Why is English lit better than English language?

Why is English lit better than English language at a level? i've heard this a lot, i was wondering why? a lot of school offer english literature instead of english language. why?

Reply 1

J Dizzle

Original post by dobrev04

Why is English lit better than English language at a level? i've heard this a lot, i was wondering why? a lot of school offer english literature instead of english language. why?

I don't do english myself so I can't provide a fantastic answer, but my college offers english literature A level and english language A level.

I think universities consider English Literature to be harder and more respected, but most of the people i speak to prefer English Literature because you read books and its more interesting :smile:

! everyone i know that did English Language found it very boring, just explaining language techniques in essays constantly and using big terminology. My best friend did English Language at AS and dropped it because she hated it. However English Literature is really popular at my college!

However it is different for everyone which sounds interesting and which you enjoy the most! :smile:

I did a taster session for English Language to see if i'd like it A level and found it wasn't like at GCSE anymore. Maybe this helps haha :P!

Reply 2

JordieBlue

I do both Lang and Lit, I have to say I like Lang way more. It's easier and just more useful. Lit seems to be really popular at my college. Most people seem to think you can just bullsh*t your way through it, you can't if you want a decent grade. Universities seem to prefer it, not certain about that but that's why I took both.

Reply 3

hannxo

I do Lang and Lit as one a level and I love it. There is a lot more people on this course than on the Lit course. I found that we read more modern texts and the language stuff I found really interesting as well.

Reply 4

ledyaisthebest

I recently started my GCSE english lang and lit courses as two separate gcses and i prefer english lang a lot more:
1) I dont really understand WHY we NEED English Lit
2) Language, I find, is a lot more useful and appicable to everyday life.
3) I'm not much of a reader and I am very impatient with books so Literature is not my thing.

Reply 5

katiebecks

eng lit is more critical, texts have to be learnt and quotes memorised and it requires analysis and good essay writing skills and most of this stuff is regarded highly by universities

eng lang you can basically bullsht your way through

Reply 6

diggy

i enjoy lit but would have chosen lang because I found it easier

With lit once i've conquered the essence of the writer's thoughts they I enjoy it whereas if i'm reading the driest extract known to man part of my soul dies