Help with deciding between English lit or lang and lit

[betaJay]

I'm a sophomore, in the midst of IB course selections. One of my current problems i'm struggling over is as to whether I should take English Lit or Lang and Lit (both SL).

Here's a bit about my current situation:

I'm in an advanced English course, and earning fairly good results. My teacher says that I have a natural talent for English, and she's pushing me to take Lit.

However, here's the catch: English, specifically literary analyzation, is not one of my interests. In addition, the current course i'm taking is VERY analysis based, and analyzes A LOT of literature (poems, prose, the whole lot). IB alumni from my school have said that the class i'm in right now is very similar to the old English A1 class, which as I understand, is practically the same as the new Lit class. I'm not sure I want to keep going down this path, and Lang and Lit is starting to seem very promising as a way to escape from such heavy analysis.

Does anybody have any advice for my current situation?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[citizenoftheuniverse]

If you don´t want to take lit., don´t take it! It´s that simple. Even if you could cope with english lit., no one can tell you what you take. I feel like you are just looking for confirmation from us to validate your position, not really asking for advice

[funny10sport]

To be honest I agree with citizenoftheuniverse If you find it tedious to do that class, then you shouldn't do it. Do what you have an interest in or a passion for! One thing you can consider is, what is the class, do you think, you will succeed in the most? In my opinion, classes that I do not really like are the classes I excel less in.

But I also say, think about what your current goals. What courses are you aiming for in university (if you have an idea)? Think about the best possible way to improve your chances of getting into that program.

Hopefully these questions will help you in your choice!

Good luck!

[sai909]

The IB is pretty demanding so it is best to do something where your interest lies... You will have to dedicate a lot of time in your chosen subjects so make sure you enjoy it! As it is only a SL anyway, it is unlikely it is going to affect you career wise so don't worry too much. I'm doing the literature atm and there is a lot of analysis... We have covered about 5 books and a set of poetry. We spend a couple of weeks on each but not too long to start getting comfortable. As the course is pretty fast paced, make sure you can cope with it if you chose it!

Good Luck

[Sandwich]

What the people above said. Although it should also be pointed out that if you're good at Literature, you may find yourself extremely frustrated by the Language aspect of the course which is basically just common sense, and having to spend endless hours talking about the bleeding obvious may make you wish you could be spending the time more pleasurably e.g. banging your head against a wall.

Maybe I exaggerate but I also used to find literature boring but something I was good at. Before the IB I had to take English Literature and English Language as separate subjects and no matter how dull literature could be, it pales in comparison to language which is boring but also strongly as if everybody is taking stupid pills. Take language if you want an easy grade but it's literally mind-numbing. No matter how dull Literature can be, at least it's mildly intellectually engaging having to do the analysis!

Language is literally "oh look at this advert for charity, it has a picture of a sad malnourished baby on the front and S.O.S. printed underneath" ... "how does the author make this advert an effective appeal to give money to charity?". You'd be surprised how many hours your teacher can drag out to come to the conclusion: PICTURE OF MALNOURISHED BABY, S.O.S. Seriously! Probably the easiest grade I've ever picked up for anything.

[betaJay]

Thanks guys for your input.

Sandwich, your rant about the language component struck me, and I agree with you in that I don't think I would enjoy analyzing the obvious; the only silver lining for me in literary analysis is the mental engagement I get from analyzing texts.

I also looked at some Lang and Lit stuff, and to be honest, what I saw was quite lame. They were analyzing a news article and a poem about Facebook - yes, a poem about Facebook. Poetry analysis is pretty much at the bottom of my list in terms of enjoyable things in English, but at least poems I analyzed in the past were interesting in terms of content and the whatnot. A poem about Facebook, on the other hand, seems to be a complete utter waste of time to analyze.

I also reviewed the syllabuses for the classes, and I concluded that a) Lit isn't as bad as I thought, and b) Lang and Lit is starting to sound quite lame. Lit is starting to get a lot more consideration, and I think that I would sign up for the class if it weren't for the fact that I had been leaning so heavily in the direction of Lang and Lit in the first place. With that being said, I would really appreciated it if a few people who are in Lang and Lit right now could give me a run down of some of the things you do and your opinion on the course. Thanks!

Edit: I also recently discovered the creative writing component of Lang and Lit - I typically find mandatory/assigned creative writing to be a waste of time and unenjoyable; I do tend to enjoy it when it's off the heel and I have the sudden urge to write. Would this be a problem if I went to Lang and Lit?

Edited April 4, 2012 by betaJay

[erinkim1019]

My sister takes IBH Lit and she is a very strong english student and enjoys taking lit, but although she excelled in English 9 and 10, she is still struggling to get that A she aimed for. She enjoys the course, but it is very difficult to receive top notch grades.

Well I'm a junior this year and i on the other hand take IBH Lang and Lit, and it is still a very rigorous course. It's a lot of fun! My strengths are Math and Sciences, but I still chose to take HL Lang and Lit and its very rewarding.

I don't think that one of these courses are "harder" than the other. They're just hard in different ways. Since most AMERICAN curriculums base their 9 and 10th grade curriculums more on language than literature, we are more centered toward language and therefore we THINK that literature is harder. Just do what you want to do any not what your teachers want!

Best of luck

[ananya.agrawal95]

sorry for hijacking, but what exactly is the difference between lit and lit & lang?