[Clutz]

Hi,

I am currently marking undergraduate writing assignments, and I am absolutely floored at how poorly these are written, in terms of paragraph structure, sentence structure, grammar, and simple logic.

Any other graduate students here marking end of the semester assignments?

Brad

 

[Rednamalas1]

+1. Considering that I have 80 15-page essays to mark for..it's pretty brutal. I don't mind the grammar though, just sheer workload.

 

[Agent Kang]

I used to do it during my grad school days. It was dull but arguably the easiest job I ever had.

 

[nylan8301]

Kids these days. They just don't know how to write a decent paper anymore.

I blame google.

Nylan

 

[Rednamalas1]

btw. I LOVE multiple choice...profs hate making M/Cs though...

 

[Clutz]

I agree, it's pretty easy, but it is definitely not the easiest job I've ever had. In some cases I don't understand what points they are trying to get across for paragraphs at a time. In several cases I doubt they've actually read the paper that they chose to review.

 

[Rednamalas1]

Fortunately, I TA 3rd year psyc students... and most of papers are really good. While some are meaningless quotes from random, unrelated articles..(i.e. My papers)

 

[Duggeh]

I last-minuted the third of a trilogy of essays today. In fact its been about 36 hours since I slept and I still have to finish this presentation for tomo.

*dead*

 

[Jaska]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clutz /img/forum/go_quote.gif Any other graduate students here marking end of the semester assignments?

I don't have the luxury of passing this work off to a graduate student. I've got to do it myself, but I rather enjoy the change of pace between lecturing and marking exams, essays and projects.

 

[Moocher]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaska /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't have the luxury of passing this work off to a graduate student. I've got to do it myself, but I rather enjoy the change of pace between lecturing and making exams, essays and projects.

I had a real problem with my attitude when I was a prof. I absolutely hated grading papers. The fact that so many of them were poorly written made it worse. I should have worked on my attitude somehow.

Mooch

 

[Fungi]

From peer editing fellow undergrads' papers, I can see where you're coming from. My writing sucks, but at least it doesn't hurt the brain of anyone reading it. You'd think that people who graduate high school would know how to form sentences with correct grammar and structure, but much too often that isn't the case.

 

[TheAnomaly]

i grade weekly assignments for an astronomy class...the best answer was "atoms does that"

 

[Rednamalas1]

 

[Jaska]

A poorly written and executed paper can effectively mask brilliant ideas that might have been there, and the unfortunate side-effect is that the person responsible for marking the paper will tend to focus chiefly on the mechanics when it comes time to offer evaluative feedback.

A well written paper, on the other hand, usually elicits praise, regardless of the level of true innovation and insight expressed in the text.

In practice, I endeavor to spend a roughly equal amount of time reading, considering, reflecting upon, and marking each of the submissions I receive. Rather than letting the poorly executed ones get me down or make me feel as though I'm wasting my time, I tend to look at the task as one which demands that I a) issue a fair grade according to some commonly understood and effectively communicated performance criteria, b) offer comments and feedback aimed at encouraging the student to develop his/her written communication skills in specific areas, and c) recognize the presence or absence of original and innovative ideas in the work.

 

[Kirosia]

I'm an undergrad, and I have so many classmates that can't even form a decent thesis. Hell, most of them still don't even understand what one is.