Undergraduate Composition, and Attendant Madness.
I have been buried in wretched sophomore composition papers of late, and have had little time to post. Go read The Onion or something until I get about passing along the meme I've been tagged with by the evil Alfina Vague. As if meme-tagging were the kind of thing that we civilized academic types were wont to do. So soon, you will all get to once again read more about me in list form, as if we hadn't had quite enough of that thing around here. But you will read, lest you be tagged in return. Mark my words, and hark and lo and stuff, and maybe even a "verily I say to thee." So please be patient while I read 100 handwritten pages of uninhibited spew from my kiddies.
posted by JPS at 1/30/2006 08:32:00 PM
7 Comments:
Ah yes, the glory of grading rubbish. Happens fairly often to all of us in education.
Isn't it the worst when yu're grading a paper and you think "Where do I even begin?"
I had forgotten how easlily suceptable to peer presure you were. Even so I look forward to your listings.
Hamel,
The "where do I even begin" feeling hits me even worse as a tutor when people show up the evening before their papers are due with drafts that deserve the advice "burn this and begin again."
Nice picture of you and the family, BTW.
DS,
I am shamelessly buffeted about by the winds of peer pressure, so much so that I'm tagging you with this meme when I'm done with it. And no, that sentence didn't make any kind of logical sense. The Writing Center kids are infecting me with their inanity.
HAHA! I am evil! You must succumb to my memish demands!
But I feel your pain on those papers. I was told by a friend I should implement a wine-based grading scheme. For example: "I needed three glasses of cab to finish your essay. THIS IS NOT OKAY."
Vague,
Sorry to seem out of the loop, but I am at a loss to see what exactly is wrong with three glasses of cab. Especially a fine bottle like Plumpjack. Though as an engineering student I'm understand you may be making some sort of venerable Bede reference that is wholy beyond my knowledge.
However, I can fix a blown headgasket.
Saab, it's just that after 25-30 three-glass papers, Even a seasoned wino like me will start feeling the pain. They should be striving to write papers so perfect that they reach the intoxicating level of wine without the headache. Or calories. Then I can have three glasses of cab after the grading, in a glorious celebration. Aaah.
I'm not sure which is the greater hell, to grade the nearly (or perhaps completely) unintelligible writing of your students or in my case, attempting to sell them car insurance via telephone.
I always know the calls are going downhill when they tell me they live in the state of Louisville or that they are calling for a free "coat" or "croat". I shudder when they tell me their occupation is "black" or "male".
I fear for the future of our country with every call.
Post a Comment
<< Home