SCRIBBLE
“To Make A Long Story Short” Why English? By Meg Heaney I’ve been asked that question a lot lately. From my decision to study English at university, to completing my UCAS personal statement, to the interview room, it all seems to boil down to “Why English?”
For me, my English Literature “journey” thus far has been gradual and eye-opening. The more I read and research, the more I fall in love with the subject – as corny as that sounds. It was at the start of Year 12 that I seriously began to consider studying English beyond the walls of a school classroom, and despite having read avidly when I was younger, I’ve never been one of those who had read all the classics or knew of the greatest
Such a simple question hardly ever generates an equally simple answer. If English is the subject that you want to study at university then some part of you already intuitively knows the answer to this question – whether you are able to adequately verbalise it or not, you just know! The same could be said for any other subject.
literary writers. However, I think the most important thing that
Deciding to study English Literature at university was a very easy decision – I knew it was the subject that I wanted to take further and more than anything else.
favourites were Victorian and Feminist Literature, as well as
my application has taught me is that an English student doesn’t need to have read every single book in the world, or even enjoy every book they’ve ever read, to be suited to studying English. The preparation for writing my personal statement proved the most fun; in order to write a statement that makes you stand out as a student and that eloquently describes the aspects of literature that you love and are passionate about, requires the work of reading widely and deeply, with research and critical analysis. This gives you free-reign to find your favourite time period, genre, or author within literature – my personal dystopian fiction. To build a personal statement that’s unique and substantial, you can’t just read a novel and then move on. It requires critical analysis of the text and the application of literary criticism alongside an understanding of the work’s
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