/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.1350501]

Here's an essay I wrote on a book I didn't read, on research I didn't do, an hour before it was due. I'm a second year English major, but I should have picked linguistics as a major because instead of reading books and writing papers, I wanted to research the finer nuances of the language and develop ways I can teach the lingual framework of English to other people (ESL instruction).

Feel free to criticize and laugh, but I got a 89% on it. This is just a warning to prospective English majors that taking English in a North American university is pointless and laughable.

[Anonymous No.1350514]

>>1350501

Also: some of the comments the prof left on my paper.

- Paragraphs too long

>yes, I should have organized it better, but she specifically said five paragraphs. Also: I was doing 10-15 paragraph essays in highschool; why the standards are lowered is beyond me.

- Arguments not developed enough

>I get this on a lot of my papers, but I still manage high 80s, low 90s on everything. Take this as you will.

- Arguments need to be more precise

>conflicts with the previous statement, but whatever.

- MLA format not followed

>the MLA handbook I had to purchase at the beginning of the year says otherwise. This comment was directed at my box quotes, which fit with the aforementioned handbook and its guidelines.

- Transition statements done incorrectly

>I get one prof who says it should go at the end of a paragraph, and another that says it should open a paragraph. Don't dock me marks on your personal preference, fuckwit.

[Anonymous No.1350517]

>no title page

[Anonymous No.1350519]

>>1350517

They never want title pages past high school.

[Anonymous No.1350520]

>Arguments not developed enough
>Arguments need to be more precise

These don't conflict. One is about elaboration and the other is about scope.

>Transition statements done incorrectly
lol not a real thing

[Anonymous No.1350524]

block quotes don't get quotation marks.

[Anonymous No.1350525]

I would have given you a significantly lower grade and I didn't even make it through the introduction.

But that's just me.

It's mostly your wording and your statements of the obvious that irk me. As I've never read the book, I can't adequately judge your analysis.

And anyway, what you get out of your education has more to do with what you put into it. Sure you can BS your way through shit. But wow. Look what you paid for. Four years in which you practically read and learned nothing.

But then, you said your focus was different than that of the class, so perhaps value is in the eye of the beholder. But I wonder how you're going to learn about the "finer nuances of the English language" without reading books. Good luck with that one.

[Anonymous No.1350529]

>>1350525
>grading when didn't finish
>grading on sentence structure
>a faggot

[Anonymous No.1350531]

>>1350525

I've taken linguistic courses and I enjoy reading textbooks about language. What I meant was reading novels like The Marrow of Tradition teach me more about history than how to teach English. Reading novels is much different from reading textbooks or research papers, the former of which adds nothing of value to my prospective career.

And as I said, I did this essay in the span of an hour and got a relatively high grade. I've written better essays, but when I can put in an hours work and get a good enough grade, I don't see the point in writing a top tier paper for the sake of a few extra marks. If anything, I am leaving my time for other classes that deserve and require work to get good grades. This class is not one of them.

>>1350524

I guess that is where I fucked up, Her complaint was the justification and indentation. She mentioned nothing of punctuation.

[Anonymous No.1350544]

Your first sentence is confusing. You go from talking about the duty of the media to convey history accurately, to the "entirely truthful" potential of FICTION which happen to deal with historical settings and conflicts, and you use "however" to link two ideas which are not really oppositional.

[Anonymous No.1350545]

Summarizing in a college essay? Yeah, obviously you haven't learned anything.

[Anonymous No.1350547]

>>1350529
It's not worth finishing. It's complete and utter trash.
I could quote all the idiotic sentences starting with "there exists a complex dichotomy" and "primarily due in part" but it would take multiple posts for me to thoroughly skewer the essay and I'm not in the mood.

I've never once gotten less than an A on a paper. I work bery hard on my papers. Yes, perhaps it ticks me off that this jack ass things that's not worth anything, but regardless of any biases on my part, I know a faulty, badly written paper when I see one. The guy doesn't even have to TELL me he doesn't read books, it's evident in his feeble writing.

I'd finish it maybe if OP had any stalk in the piece, but he doesn't give two shits, and it's evident in every lazily crafted sentence I cared to read.

[Anonymous No.1350549]

>>1350545

Say what you want, I followed the profs instructions perfectly. Maybe I'm at a low tier university, but I was told in first year to write a paper as if the person reading has no idea what the content is, and that means summarizing the work in a statement or two.

[Anonymous No.1350550]

>>1350545
Exactly what I was thinking.

[Anonymous No.1350553]

> for the sake of a few extra marks

Here's your problem. You should be majoring in linguistics OP.

[Anonymous No.1350557]

>>1350547
*very hard
LOL Okay, now I'll laugh at myself.
Good night guys. This is a sign I need some sleep.

[Anonymous No.1350566]

>>1350547
>bery
>things
Looks like you're a shit writer because you made some sentence-level mistakes.

>>1350545

ITT we criticize elements of the paper when we don't know all of the details of the assignment.

[Anonymous No.1350571]

OP here, dumping some first year essays. Feel free to read.

[Anonymous No.1350576]

>>1350571
Mainly you just need to get some flare in your writing style. Shit's dry, run-of-the-mill academia.

[Anonymous No.1350580]

>>1350576

Thanks. I agree my work is a bit monotonous, but that's how "English essays" were drilled in my head in highschool. Don't be colorful, be as factual and objective as possible, etc.

Sorry the works cited was cut off on the last essay. All of my first year essays were "write a one page paper" or "write a three page paper" or similar limitations.

[Anonymous No.1350591]

[Anonymous No.1350598]