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rockprof
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« Reply #15 on: November 04, 2009, 06:39:08 PM » |
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A student who missed numerous assignments during the semester asked me for something to do for "extra" credit.
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The secret of teaching is to appear to have known all your life what you learned this afternoon.
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generic_handle
Inconsequential drone and
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Posts: 33
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« Reply #16 on: November 04, 2009, 07:41:08 PM » |
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... writers use "that" instead of "who" when referring to people, e.g., "Pastor X was the person that inspired me to do Y, Z, and Yogh."
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lostinthewoods
Junior member
Posts: 55
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« Reply #17 on: November 04, 2009, 07:50:19 PM » |
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Ah yes, "there's nothing on my topic."
When you send them to the library, we then get MY favorite:
"I've got all my sources, but I just need a couple articles to put in the bibliography."
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mended_drum
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« Reply #18 on: November 04, 2009, 07:51:36 PM » |
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Misused semi-colons. And inserting an extra space between paragraphs. I finally got annoyed and asked an otherwise strong writer why he put in the space - he said his Comp Professor told him too. I don't think he was lying but I can't imagine why the prof would do this (I understand wider margins for comments but not this space).
The paragraph thing is now the default setting on MS-Word; one of the first things I do is teach my classes how to permanently reset it. |
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midwestgrad
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« Reply #19 on: November 04, 2009, 08:10:18 PM » |
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...a student writes "arguement" instead of "argument". Grrr.
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wilbrish
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« Reply #20 on: November 05, 2009, 01:07:00 AM » |
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A student says "I did get what you wanted for this assignment" a week after it's due.
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barred_owl
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« Reply #21 on: November 05, 2009, 01:11:33 AM » |
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...anyone writes "independant" or "dependant" or "seperate."
...a student asks, "Will this be on the exam?"
...a student who has missed class asks, "Did I miss anything important?"
Actually, we could all be retired and living on the beach somewhere if we got dollars for any of these!
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...I can't help rooting for the underdog underbird. |
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biologist_
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« Reply #22 on: November 05, 2009, 01:40:54 AM » |
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A student working on a researched essay told me "I can't find any books or articles on my topic" when said topic is something that's been talked about endlessly in both the academic and popular presses -- like "shopping addiction" or "evils of bottled water." Arghghghghgh!
In biology, I think students tend to do this because basic topics like the growth rate of yeast or the activity of some enzyme have been known for many years. There are hundreds of current papers each year that have this information in them, but always as a control for some other experiment or in some specific context that confuses the student. Moreover, no one would bother to put "growth rate of yeast" in the title (or even the abstract) these days because the paper is really about something else. That makes it harder for students with poor database searching skills to find anything. The classic papers that reported the growth rate of yeast as the major result are many decades old and the database coverage may not go back that far. Even if it does, older results often show up at the bottom of the search. I can sympathize somewhat. If I have to look up something like the growth rate of yeast from the primary literature, it might take me fifteen or twenty minutes to wade through several pages of search hits and a few actual papers before I find one with the data I need in the context I need. For an undergrad to do the same thing would take much longer and they might give up in despair. |
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kshenko
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« Reply #23 on: November 05, 2009, 02:05:53 AM » |
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A student working on a researched essay told me "I can't find any books or articles on my topic" when said topic is something that's been talked about endlessly in both the academic and popular presses -- like "shopping addiction" or "evils of bottled water." Arghghghghgh!
Ohhhh, wow, this happens to me SOOOO frequently, and it drives me nuts every time--especially when my MA or doctoral students tell me this.. I don't know if they actually looked and were too clueless/unskilled to find ANYTHING on topics that have literally been beaten to death--or if they are just giving me the old "I got nothing but I tried really really hard" excuse. Some even tell me that the librarians couldn't find anything, either. They must think I am horrendously stupid. |
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elsie
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« Reply #24 on: November 05, 2009, 07:16:15 AM » |
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... for every sentence, written by a student, which starts with the phrase "There are". If they had to pay me themselves, some could buy me a nice dinner with one essay.
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"People assume that time is a strict progression from cause to effect. But actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff." - the Doctor
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magistra
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« Reply #25 on: November 05, 2009, 10:20:35 AM » |
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...anyone writes "independant" or "dependant" or "seperate."
...a student asks, "Will this be on the exam?"
...a student who has missed class asks, "Did I miss anything important?"
Actually, we could all be retired and living on the beach somewhere if we got dollars for any of these!
"Independant" and "dependant" are actually accepted alternate spellings. They're not as common, but they're not wrong. |
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First it was Wolfram and Hart, now it's Blackboard. There's not much moral difference, if you ask me. -- Malcha
Grammar is the chocolate in the buttery croissant of life. -- Yellowtractor
Okay, so that was petty. Today, I feel like embracing pettiness. -- Mended Drum
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patter
Junior member
Posts: 87
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« Reply #26 on: November 05, 2009, 10:31:19 AM » |
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Ooh ooh, I have one!! Just think, a dollar for every time I read "defiantly" when the student means "definitely." Although it does amuse slightly when reading that such-and-so "defiantly had strong opinions" or some such. Kind of fun to picture those kinds of debates.
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elsie
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« Reply #27 on: November 05, 2009, 10:42:17 AM » |
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Ooh ooh, I have one!! Just think, a dollar for every time I read "defiantly" when the student means "definitely." Although it does amuse slightly when reading that such-and-so "defiantly had strong opinions" or some such. Kind of fun to picture those kinds of debates.
That's Microsoft Word's fault. Any mistyped version of definitely is auto-corrected to defiantly. I was making a handout for writing teachers once about just that kind of mistake, and MS Word did it to me too. IIRC, I was trying to type it defintely, and it auto-corrected to defiantly. |
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"People assume that time is a strict progression from cause to effect. But actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff." - the Doctor
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magistra
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« Reply #28 on: November 05, 2009, 10:52:02 AM » |
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First it was Wolfram and Hart, now it's Blackboard. There's not much moral difference, if you ask me. -- Malcha
Grammar is the chocolate in the buttery croissant of life. -- Yellowtractor
Okay, so that was petty. Today, I feel like embracing pettiness. -- Mended Drum
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patter
Junior member
Posts: 87
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« Reply #29 on: November 05, 2009, 11:30:23 AM » |
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Fantastic! And the holidays are coming, so I can point my kids to this and have fun next term (and for the years ahead, too.) Thanks, magistra.
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