English Vs. Literature

[BadWolf_]

I'm a student that has excelled in English throughout the entirety of my school years; straight A's, A+'s...nothing less. I'm very good at writing and read a lot, primarily because I enjoy it so much. I don't find it difficult in any aspect. I'm heading into VCE next year and don't quite understand (and nobody seems to be able to give me a straight answer.)what the difference is between Literature and English? What do they specifically entail? Which is the more valuable study when it comes down to your ATAR score?

[literally lauren]

It depends on your strengths.
English is more criteria oriented; you'll be writing a couple of different types of essays, some that look at specific texts, some that involve analysing newspaper arti les/speeches, and some that involve broader ideas. Literature is arguable more creative and you'll still get a bunch of different essays throughout the year, but ultimately it's a lot more text centric. Where in English you'd be discussing characters and themes, Literature focuses more on language and how it's used to create meaning, but of course there's a lot of overlap between them.

I recommend taking a look at the past exam papers and assessor's reports (just google it) for each subject since that should give you a vague idea. There's also some sample essays in the report that might help. That said, if you're in Year 10 then there'll be a new study design by the time you're in year 12, but it's not radically different.

In terms of which is better for your ATAR, English scales down by 1, Lit goes up by 1, so it's not a massive difference. Your enjoyment and skill in the subject will sway it a lot more.
Best of luck deciding, let me know if you need any clarification

[achre]

I'd say the main difference is that Literature is a lot more independent than English. For the most part, it will be your own ideas and you'll get to choose the best format for structuring your essays.

If you're comfortable with English so far, then feel free to stick with English. A lot of the VELS curriculum is geared towards preparing you for VCE English, whereas Literature represents a break from the somewhat more structured nature of English. If you're currently thriving with concrete models for essays, languge analysis, oral presentations and you just generally prefer it when your assessments are more instructional, then it would definitely be safer to continue with VCE English.

But you mentioned that you love reading, which leads me to think that you probably wouldn't struggle with Lit. I know I enjoyed Lit a great deal more than I ever did English (I went from a C+/B student in year 10 english to a straight A+ student in year 11/12 english lit), so it's entirely possible that you might do even better in lit than you are currently. Like Lauren said, and like everyone else will tell you, when the scaling for a subject is a matter of 1, what's "better" for your ATAR is going to depend a whole lot more on what/how you prefer to study.

A good overview of the course structure for Lit can be found here: EZ's Guide to Succeeding in VCE Literature

[BadWolf_]

Thank you both very much for your advice! Gives me more to think about and consider 

[drmockingbird]

Lit is a lot harder. I kinda regret taking it, even though my SAC marks are good and all, if you don't have a good teacher (which we don't), class will be a nightmare.

It's a lot more subjective as well, which caters to different types of students. I enjoy reading the texts but when I get to the SAC/exam I want to be able to 'tick off boxes' to get the marks - lit doesn't really work like this, but with english if you stick to good structure and have a decent discussion you can sort of 'objectively' determine your marks, far more than lit.

Also this - http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/impostor.png, you get a lot of students (and teachers, for that matter), more interesting in 'waffling on' than having any decent discussion. It makes revising tough because the notes your school gives you could be really periphrastic and not really say anything - I remember once our teacher told us that the text was 'about something, and something else', which as you can tell didn't make life very easy.

On the other hand, Literature is arguably more intellectually rewarding than English - the texts are studied deeper, more focus on language rather than context/theme, and you encounter some really magnificent works of art. If you enjoy reading, this will redeem the experience a little bit

[walkec]

I currently do both and I wouldn't have it any other way. This is because whilst I do find Lit harder than English, I also find English so boring at times. So the different, more analytical tasks in Lit help me develop my skills, and the writing tasks in Lit help me to develop my writing. I have seen a massive improvement in how I write this year too.

So overall, I feel taking Literature has been a massive help to my English skills. Doing both can be a lot of work but I honestly love doing both. My advice is to take both units of 1/2, see how you go and then decide for 3/4. Or alternatively, do what my brother did and take 1/2 and then continue with 3/4 and pick up 3/4 English 

[kandinsky]

Do Lit! It's the best