School Essays

[Alexia Angel Holtes]

Okay, you know what, I got this essay back that I did for English, and I got an 85, not a bad grade mind you. But when I noticed something was that the worse student in the class, no grammar, no spelling, or anything, got a 99, I just don't get it. I mean, he didn't spell anything right, nor used commas or semi-colons or anything, but he got a HIGHER grade than I did! eek I mean, what is wrong with that?! I just don't get it! Why should someone as incompentent as him get a higher grade than all the other students in the class? I mean, his spelling is like this.

"i once fund a pup and i luved it vry mch."

He got an A... I mean, the fact that he got a higher grade than me doesn't matter, but how could he get an A with spelling like that?

 

[abarrach]

Raise a stink over it.
Spelling and grammar are important, damn it!

I believe there ought to be a minimum of 10% of any essay allocated for spelling and grammar.  

[SilverMaple]

Obivously, your teacher thought that the content of his work and his meaning was absolutely correct and overrode the fact that his grammar sucked.

For God's sake, why can't teachers understand that English class includes GRAMMAR and SPELLING? scream In my English class, that paper would FAIL. FAIL, I TELL YOU! scream *Takes deep, calming breaths* Forgive me, but I cannot stand the unfairness of it. mad  

[Kukushka]

My goodness. The education system is going down the tank.

If I handed something in like that, my professor would just hand it back to me and say "I'm not reading this." It happens with first year students a lot more than I would have thought possible. My sister in law (yes, I am in the same family as someone who uses txt tlk) handed in a paper written like that her first year in University. The professor just told her she had two days to re-write it or she would fail.

Later years, unless you have a very nice and forgiving professor, you would just fail the assignment entirely. They don't even want to bother marking something unreadable.

A few typos here and there, fine. Were I an English teacher, I would overlook them. But txt tlk is inexcusable and should be an instant fail, as far as I am concerned. There are some things you just don't do - handing in an academic assignment with that kind of "slang" is one of them.  

[darkrose_eve]

The horror...  

[Dreaming in the Theatre]

That makes me very, very sad. I think teachers nowadays actually make it harder for kids in college, especially if the standards no longer include grammar. I mean, we will become so used to getting A's with no grammar that we'll write like that in college, and college really is harder.

At least at my school, teachers understand the important of audience. Slang is not an option in essays. I'm not sure if that will count for the essay (I, for one, would like to think I use grammar fairly well in essays), but it honestly really should. I have to agree with you; I don't think the grading was fair at all.

 

[The MoUsY spell-checker]

It's English and spelling / grammar doesn't count at all? eek I have to write a report for computer engineering, and even for that there's specifically a mark (out of five) for spelling and presentation (according to the marking scheme). rolleyes

If your classmate's writing is really as bad as your example, I'd expect the teacher to mark it down for unreadability. Then again, teachers are usually good at reading bad writing because they have to read students' writing which can include a lot of bad writing.  

[SHlR0]

Spelling and grammar are very important in our daily lives you know. And we should use them smart not stupid. You see I really have a bad grammar even though my name is Tomoyo-chan I ain't really Tomoyo-chan I am just cosplaying her my name is really Bianca but you can call me Tomoyo if you like.

I truly believe that spelling and grammar is important! You know I had an english remedial and in my first spelling I got 17 out of 20 and now in my second spelling I got a perfect score 20 out of 20. I didn't even study my wrong spelling. I didn't study at all. Am I lucky or what?  

[Muffin Manic]

I wrote a poem aboout the holocaust for my english class and I gto an 85 I had prefect grammar the teacher went ove rthem all and corrected them and had us retype them and then this other kid got a 100 and his poem wasn't even on topic I might post them poem on here.  

[Shigures Editor]

W-what? Even if his subject matter was even mildly more interesting than the subject matter in your essay (which I highly doubt is the case), the horrible grammar should've lost him an infinite amount of points.

Alas, life isn't fair, and neither is the grading system. ;_;

You can paint your life a rainbow of colors.

 

[Wolfie Kid]

Well, I guess SOMEONE better defend this kid...

Look: I too am a bit disgusted, but from what I've learnt from school... if anything sweatdrop ... teachers will be impressed more by improvement than high quality work.
Now, I don't fully know the facts about the situation, but maybe this kid was even worse before, so the teacher rewarded them for putting more effort in and improving. I've been in this situation before, and at the time, I was horrified. But looking back, I realised that the teacher was right: the other kid had really tried to come to terms with their difficulties.
But, like I said, I don't know the details, so really, it's all just opinion, I'm afraid.  

[merry go-round sex]

I was proof-reading papers in my English class.
[ They call me the walking dictionary. xp ]
This one girl had her whole paper in 'txt tlk' and she refused to change it.
She turned it in, and got a B on it! gonk stressed  

[Kukushka]

Honestly, it's a disservice to the kid. What job will look favourably on someone who doesn't know how to use proper spelling or grammar in their resume? Or someone who comes in using slang because "that was ok in High School"?

Honestly, schools should be about preparing kids for post-graduation life, not just babysitting them until they are legally accountable for their own actions...

As for the "improvement" argument, I've heard that before. I really don't agree, though. If you are doing B work, you should be getting a B. If you are used to getting Cs, that reflects the change in your abilities or efforts and should be a reward in itself. But to give A work a B and then C work an A just makes a mockery of the marking system and does nothing but discourage the people who consistently try hard and get As.  

[SixteenthNote]

I think the teacher must have given the paper marks upside down. It was probably supposed to be a 66.  

[Patron with a Mission]

This is indeed a disservice, as Kukushka said earlier, because only the worst college professor would tolerate that, and most won't even care about the student's self-esteem. Some students have come to our English tutoring crying because they are failing the class, and when I look at their papers, I sometimes can swear the professor dipped it in their blood; it has that much red ink. Most of these students, in high school, were given A's and B's for flawed papers, and now they're failing, because the reality is, no professor will tolerate any misspellings or grammar errors.

In college, no professor has the time to care if you do know, nor teach you if you don't, proper grammar. They want to see your writing, and they expect for you to already know what a semi-colon is, and how to spell, and how to write properly.

I'm sorry if that sounded arrogant or something, but I have had the privilege to talk to professors who grade papers and come train our tutors. They themselves tell us that they "don't have time to be babysitting students who don't know how to write [correctly]." One even said: "I'm sorry, but some students whose papers I've read didn't even deserve to pass high school."

That just shows that in college, they expect you to be able to write and spell correctly. That's why high schools should teach that, not pity. This is not to say to put a student down until they feel suicidal, but this does not mean giving an A to a paper that clearly doesn't deserve it.

-End of rant-