Why I Love Writing But Still Hate English Class (Part 2)

Since I am practically famous among my social circle for being “THE WRITER”, I hear many incorrect assumptions about me. The one that bugs me the most is the following:

“OH, YOU MUST LOVE ENGLISH CLASS THEN!”

Think again, dear friend. In fact, I do not love English class as much as you may think. For many reasons unknown to you. Fear not as I am here to enlighten you.

I figured it is time to further divulge my inner thoughts about English class. By the way, I did an earlier post in April explaining four reasons why I abhorred going to English class every now and then. Check it out here: Why I Love Writing But Hate English Class

Want three more reasons why I hate English class? I am granting you your wish right now. Read on.

1. It’s all about analyzing. I stand corrected. It’s mostly about analyzing texts and poetry. About 90 percent of the course is analyzing and maybe 9 percent is creative writing. The remaining 1 percent is group work. Group work, group essays, group presentations? Sounds great in theory. When applied in a class with students having different levels of abilities, 99 percent of the time group anything fails. I digress but really in the real world no one cares how well you can analyze Shakespeare. Frankly, you do not get paid for analyzing any of Shakespeare’s plays. If there is a job out there that pays you for this, let me know. For now I beg teachers to focus more on life skills such as communicating effectively, writing concisely, reading for meaning, etc. Perhaps, focusing more on skills that will be useful when we are seeking jobs is a better preparation for our future. Nothing against Shakespeare or anything but knowing how to write a good resume beats analyzing an arbitrary poem any day.
2. Stringing together a coherent sentence is less important than your ideas. Most teachers say they care more about the content than the grammar. I beg to differ. I do not care how good your ideas are. If you cannot string together a sentence that makes sense, you are in big trouble. Both are important but both are not equally important. More often than not, my teachers seem to weigh the idea portion higher than the grammar portion. Think of it this way, even though you may have the best idea in the world, if you cannot communicate it effectively…the idea will just be an idea. It can’t be turned into reality without first being shared successfully with the rest of the world.
3. You can’t break any rules. Well, technically you can but your teacher would just deduct plenty of marks for *insert dramatic pause* writing a sentence fragment. Or dangling a modifier. This is by far one of the reasons why writing an essay for English class is so hard for the average writer. I find that the more you love writing sometimes, the more you hate writing anything for English class. Why? Writers know many of the rules in the rule book already. They love breaking these rules though. However, teachers limit the writer’s creative ability because getting everything grammatically correct is preferred over writing an outstanding piece with some errors. Now I am not advocating that you should misspell everything. All I am trying to say is sometimes you must break the rules to create something memorable. For one, writers can actually justify breaking these rules and number two, they do this intentionally. Why fail the writer for committing an intentional grammar error when in reality they deserve extra marks for not only knowing what the rules are but for having the ability to craft amazing dialogue, create wonderful characters, and conjure fancy worlds?

All things considered I love writing. I live for it. However, I despise English class with a passion.