How to excel as an English major

I: What to Expect

Expect to read! When you sign up for a literature course, anticipate spending many hours every week in the company of books. Let this be your one great expectation, and you will not be disappointed. Do you like to read? Do you enjoy stories? Do you feel enriched by having your ideas challenged, by thinking philosophically about the circumstances of life, people, and abstract concepts, or by experiencing the beauty that is possible through the skilled or merely felicitous use of language? If so, then you will probably get along just fine with the company you'll be keeping.

But, alas, there are other factors--factors of a decidedly practical aspect--that insist on being taken into consideration. First, there is that most obtrusive time factor. Do you have the time to invest into a literature course? Courses vary, yet it is safe to say that literature will always take whatever time you can give to it, and teachers often demand that you give to it more time than you are inclined or believe that you are capable of giving. Therefore, expect to read even beyond your inclination and supposed capability. Such a conclusion may seem too vague to be helpful, but it is meant to suggest an attitude that may be of benefit when you find that all of your courses have assignments due during the same week. Of course, only you can decide what your schedule will permit, but if you have doubts, allow yourself the liberty of examining the course requirements before you commit yourself.

Second, there is the factor of your reading speed and comprehension. If you know that you lack the reading skills necessary to keep up with the course schedule, you may want to make that self-knowledge the basis of your commitment to the course. If you engage only in those activities in which you know that you can succeed, you're not likely ever to break through to any new success. John Stuart Mill said it best in his Autobiography: "A pupil from whom nothing is ever demanded which he cannot do, never does all he can." Not all excellence is measured by an academic grade. If you have a weakness in reading, either in speed or comprehension, a literature course may not be the course to take for an assured "A," and yet it may provide you with the incentive to excell in self-improvement. Therefore, expect to improve as a reader.

What might you expect regarding the class and the way that the course is taught? Well, if you already have expectations, then expect also to be surprised. Some literature courses require considerable writing, others do not. Some emphasize the lecture as a mode of teaching, others favor class discussion, perhaps even allowing for student presentations. No single approach works best for all teachers or, for that matter, all classes. Therefore, aside from the expectation of being required to read, it is best not to have set expectations regarding the way that the course is structured or taught. In fact, whether a