (except perhaps in less prestigious but more widely read genres). Not that journalism has great prospects these days either.
So one graduate course at Harvard is now representative of an undergraduate English major?
Written and oral communication are not the exclusive domain of writing courses or courses with âwritingâ in their title. Students do not need to take a specific course in creative or expository writing to learn those skills. Even my DC learned those skills in high school classes like APUSH, AP WH and AP Gov.
And you need to realize that universities have different ways of structuring English majors. For example, some institutions have an English major with a concentration in journalism, while other places call it a specific journalism major. You canât just describe all English majors with a broad stroke of literature and literary analysis.
But Iâm not interested in debating what English majors do or donât do with people who are not English majors or English professorsâor even in the Academy for that matter. As I said, some of the comments on this thread point to why the major is doomed. Lack of understanding is certainly part of it.
ETA:
Enjoy your conversation. But at least do some research, and argue based on more than speculation.
Yes. In the context of what Berkeley described as content of the English major. You can be sure they are not analyzing middle eastern politics critically and writing about it
Would you consider this organization as having the body of knowledge ir establishing standards for teaching English? Or is it an outlier? Who sets a standard for teaching high school English? Is a standard driven primarily by state mandated curriculum?
âThe Department of Rhetoric at Berkeley trains its majors in the history of rhetorical theory and practice, grounded in argumentation and in the analysis of the symbolic and institutional dimensions of discourse.â
As a different example, from the University of Michigan:
âEnglish as a field of study focuses especially on language as a medium of communication, and on the analysis and enjoyment of works of imaginative literature.
âŠ
[Students are asked to achieve]
âŠ
The skills needed to recognize, analyze, and appreciate rhetorical, poetic, and other uses and functions of language; to produce close and critical readings of a wide variety of texts; to write clearly and effectively in a variety of modes; to develop and articulate a persuasive argument in speech and in writing; and, for some, to write creatively in various genres.â
