/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.13654165]

English Majors vs Philosophy Majors: which background makes for a stronger and better writer?

[Anonymous No.13654176]

>>13654165
philosophy. english majors can’t write coherently for shit, i’ve found atleast

[Anonymous No.13654177]

>philosophy makes you a better writer
Don't listen to these brainlets. Go for an English major.

[Anonymous No.13654183]

>>13654165
As an English grad, philosophy for sure. English profs are fucking babysitters who don't grade for grammar and spelling because they're afraid of being mean.

[Anonymous No.13654186]

If you care for a word you speak for all its parts. For real fun read under the letter.

[Anonymous No.13654201]

>>13654165
English majors tend to work better on a sentence-level. Philosophy majors can structure the text better but are a bit more artless. It depends what you think good writing is.

[Anonymous No.13654204]

>>13654176
>>13654183
Holy shit, shut the fuck up wagies. Your writing career failed and neither of you are renowned philosophers. Please stop trying to drag others down with you. The reason you recommend a philosophy major is because failure loves company.

[Anonymous No.13654219]

Go STEM and practice technical writing lol

[Anonymous No.13654262]

>>13654165
Plato attacked poets who would disguise their illogical and incoherent ideas under outward beauty. Most English majors are like this. As long as it looks good it doesn’t matter if the the essence of it is retarded as fuck. All philosophy experts can tear a master English paper to pieces. I don’t mean it terms of grammar or spelling or awkwardness of sentences but in terms of only what they are trying to say. The meat of the paper will gets destroyed and proven wrong. Once you do that, it doesn’t matter how well written it is because the building will crumble down then you just have beautiful bricks that don’t do anything...

Not to mention philosophy majors on average have IQ of 129 while English majors is 118. Of course they are some really smart English majors that can combine writing beauty with logic, the best of both worlds, but 95% can’t.

Thus, philosophy majors (in general) are better writers.

[Anonymous No.13654269]

>>13654204
Seething. Can’t face the truth?

[Anonymous No.13654275]

>>13654183
What shitty school do you attend? Of course they grade for mistakes.

[Anonymous No.13654504]

double-major if you like both.

[Anonymous No.13654589]

>>13654165
English for general writing abilities and philosophy if want to write philosophy. /thread

[Anonymous No.13654592]

>>13654165
Neither. Academia will turn you into a shitty typesetter larping as a human.

[Anonymous No.13654663]

>>13654165
Most English majors learn to regurgitate the style of "critical theory", that is, they learn to perversely mimic English translations of French structuralist and post-structuralist philosophy. Many of these French writers adopted a deliberately jargonistic and scientifically "ugly" style of writing, in order to satirise the pretensions of academic experts using insular language to bludgeon outsiders into submission. Of course, anglophone translators are retarded and didn't understand the stylistic intent of these thinkers. They couldn't understand what was being satirised, since they themselves were the targets of the satire. And so, as often happens when continental trolling meets anglosphere autism, the people who adopted and radicalised the ugliness of the original texts did so without any recognition that this obscurity and gracelessness had any satirical intent.

Thus, English majors write in a style that they cribbed from their professors, who in turn cribbed this style from sources they didn't understand, seeing the ugliness of Foucault or Lacan's writings as genuinely "scientific" rather than a pisstake of positivist pretensions. It's just about the worst imaginable style of writing. It's like the contemporary artists who take Duchamp's urinal to be a grand statement which ought to be imitated, rather than its own culturally-contextual mocking of pretension, and so end up creating the ugliest most futile art imaginable, all the while insisting that ugly, meaningless, unpleasant art is the highest form of art that can be produced.

So if you think someone is going to write well just because they ostensibly read classical texts (which most english majors barely do anyway), I'm sorry to disappoint you
>t. Ex-English major

Analytic philosophy majors are encouraged to write clearly at least, but often at the expense of rhetoric. They're stronger writers than English majors because they can plot a coherent argument and pay attention to what the average reader is able to comprehend. But they don't write well.
>t. Philosophy major

Basically, the only major that ought to make you write well is classics. And even then, it depends how much time they spend with actual classical sources in Latin and Greek vs how much time they spend reading turgid academic secondary sources

[Anonymous No.13654769]

>>13654165
Actual data, not anecdotes. Verdict is in, philosophy is superior.

[Anonymous No.13654842]

>>13654165
lmao academia will kill your soul, name one good writer with a fucking english or philosophy major

[Anonymous No.13654848]

>>13654165
English or you'll end up like Hegel.

[Anonymous No.13654865]

>>13654769
how's the verbal score measured?

[Anonymous No.13654885]

>>13654165
I have a better question
I like philosophy, but my IQ isnt high enough to warrant pursuing it further.
Should I get into English or poetry or something else?

[Anonymous No.13654918]

>>13654865
https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/scores/how/

[Anonymous No.13654928]

Major in philosophy and in your spare time master at least 3 foreign languages( I would recommend German, French and Russian assuming Mandarin and Japanese would consume too much time). Then basically devour literature in foreign languages and translate it into English and learn how to write a beautiful prose from the masters. Combined with critical thinking you would nourish in philosophy you would surely surpass your average English majors who are monolinguals , ignorant of foreign literature and culture and lack critical thinking.

[Anonymous No.13654932]

>>13654769
>4.4

plebs

[Anonymous No.13655996]

>>13654885
the world doesn't need more brainlet english majors. just become an electrician or something? drop the ego, do good honest work, provide business that makes people feel good.

[Anonymous No.13656034]

>>13655996
I'm not a brainlet and I'm not egoistic either. I'm just mildly above average and basically useless at trade work. My future is fucked

[Anonymous No.13656054]

>>13656034
I wish you luck anon, fuck >>13655996

[Anonymous No.13656064]

>>13654262
>philosophers are good at writing because they can critique English papers
>philosophers are good at nitpicking
(You) personally are an example of why your argument may be right in some instances, but doesn't work on the whole, because it looks like your knowledge of philosophy got to Plato and and then you ended up worshiping some hypothetical "expert" because they're good at ending men's whole careers, so to speak. Your post reeks of idolatry and self-flattery.

[Anonymous No.13657037]

>>13654165
Why not do both?

[Anonymous No.13657936]

>>13654165
I’d say philosophy majors tend to be better writers on average. The books they encounter are certainly more challenging and interesting in my opinion. I believe those who major in classics have the strongest writing, additionally they score the highest on the GRE verbal section.

[Anonymous No.13657940]

>>13654262
>tfw 125 IQ with a history degree

[Anonymous No.13657946]

>>13657037
That’s a lot of money bud. Also the time is better spent in grad school.

[Anonymous No.13657955]

>>13657940
oops forgot pic

[Anonymous No.13657996]

I think it really depends on form. Rhetorical stuff, arguments, etc.? Philosophy. Creative works, expression of self-type stuff? English.

[Anonymous No.13658011]

>>13654592
This. Read things that inspire you and take notes instead.

[Anomynuos No.13658315]

at least you can get a job with english once you grow up and realize that everything is meaningless and that passion is an illusion

[Anonymous No.13658359]

Neither, you just need talent and that's all

[Anonymous No.13658529]

>>13654165
The one that serves in a brutal war.

[Anonymous No.13658544]

>>13654165
History, actually. All the history majors I know are much stronger writers than the english ones.

[Anonymous No.13658550]

Both suck

[Soren Kierkegaard No.13658557]

>>13654165
in the end it doesn't matter, you will regret having done either

[Anonymous No.13658563]

I am the master of our age, yet I am unable to teach you the most basic truth of our age. If you love the arts, and are interested in any other branch of them, you must find a home elsewhere, or else you will fall into obscurity.

[Anonymous No.13658647]

The main focus of writing in philosophy is your argument and its coherence, and I'd say the content of your writing is much more important than style or verbosity, so philosophy beats English.
Also general writing abilities are a prerequisite for philosophy, though they may not be as pronounced.

[Anonymous No.13658656]

>>13654165
You wont get any good job with either so just pick whatever but be prepared that you might end up in retail regardless.