A Level choices English Language or Politics

[chickensandbees]

DD would love to get into publishing or anything to do with writing, books. Ultimately she'd like to be an author. She is deciding on A Level choices and is definitely going to do English Literature and History, she is not sure whether to do English Language for her third choice or Politics. She was originally going to do English Language as she thinks it would be better for a book career but had a sixth form taster day and loved the sound of the politics course.

Has anyone any experience of both courses and could offer any advice? From looking at English Language it doesn't seem to be about creative writing but more about how languages develop etc. I feel like Politics gives her more choice post A level but don't want to give her the wrong advice.

Yeh Eng lang A level is not creative writing, much more about language development. Not very like the GCSE. Politics is fine for her plan and if she’s engaged by it, all the better.

If she wants to be an author, she should write. In fact if that’s truly what she wants, then she will be writing already. Best of luck to her.

DD is doing an A Level which is "English Language and Literature" and the language component is very much about as PP said about Language development and components. We asked teacher about the exam boards and went thru syllabus to see what would interest her, for example she knew she didn't want to study Shakespeare which was on the A Level English Literature but not for the A Level she's doing. I would also check with the college as the two we went to see on open days said students couldn't do English for two A Levels so if you did Lit you couldn't do Lang and vice versa. Think the combined one she's doing has been perfect for her.

My DD is also doing combined English and I think she was told that they could do Eng lit and Eng lang A levels but couldn't do either of those two with the Eng combined because the exam board wouldn't allow it. But she is at a huge college where any combination of A levels is possible.

She also loves the combined because she didn't fancy the texts offered for the Lit course. She's thinking of doing linguistics at Uni.

There is a creative writing NEA in English Language in the AQA version (unsure about other boards).

But yes, it's not like GCSE and it is mostly about understanding language/linguistics.

I don't think either English Lang or Politics will make any difference to future options.
Your DD should take the subject she thinks she will most enjoy.

Thanks @clary she constantly writes, has outlines of about 10 novels and has written 60,000 words of the ones she is currently working (which in my completely biased opinion is really good). I think it would be amazing if she could make this her career, but want to manage her expectations.

That’s fantastic! Well done her. A writer friend told me once that about 90% of writing is revising what you’ve written. That’s great that she is so motivated

I think if she wants to be a writer then a broader understanding of various topics would be better than 2 English A Levels. Also the English language A Level is more linguistics than creative writing.

Politics. A levels won’t help really. You don’t really learn how to write a novel. You need ideas and talent.

Writing is a very poorly paid career unless you are very lucky.
Publishing generally is a poorly paid profession though very rewarding (I speak from experience!).
As she is already doing English Lit and History, I might steer towards Politics, if she thinks she'll actually like it.
If she can get involved in writing groups or do a creative writing course on the side, that might provide her with extra support if she needs it.

I would probably go for politics as it gives her more breadth of knowledge which has to be a good thing for being a writer.
Also things change in the 2 years of A levels, she might decide she doesn't actually want to do an English degree so politics gives her more choice of degree courses

Looking at newspapers, journalists tend to have specialisms. They have great knowledge about their subject. Novelists also. Publishers take many grads not just English grads. I’d write and get published. Anyone can have a go at that.

Which courses are you thinking of that she'd be able to do with politics that she couldn't with English Lang A Level?

I'm an author and studied politics and the mixed English language and literature A-level. I found the politics A-level gave such a great understanding of British politics and it stayed with me all my life. If I were her I wouldn't do English language on its own. The politics A-level will involve writing essays so she can hone her skills there.

It's brilliant she has so many ideas on the dedication to put them into practice. When she gets published make sure you come on here and tell us her name

Loving the sound of Politics A level is a really good reason to do it.

it might be worth travelling to find a college that does a combined Lit and Lang A level that has a creative writing element. At DD's college the ones who want to do creative writing all take the combined Lit Lang A level. Then she could have her cake and eat it.