YACoQ: What can someone who can write pretty well...

[Syringer]

but can't read worth crap do, in terms of a major or job?

I think writing is one of my best skills..and after trying to decipher Laplace's theorem in Differential Equations I'm considering a major change from Math/Statistics.

The only problem though, is that I can't read anything that doesn't interest me. I could try, but I my attention span goes after about 2 minutes..so something like English is certainly out of the question.

Journalism might be an idea, but my school doesn't offer it, and I'm not really the type to go around reporting and all either..

Is there anything else out there?

 

[Stratum9]

Even if your school did offer Journalism, it would be a concentration of an English major curriculum. You could pretty much assume that anything involving writing is going to require reading. The two go hand in hand. You can't develop as a writer without a healthy diet of reading material any more than a weight lifter could win a competition without pumping any iron.

Maybe technical writing, but then again, most tech writers I've known were once English majors....

 

[amnesiac]

You're creating blocks for yourself. That's no way to go about things. If you purposely limit yourself to "no reading" then you're SOL because chances are your major will make you read, and not all of it will interest you.

I understand you want minimal reading of non-topical material, but if you don't have English or Journalism available as an option, you could try Communications or Creative Writing, if either of those are offered.

If writing is your only skill you might have to bite the bullet and do a major you don't really like or find another field that interests you. For example, I'm good with computers, music, numbers, and am a huge film geek, but I tried cinema, CSCI, and business, and finally ended up in Psychology. As such, you might be better off in a major in which you enjoy the subject as opposed to what you're "good" at.

As alternatives, you might look into Philosophy, Film (critical studies), Religion, Psychology, or anything in Humanities. Those generally give you a broader and less stringent curriculum than engineering/math.

*edit*

Like Stratum9 said, reading and writing go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other. What good can you do in developing your writing skill when you refuse to read writings of others?

 

[Syringer]

Yeah..sucks that writing curriculums usually go hand in hand with reading. It's kind of weird though..in my English class I do horrible on reading quizzes, as I usually rank near the bottom in my class..but my teachers usually really like my essays which are based on the same readings that I never really understood in the first place..

 

[amnesiac]

Originally posted by: Syringer
Yeah..sucks that writing curriculums usually go hand in hand with reading. It's kind of weird though..in my English class I do horrible on reading quizzes, as I usually rank near the bottom in my class..but my teachers usually really like my essays which are based on the same readings that I never really understood in the first place..

1) Learn to speedread or superskim.
2) Cliff's Notes / Barron's Booknotes
3) Figure out what the teacher looks for in quizzes, tests, and reports. Focus on those parts of the book.

I made it through my Russian Literature AP course with a B- without ever reading any of the books. And no, the class was NOT easy at all.