English or Legal Studies?

[osgood]

Hi everyone,
Subject swaps from Units 1 to 2 are due in tomorrow and I've been tossing up between switching from Philosophy to either Legal Studies or English.
I was going to choose Legal Studies mainly because I heard there was some overlap between it and NatPol which my school doesn't offer but then I thought I might choose English just in case I bomb in Lit.
 I'm madly in love with the english language, hence lit, so I don't think I'd have too many issues with English. However, I worry the different styles of Lit and Eng may conflict and confuse me or in the vary least, I will find English terribly terribly dull which may result in loss of motivation and complacency.
I prefer learning that is rooted in sound comprehension of concepts rather than blind rote learning if that's any factor.

I was thinking I'd trial Legal for a semester to see if I fall madly in love with it and if not, I'd switch to English in Year 12. The English teachers drill that Units 1 and 2 for English are of great importance but a Lit teacher secretly told me that was untrue.

Any thoughts?
Is there a large work load for either?

[ktrah]

If you really enjoy doing English related stuff then choosing English might be a good idea, especially if you're good at writing. It is different to Lit though, so it depends what type of writing or analysing you like doing. I would say English is pretty structured - there are three parts to the course so you can pretty easily guess whether you'll like it (of course it probably depends on class and teachers and stuff, at least for me it does). I don't think you'll get too confused doing both Lit and English - if anything it'll be a help doing both because you'll be writing more essays. And yeah, it acts as a bumper if you don't do so well in Lit.

In my opinion, Legal is basically blind rote learning (mostly). If you enjoy the content, you'll probably enjoy the subject, and there's definitely some overlap between Legal and AusPol. So far the work load hasn't been heavy at all - it would definitely be the subject I do the least work for. This is based on Units 3&4 though, and apparently it's quite different to 1&2 (which I didn't do).

I don't think it would be too bad picking up English next year, although the extra practice this year would definitely be helpful. But if you think you might enjoy Legal, then that might be the way to go. Good luck with choosing!

[Wingtips]

I'm doing English and Literature at the moment; in my opinion, it's certainly worth doing. Like you said, you have English as a 'back-up' whilst Literature is just a subject you thoroughly enjoy. If you love the English language, I'm sure you won't find English as dull as you think. And if anything, I've found that they both work hand in hand; my English is dramatically improved by my lit and the same the other way around. The workload isn't too bad, it's just the amount of practice essays you have to do. At my school, there's a large cohort of English students, so the subject is quite fast paced. But with Lit, it's very chill and just easy going given the smaller cohort of about 25 kids.

Even if you choose to do Legal Studies and then pick up English in year 12 that'll be okay as well. I only picked up English in year 12 and with the advice of some awesome AN members (VivaTequila - you should talk to him!), I'm doing fine. Like ktrah said, English teachers like structure whereas in Lit, it can vary. For me, Language Analyses are the toughest to do because they're so different from regular text responses and what not.

The different styles of Lit and Eng aren't too confusing (at least for me), like I said, they compliment each other. For example, Passage Analyses and Language Analyses. Although they are very different, they both teach you how to analyse language, just in different forms.

This is just my opinion, and I'm sure everyone who does Lit and English have different opinions. Hope it helps!

Edit: Just realised you must have already put your subject swaps in. What did you end up choosing?

[nacho]

legal has lot of rote learning and is really dry

english is fun

[charmanderp]

If you feel like English is a strength of yours, definitely go with that, particularly if you're strong with essays.

[osgood]

Thanks for all your opinions- ended up going with Legal, on the advice of the school's Lit teachers who convinced me that English was dull, dry and an unnecessary workload.
By the time I came back to read all these replies saying otherwise, the filing had gone in
Oh well, if I decide to switch to English next year, you've convinced me it'd not be ill advised.
Cheers!

[spaciiey]

having done both.... it just depends.

legal is dry but if you have a good memory, it's easy marks. i did hardly any work out of class and breezed through with an easy 45. i did 1+2 and 3+4 but other kids easily picked up legal in year 12 and did fine. tbh i think it'd be easier to pick up legal in year 12 than it would be english...

english is fun, if you have a good teacher. otherwise it's a bit meh. it's also a time killer, in terms of work, though other people might say it's a bludge. it's one of those subjects that i think is as interesting as you can make it. english is probably a better choice in terms of wanting to boost your atar score. i was ranked top in my lit class but because a lot of people in the class bombed the exam my study score (whilst still decent) went down with them. then again i see you go to macrob so i doubt you'll have the same problem i did! good luck.