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English literature GCSE

Arran Cameron
What does the IET and the engineering community think of the English literature GCSE? Is it relevant or beneficial for engineering or is it (like food tech) something that hardly anybody cares about?


English literature is a near compulsory GCSE in England but is now optional in Wales where it has experienced quite a heavy decline in the number of secondary school students taking it.
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    I took and failed O level English Literature, simply because I didn’t put the work in, to prepare for the examination. It  does help to have done more than skim read the set books!? I had read a number trashy paperback novels full of sex and violence, that I won’t name now. In fact my English Teacher, myself and a friend , were interviewed on Radio 4 after he had spoken at an educational conference about how young people devoured material aligned to their interests, but hated Shakespeare etc. I also loved Crown Court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Court_(TV_series)  which I watched when I went “home for lunch” and probably learned a lot from it.  Perhaps spurred by some remorse for my 16 year old self, I later became quite “bookish” at times.


    The nature of my role in recent years means that I have seen a great many pieces of written work by Engineers applying for Professional Registration.  Eloquence of expression is clearly an advantage gained by many of those with an advantaged academic preparation, although it can be developed in other ways. The profession tends to communicate a message that engineering is all about maths and some elements obviously are. However, to exercise leadership you have to influence, by describing, evaluating, recommending and persuading. There are hardly ever simple black and white answers to more complex challenges. 

    I would therefore strongly recommend the study of “storytelling” as a something valuable for engineers looking towards leadership. As a purely personal feeling, I also think that it is easy to slip “over the line” into intellectual pretentiousness through the use of language intended to impress rather than inform, but that is in the eye of the beholder.  Examples might include references to classics, Latin etc, which are primarily the realm of those privately educated or specialised academic language. The IET has some Journalists , perhaps one of them would like to comment?  I obviously lack their key skill of succinctness; or is that the editors? “Brevity is the soul of wit”! – actually it was Macbeth that I neglected not Hamlet?                
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    I took and failed O level English Literature, simply because I didn’t put the work in, to prepare for the examination. It  does help to have done more than skim read the set books!? I had read a number trashy paperback novels full of sex and violence, that I won’t name now. In fact my English Teacher, myself and a friend , were interviewed on Radio 4 after he had spoken at an educational conference about how young people devoured material aligned to their interests, but hated Shakespeare etc. I also loved Crown Court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Court_(TV_series)  which I watched when I went “home for lunch” and probably learned a lot from it.  Perhaps spurred by some remorse for my 16 year old self, I later became quite “bookish” at times.


    The nature of my role in recent years means that I have seen a great many pieces of written work by Engineers applying for Professional Registration.  Eloquence of expression is clearly an advantage gained by many of those with an advantaged academic preparation, although it can be developed in other ways. The profession tends to communicate a message that engineering is all about maths and some elements obviously are. However, to exercise leadership you have to influence, by describing, evaluating, recommending and persuading. There are hardly ever simple black and white answers to more complex challenges. 

    I would therefore strongly recommend the study of “storytelling” as a something valuable for engineers looking towards leadership. As a purely personal feeling, I also think that it is easy to slip “over the line” into intellectual pretentiousness through the use of language intended to impress rather than inform, but that is in the eye of the beholder.  Examples might include references to classics, Latin etc, which are primarily the realm of those privately educated or specialised academic language. The IET has some Journalists , perhaps one of them would like to comment?  I obviously lack their key skill of succinctness; or is that the editors? “Brevity is the soul of wit”! – actually it was Macbeth that I neglected not Hamlet?                
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