Almost all English majors love, or are good at, reading, writing and discussing literature. They appreciate proper grammar and spelling, and always know how to clearly and effectively communicate. They can stay up all night writing research papers due the next day and still get a good grade. Some may call it BS’ing, but to us English majors, it’s "working well under pressure," and "knowing how important it is to meet a deadline." English majors think of the world in different ways, and they look at all the contrasting aspects of how ideas and thoughts come together.
The ultimate goal an English major has in college is to get a job in their field, which could be: journalism, creative writing, copywriting, editing and publishing, or even education, like myself, among the countless other careers to choose from.
As English majors, we do have to take many classes, some that seem more important than others. One of the classes we all dislike is mathematics and everything that class includes.
Here are the seven thoughts almost every English major has during their math class.
1. Why am I even taking this class?
This has no significance to me, so why is it required? Learning about proofs, equations, slope and intercept, and calculus, and you just think to yourself, "How is this going to benefit me or my future at all?"
2. When you see numbers and only one little line to write your solution, you think, “Only one right answer?”
You’re so used to having to explain your thoughts and having there be multiple right answers, that you just cannot imagine writing down one single number. You desire to think creatively, be open-minded and come up with a unique solution, but while taking mathematics, you are forced to do the calculations to get only one correct result.
3. When you haven’t taken a math class since high school, you internally anticipate your failure.
It’s been around two years since you remember taking a math class, and that’s a long time. Hopefully the professor doesn’t expect you to recall your high school algebraic knowledge.
4. When your professor says, “Take out your TI-84 calculator.”
TI-80 what?! While some English majors may excel with technology, others do not. We’re used to scribbling down little thoughts into our notebooks or to the side of textbooks. Just imagining precisely plugging in every formula, fraction or statistic into a mini digital calculating device may make some English majors want to pull their hair out.
5. You take a glance at the first worksheet the professor handed out.
It’s looking OK until about half way down the page. You see letters. Again, this is not an English class, why the heck are their letters in math? This should be interesting…
6. The person to your right turns to you and says, “Wow, this class is so easy and is going by so slowly!”
EASY?! I cannot believe this, I must be behind.
7. I may not know what I’m doing, but at least the class is going by pretty fast!
Oh, wait it’s only been half an hour. Just kidding! One hour left!
When you’re book-loving self is forced to take a math class to meet a credit requirement, or because you want to be well-rounded in each subject, I wish you the best of luck. Being so used to writing papers or analyzing Shakespeare, and then instantly getting thrown new mathematical topics at you, such as geometry, is not only a bore, but also an unpleasant torture.
Whatever the reason you're in this class, be sure to study hard and try your best to understand the topics (even though it seems impossible), at least just so you don't have to take it again!
