When first starting college, many students are confused about their gen ed courses and how they’re relevant for their major – especially English. After all, if you’re a native speaker and not planning to major in literature or teaching, you might be asking yourself “what’s the point of taking English classes”?
However, English courses go far beyond writing essays and interpreting classic literature. You will use written and verbal communication in virtually every career, and learning English builds additional skills like critical thinking, empathy, and cultural sensitivity.
Discover why English is important in our life and the value it has for your college and career experience.
What Do You Learn in English Class?
Introductory English courses in college cover a breadth of topics, including composing research essays and analyses, interpreting various texts, and writing creatively.
For example, a course like Introduction to Literature develops your writing skills based on arguments, such as defending your analysis of a literary character with evidence and examples from the text.
English Composition, on the other hand, focuses more on the grammar, mechanics, and stylistic aspects of the English language and different dialects. Creative writing classes cover the creative writing processes and the qualities that are consistent within genres.
Why Are English Classes Important?
Now that you know what’s covered in different types of English courses, here are some of the benefits you can gain from them:
Vocabulary and Grammar Skills (And Not Just with English)
English courses emphasize reading and writing. Through interpreting the written word, writing out your thoughts and ideas, and receiving feedback, you will naturally improve your vocabulary and grammar skills. By extension, you will have more words at your fingertips to express yourself clearly and communicate your ideas effectively.
Developing your vocabulary and grammar skills doesn’t just help with English speaking, either. English develops naturally for native speakers. Many people don’t understand the formal grammar rules, but they know when something doesn’t sound right to them. But when you learn your own language’s rules, it can make learning a foreign language easier and more comfortable.
Writing Skills
With the rise of remote and hybrid teams, particularly in the digital space and spanning countries and cultures, writing skills are vital to express yourself professionally and personally. Most of us communicate more in the written word using emails, text messages, and social media interactions.
Taking English courses in college expands on your language learning in high school and helps you develop polished, refined, and professional writing skills, which can be valuable in every career and enhance your personal skills.
Public Speaking Skills
Many degree programs require a public speaking course under the English subject area. This course is intimidating for most people, but you can emerge with essential skills for your career and life.
Public speaking teaches you to organize your ideas into a cohesive message and communicate it effectively to an audience. It also teaches you how to write speaker notes and present information in a compelling way that inspires people, which can help with pitches or presentations in your career.
Critical Thinking Skills
English literature courses challenge you to interpret cultural context, subtext, cause and effect, and character motivation within a story. Learning to critically analyze literature not only deepens your experience when you read books or watch films, but it helps you think critically about the world around you.
Analyzing literature can also improves your debate skills. With many literature assignments, you have to build an argument that you defend using examples and schools of though. Doing so teaches you to debate clearly, effectively, and respectfully, which can help you share ideas and collaborate in the workplace and your personal life.
Creative Thinking Skills
Creative thinking, or creative problem-solving, is the ability to come up with innovative solutions to problems. It’s a valuable and highly marketable soft skill that’s prized in many careers and positions, regardless of the industry.
A creative thinker can look at a problem from different angles and find new ways of solving them. Instead of getting stuck in the mindset of “we’ve always done it this way,” creative thinkers can see the possibilities and opportunities to recognize solutions and improve processes.
Empathy
Social interactions, philosophy, politics, religion, and ideas exist within language. Reading and interpreting text from different times, cultures, and perspectives can help you understand how different experiences shape individuals and our world.
For example, learning to see from the perspective of a literary character who’s different from you forces you to think about things in a novel way to persuade and argue your standpoint. These skills extend to your interactions with real people as you open your mind and consider situations from their perspective, not just your own.
Attention to Detail
When it comes to interpreting literature, the “devil is in the details.” When you read novels, poems, essays, plays, and other works, you need to analyze them deeply to recognize themes and motifs. This includes the subtle details and nuances that can make or break your argument.
In-depth English analysis can sharpen your attention to detail with repetition. This not only helps you appreciate the stories you consume for pleasure, but it can assist in a variety of detail-oriented career fields. For example, doctors, lawyers, software programmers, accountants, analysts, editors, and architects are all examples of careers that require impeccable attention to detail.
Specific Career Paths
If you take an English class as a degree requirement and discover a passion, taking more English courses can give you an advantage in certain career fields. For example, modern marketing requires a lot of writing for blogs, ad copy, web copy, social media ads and captions, and much more. Having solid writing skills shows prospective employers that you can write compelling content and copy to help with their marketing efforts.
In addition, these creative skills can help with your passion projects or side hustles like starting a blog, writing a novel, or becoming a social media content creator.
Expand Your English Learning with Sophia
No matter your degree program, you’re probably going to have English courses as a gen ed requirement. Fortunately, Sophia offers a range of English courses in a convenient online and self-paced format to help you achieve your educational goals. Check out our English courses to see what’s offered!
