The Student Room Group
Reply 1
From my prerogative: Literature without a doubt. But if you're better at the Language component, choose the 2 combined. If I were you, I'd stay away from doing straight Language.
Reply 2
It depends which one feels better to you. You could compare the course content to see which one suits you.
Reply 3
lit is a lot more academic. Do lit.
Reply 4
i do english literature, it depends though as i think i should have done language instead beacuse it matches my media course more...you basically use the same skills but lit is more academic and obv more about literature!!
Reply 5
I do both at the moment, in my opinion, language is harder but lit involves reading the same thing over and over and the poems are hell. I would reccomend both though despite what I just said, but if you have to choose then language. just.
Literature, by a loooooooooooong way; tis so much more interesting! If you love to read, then Literature's the one you want. (If you're actually considering doing English at uni, apparently many prefer Lit to Lang/Lit.) At my college, Lang/Lit consists of analysing texts such as Harry Potter... I love HP, but come on...
Reply 7
I think Lit often depends on the books and personal preference, try and find out what texts the college/sixth form you want to go to studies
Reply 8
Lit tends to be more respected by universities and you generally need it if you want to do any kind of English at uni. I found (the first few weeks of) Lang incredibly dull, lots of stuff on media/advertising, things like accents (sounds way more interesting than it is), and grammar/syntax-y things that you learn in lit anyway. It depends on your interests, but don't choose lang just for its creative writing component, my brother did and really regretted it: there's very little creative writing and everything else on the course is boring. Maybe ask your English teacher which would be better for you?
I'd go for straight lit becuase, as others have said, it tends to be the most respected by universities and in my opinion, it's also more interesting. Obviously it will depend on your personal preferences. If you like reading and analysing texts, go for straight lit. If you like analysing speech patterns, dialects etc, go for straight lang. If you enjoy both, go for lang/lit combined. Another thing I'd say is that straight lit is very similar to GCSE, just harder and more in-depth, whereas straight lang is nothing like GCSE; so if you enjoy GCSE English lit, it's very likely that you'll enjoy AS, but this may not be the case for lang. If you're thinking of doing English at uni, you'd be better off doing straight lit as otherwise you might limit your options.
If you want to read books and get an A-level for over-analysing them, do lit. If you want to overanalyse non-fiction texts then do lang. Simple!

If you don't want to waste your time on stupid subjects, don't do either. *waits for attack*
Reply 11
I did lit and i loved it. Looking at the bigger picture and analysing the meanings behind things were fascinating to me.
Reply 12
Sorry, I completly disagree. I am doing A level English lit and lang and in a word it is hell! Do not do combined!!!!!!!!! anything but combined! because unit six is a bugger! bascially. :eek:
If you love to read prose and poetry do Lit :biggrin:
Reply 14
all i'm going to say is that English Literature is a very hard and demanding subject, also of wider reading is needed.
If you want to take this course be prepared to analyse and make sure you are confident in finding vitually none exististant meaning from texts.
you may also need to study Othello/Hamlet, William Blake, Faustus, and WW1
Ahollisan
finding vitually none exististant meaning from texts

See, that's why I don't see the point of it.
Reply 16
-Sian-
If you want to read books and get an A-level for over-analysing them, do lit. If you want to overanalyse non-fiction texts then do lang. Simple!

If you don't want to waste your time on stupid subjects, don't do either. *waits for attack*


Well said, lit over-analyses things waaaayy too much. Don't get me started on symbolism in the glass menagerie, I'll just get told off again!
Reply 17
you mean psychology doesn't over-analyse things? The amount of analysis you put in depends entirely on your class and teacher. But yes, you don't just read a book, discuss it for half an hour, and that's the end of the module.
I'd also like to point out that Lit also covers non-fiction (most obviously (auto)biographical works and essays). Howerver, you do need to have read a lot beyond your class texts and have a decent general knowledge of literature, especially when it comes to context and so on.
Reply 18
I want to stick up for Eng Lang here. Saying its 'less academic' is just stupid. It requires detailed analysis of texts, just like lit, but also goes into socio-linguistic elements like the influence of gender on language, and the importance of accent and dialect. I have found it extremely interesting and relevent to my other subjects, and the A2 investigation coursework is very cool. :smile:

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