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2. When I taught literature and creative writing, there wasn't one "journey" who lasted past the drop/add deadline of any class over a thirteen-year span.
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I think I can explain this. If you had also taught Journalism, I think you would have seen the other side of the coin. I attended one of the top Journalism schools in the country, at the time, and Journalism majors seldom did well in English Lit./creative writing there, either, but English Lit./creative writing majors usually did extremely well in Journalism.
We had a bunch of students in journalism who were English Lit./creatrive writing majors first, and Journalism majors second.
That was my case. My first love was writing fiction, and I majored in English Lit./creative writing, but I took a second major in Journalism. I actually signed up for five majors because we were encouraged to take several, and drop the ones we found unpleasant before the first month was out. I dropped three, but kept English Lit/creative writing and Journalism as majors. So did a great many other students.
Anyway, our first Journalism 101 class was taught by a seasoned reporter who worked for The New York Times, and one of the first things he told us was to forget everything we learned in English class. It was good advice, but some took it too literally. Namely, those whose first love was Journalism, who really wanted to be news reporters. and those students seldom did well in any English and creative writing courses they took.
But those of us who were English Lit./creative writing majors first knew what to take and what to leave, and it helped.
First year Journalism teaches little that helps with fiction, and this, too, explains why straight Journalism majors generally do poorly in English and creative writing.
But if you're already good at writing fiction, if your first love is fiction, Journalism takes hold about half way through year two. That's when we got into writing human interest pieces, humor columns, etc. These pieces told a story, and bore almost no resemblance to straight news reporting. I still use the techniques I learned in those classes to write short stories, and it works very well.
But, yeah, Journalism majors in an elective upper division English class were just as rare when and where I was, but English Lit./creative writing majors who also took Journalism classes were a different story.
A telling point is that those of use who were English Lit./creative writing majors first generally were less than stellar at straight news reporting. The inverted pyramid/just the facts, ma'am style of writing is pretty constraining to a fiction writer, but we excelled at human interest, humor columns, etc., places where telling a story about people came first.
Cripe, Chase. Small wonder the journalism students were fleeing your courses. Your entire post drips contempt for journalists.
