As an English major, most times, I feel like I'm at the bottom of the totem pole. Even though I love writing and wouldn't change my major for the world, I think many students have a skewed view of those of us who spend all of our waking hours writing essays, reading thick novels, and searching for tons of secondary sources. However, majoring in what feels like the art of throwing together a ten-page paper at the last second has taught me so much about critical thinking. I know most intellectuals might classify critical thinkers as mathematicians, scientists, engineers, or doctors, but I'm here to share a few reasons why being an English major has challenged my intellect and strengthened my mental ability just as much as if I were completing a lab experiment.
1. Forming a thesis Statement
I know all college students, at some point, have been forced to form one of these delightfully difficult phrases. As an English major, though, my brain is constantly thinking these up. It isn't always for an essay, either. While most of them are created and perfected for an essay for one of the three to four English classes I have per semester, some of them are simply ways that I keep myself and my brain on track with the course reading, the textual themes, and the subjects we discuss in class. Since a thesis statement is really just an arguable claim, thinking them up after reading an author's work is critical thinking to its core.
2. 10+ page essays
Three to four page essays are one thing, but when it comes to writing 10 or more pages, things can get tricky. Before becoming an English major, I thought all English majors went through some type of training course for how to write long research essays, but we don't. We just acquire a lot of patience, but, most of all, we learn how to stop putting irrelevant sentences in a paper just because it has to be long. And that critical skill is one that I'll never want to lose.
3. Analyzing another person's words
This is the part of writing that I already had ingrained in me, luckily. But analyzing, re-analyzing, and sometimes over-analyzing can either make or break a paper. Knowing the best way to interpret words you didn't even write also requires a ton of brain power. Oddly enough, this comes easily to most English majors, even though it's a completely foreign concept to students with other majors.
4. Themes, glorious, themes
These are what books hinge on. Fully understanding themes is paramount in the world of literature. And finding a theme takes plenty of critical thinking skills. Sometimes, they're obvious, but, most of the time, it may take days of re-reading to nail down the true theme. This not only requires time, but also a lot of mental ability.
5. In-class discussions
These bad boys spawn numerous theses, themes and essay prompts, so they may be the times when we learn the most. Thinking critically during class discussions for an English course means everything. Knowing what the author means, relaying that theme effectively in your own words and forming original thoughts from it within a 60-90 minute period gets tough. But we love it...sometimes.
6. Originality
Critical thinking facilitates this. English majors are praised for their creativity (or berated for their failure to be original).
7. Poetry
I could write an entire separate post about how difficult analyzing poetry really is, but all I'll say now is the art of poetry requires the most amount of critical thinking. If you're an English major, you understand...even if you're only analyzing a poem with four stanzas.
8. Reading (all the time)
You think this doesn't involve critical thinking? You're wrong. Reading, no matter if it's poetry or prose, trains your brain. For English majors, reading isn't just a homework assignment. We take paragraphs and tear them apart (in a good way). This part of understanding literature requires us to be in a constant state of critical thinking. We're always analyzing and the level of focus we reach could deter us from almost anything happening in the real world (entire conversations, fire alarms, or even food).
So the next time you think being an English major is taking the easy road, think again. We are critical thinkers to our cores.
