Re:English & Liberal arts not for the weak-min (Score 1)

I've seen resumes and letters from some of my fellow graduates with English degrees -- people who, presumably, ought to be expert writers -- and they aren't.

Another article from a few years ago by a paper-mill writer pointed out an aspect of this I hadn't thought of before: people generally don't write good essays because they don't read essays on a regular basis. Most text that is read during the course of getting a degree isn't presented in 'essay' format. For an English degree you read a lot of novels but very few boring analytical essays. However, you're expected to write boring essays on a weekly basis.

Halfway through getting my English degree I realized that it wasn't a degree in 'writing' as I had assumed before - it's more of a degree in reading, because I did a hell of a lot more reading than writing. Close reading, analytical reading, boring reading, obscure reading, incomprehensible reading; a lot of goddamned reading. Writing was a necessary portion but not really the focus overall. At my school the difference between the general English degree I completed and a Creative Writing degree was two classes.

One thing that always baffled me working in the corporate world was the amount of customer-facing marketing and website material that was never proofread. That's how a company ends up with a full-page advertisement in the local paper proclaiming that they are The #1 Internet Proivder!

Overall, TFA makes me sad. I've written for money before but not for other people's schoolwork, and I don't know how I'd feel if I was offered a grand to crank out a thesis. It sounds like a tough way to make an easy living.