What Can English Studies Do?

When asked the question, What can English Studies do? I was
stumped. English studies, to me, is the study of language whether it be
reading or writing. When I decided to become an English major, I knew I
wanted to do something with writing in my career choice. Before I hade
made this decision, however, I was a Political Science major and minoring in
English. The plan was to go to Law School and become a Corporate Attorney
and live happily ever after. Well, as my spring semester of freshman year
rolled around, that idea did not seem that appealing. Therefore, I took a step
back and really stated to think about what I really loved doing.
It was after taking my first college level writing class, I had realized
that I was obsessed with writing. As I was pondering on whether to take on
an English major or not, I thought about how I could possibly connect the two
things I loved the most: writing and Political Science. The answer came to
me after I was reading an article on BuzzFeed discussing the arguments that
were being presented in the Supreme Court hearing on gay marriage (Supreme
CourtRulesInFavorOfNationwideMarriageEquality). It was after reading this
particular article that I was going to pursue a career in Political writing.
Now well into my sophomore year of college, I have not only learned
about the fundamentals of English, such as reading and writing, but I have
also learned about other areas of English that were not know to me before.
Some subject matter that that I have discovered thus far in my career in
English Studies is the work related to real -world issues, poetry, and

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linguistics. While I did know Poetry was a part of English studies, I was very
interested to learn that real world issues and linguistics have a part in
English Studies too. Due to my career choice, I was very pleased to see that
real-world issues have a part in English Studies. The reason being is I enjoy
discussing problems in my English classes that I am also discussing in my
Political Science classes due to the fact that I get to see different view points
from different types of students. Thus, the way I see English Studies is with
more focus on real-world issues and more of a focus on linguistics. I believe
that these should be just as important as the fundamentals of English
because students should know more about what they are writing about and
should be able to know what to research in order to become a successful
English major student.
Black Lives Matter is about fighting for the unfair justice African
American people feel they have in America. This issue has come to the
forefront of a lot of conversations in resent presidential debates and rallies in
the past few months. A man named Heath Rumble, recently wrote a
discourse report on how the activists of BLM are going about trying to solve
the problem. The report is centered mostly on a recent even where Bernie
Sanders, a democratic 2016 presidential nominee, was having a campaign
rally in Seattle around June. Initially what occurred was two activists stormed
the stage and demanded that Bernie Sanders discuss the unfair justice
African Americans were receiving today (BernieSandersandBlackLivesMatter).
Although this was a drastic move on the activists part, Rumble believed it did

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some good because it got people talking about why they stormed the stage
and started a new discussion with presidential candidates on what could
possibly be done. If teachers could incorporate this kind of discussion of real
world issues inside the classroom, it would not only help educate students
on what BLM is, but also maybe let the students brainstorm what could be
done to help solve the injustice of this issue.
The NCTE published an article regarding the teaching of real - world
issues in the classroom, such as black lives matter (NCTEStatementAffirming
#BlackLivesMatter). I agree with the NCTE full heartedly because I believe
real - world issues need to be taught more in classrooms. Students should
be able to form their own opinions instead of just piggybacking on what
their parents beliefs are. If teachers start to teach students about real world issues at a young age, the issues will become less controversial and
start to mean something to the students instead. With my career choice
being a political writer, teaching kids about real - world issues early on
would, hopefully, help them understand politics better than they do now.
There have been several instances where I have had to explain to my friends
what some of the world issues are in the media because they were never
talked about in the classroom. This is unacceptable because how are we
supposed to be voting citizens but we are not allowed to talk about what the
candidates stand for?
Real world issues are also important because it brings a modern twist
to English studies in the classroom. In most schools, teachers teach the

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standard History, Math, Science, and English (ElementarySchoolTeacher).

Although this may seem that real world issues take a part in these classes
however, that is not the case. In most cases, the students are taught about
the history of the United States or difference science and math equations.
But, if English teachers, today, discussed with the students the aspects of
black lives matter, they would be able to look at, not only the world
differently, but they would also look at our history differently. What I mean
by this is they would take notice that when they are taught history in the
classroom, they are taught the Caucasian race history. It is not very likely
that the history of an African American will be taught unless they did
something extraordinary like Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr. This could
be changed if teachers discussed real world issues with there students
because not only would it educate the students about what is happening
outside of the classroom, but it can also help shape their opinions on political
issues like I have stated above.
While I do believe poetry is important, I do not think it should be a
main focus in the English Studies department. Alexander makes the point
that poetry needs to be an important part of English Studies. I do not agree
with Alexanders point of view that poetry should be a main focus of English
Studies. However, I do believe that writing poetry is an important skill to
have. Not only does it release stress by writing about the subject that is
causing stress, but it also gets those creative juices flowing. Poetry can
however be an outlet for real world issues. A poem by Carol Carter titled,

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Black Lives Matter Anthem is a perfect example. The poem illustrates

how passionate people are about this issue that has come to a forefront in
the United States (BlackLivesMatterAnthemPoem). Now, if teachers were
teaching poetry in this type of context, to discuss real world issues, I would
full-heartedly get behind Alexander and agree that poetry should be a main
skill that is taught throughout the English Studies department.
Linguistics should have a big part in English Studies. Unfortunately it is
not as big of a subject matter in the English Studies department as it should
be (EnglishStudies:AnIntroductiontotheDiscipline(s)). Not only is it the study of
language, which is crucial to English for obvious reasons, but it also is the
study of research. In my Introduction to English Studies class, we recently
had a few Grad students and a professor come talk to us about linguistics.
What I learned from this is that we should have more of these classes offered
at my university, North Dakota State University. The reason these speakers
had such an impact on me is because I realized just how much research has
yet to be learned by students. Just in the span of time that the speakers
were with us, I learned about a study in which one of the Grad students
traveled around the upper Midwest to research how different people said the
word Bison. Now, this discussion was just during one class time. Imagine if
there were several classes such as this where the students learned about
different forms of language and why people say things the way they do. I am
aware that there are a select number of classes that have linguistics as its
basis; however, I think that there should be more. As of now, there is only

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one professor that is designated to the linguistics program. I believe that

there should be at least one more professor on the subject so that linguistics
can reach as many students as possible.
English Studies has a lot of great aspects throughout the entirety of
their courses. However, the English Studies department does lack in some
areas of study. Due to this fact, I believe that the way English Studies should
be taught is with more focus on real-world issues and more of a focus on
linguistics. These fields of study should be just as important as the
fundamentals of English because students should know more about what
they are writing about and should be able to know what to research in order
to become a successful English major student.

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Works Cited
Geidner,Chris."SupremeCourtRulesInFavorOfNationwideMarriageEquality."BuzzFeed.
BuzzFeed,26June2015.Web.22Oct.2015.
Hunter,CarolCarterPoem."BlackLivesMatterAnthemPoem."Poemhunter.com.Poem
Hunter,2015.Web.22Oct.2015.
McComiskey,Bruce."EnglishStudies:AnIntroductiontotheDiscipline(s)."Linguistics(n.d.):
6780.Print.
NCTE."NCTEStatementAffirming#BlackLivesMatter."NCTEComprehensiveNews.NCTE,
22Sept.2015.Web.22Oct.2015.
UniversityofSouthernCalifornia."ElementarySchoolTeacher."Teachcom.TeachMakeA
Difference,2014.Web.22Oct.2015.