I've seen resumes and letters from some of my fellow graduates with English degrees -- people who, presumably, ought to be expert writers -- and they aren't.
Another article from a few years ago by a paper-mill writer pointed out an aspect of this I hadn't thought of before: people generally don't write good essays because they don't read essays on a regular basis. Most text that is read during the course of getting a degree isn't presented in 'essay' format. For an English degree you read a lot of novels but very few boring analytical essays. However, you're expected to write boring essays on a weekly basis.
Halfway through getting my English degree I realized that it wasn't a degree in 'writing' as I had assumed before - it's more of a degree in reading, because I did a hell of a lot more reading than writing. Close reading, analytical reading, boring reading, obscure reading, incomprehensible reading; a lot of goddamned reading. Writing was a necessary portion but not really the focus overall. At my school the difference between the general English degree I completed and a Creative Writing degree was two classes.
One thing that always baffled me working in the corporate world was the amount of customer-facing marketing and website material that was never proofread. That's how a company ends up with a full-page advertisement in the local paper proclaiming that they are The #1 Internet Proivder!
Overall, TFA makes me sad. I've written for money before but not for other people's schoolwork, and I don't know how I'd feel if I was offered a grand to crank out a thesis. It sounds like a tough way to make an easy living.
It's like a keyboard from the 80s? It doesn't have all of those dipshit chiclet buttons for opening AOL and volume and forward/back/subtitle for the inbuilt DVD player? It's frustrating to use on a Mac?
Good lord I want one of these keyboards! If only I had a desktop. I have my EEE and an external keyboard still in the box because I have somehow taken my extra-large hands and learned how to type on the tiny inbuilt keyboard.
I really, really miss my first Microsoft Natural like another poster has - when it broke (not sure how it broke, but I think it involved beer and an ex-girlfriend), and I got another one, it was the newer variety with the stupid arrow keys. Sigh.
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I've seen resumes and letters from some of my fellow graduates with English degrees -- people who, presumably, ought to be expert writers -- and they aren't.
Another article from a few years ago by a paper-mill writer pointed out an aspect of this I hadn't thought of before: people generally don't write good essays because they don't read essays on a regular basis. Most text that is read during the course of getting a degree isn't presented in 'essay' format. For an English degree you read a lot of novels but very few boring analytical essays. However, you're expected to write boring essays on a weekly basis.
Halfway through getting my English degree I realized that it wasn't a degree in 'writing' as I had assumed before - it's more of a degree in reading, because I did a hell of a lot more reading than writing. Close reading, analytical reading, boring reading, obscure reading, incomprehensible reading; a lot of goddamned reading. Writing was a necessary portion but not really the focus overall. At my school the difference between the general English degree I completed and a Creative Writing degree was two classes.
One thing that always baffled me working in the corporate world was the amount of customer-facing marketing and website material that was never proofread. That's how a company ends up with a full-page advertisement in the local paper proclaiming that they are The #1 Internet Proivder!
Overall, TFA makes me sad. I've written for money before but not for other people's schoolwork, and I don't know how I'd feel if I was offered a grand to crank out a thesis. It sounds like a tough way to make an easy living.
It's like a keyboard from the 80s? It doesn't have all of those dipshit chiclet buttons for opening AOL and volume and forward/back/subtitle for the inbuilt DVD player? It's frustrating to use on a Mac?
Good lord I want one of these keyboards! If only I had a desktop. I have my EEE and an external keyboard still in the box because I have somehow taken my extra-large hands and learned how to type on the tiny inbuilt keyboard.
I really, really miss my first Microsoft Natural like another poster has - when it broke (not sure how it broke, but I think it involved beer and an ex-girlfriend), and I got another one, it was the newer variety with the stupid arrow keys. Sigh.