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Author
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Topic: need advice on what to do about an english mark
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MOONAT
Knowflake Posts: 270
From: the bottomless depths of my mind
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted June 03, 2004 01:47 AM
 
i wanted to ask your opion on something regarding school, anyone who cares to answer.
about a week ago i handed in a draft for an essay on Cold Mountain (dont kno if u kno the story, movie is good, book is god awful boring) anyhoo, i handed in the draft, the teacher told me it was a 'scholarly' effort and ONLY recommended that i change the conclusion and change it to focus less on Ruby (a supporting character, but very important none te less) and more on Ada(the character my essay was supposed to focus on). NOTHING ELSE! which was fine, i totally understood the merits of that suggestion.so i did that, i get it back, 96.5%.so i was kinda a bit...well dissappointed because someone got 99%.
she had taken marks off my essay for something which she did not mention to me to fix in my draft? then afterwards proceeds to tell me that if i had added a little more about Inman (another character just as important as Ruby, but less importatn to the advancement of Ada's character) i could have pushed my essay over the 100% mark! and then she said that the essay was so good teachers were reading paragraphs out loud.
i was in a daze..at first i thought it was a conspiracy theory against me!
i know i might sound like im complaining but its reall the principle of it, i thought that the reason you hand in drafts is so that u get feedback on anything that your missing which could push your grade up. is it unreasonable for me to complain or at least ask for an explanation? she was EXTREMELY surprised and SHOCKED that i was complaining abotu receiving 96.5%...but its really about the principle to me... wot do you think? should i just shut up and get on with it? IP: Logged |
pixelpixie
Knowflake Posts: 5301
From: Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 2005
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posted June 03, 2004 01:59 AM
If it matters to you, speak up.
If it still matters to you in a week, speak up.
Go with your gut.
Most brilliant people get put under thumbs for one reason or another,
But still.. that mark? Ain't too shabby!
Good job!  IP: Logged |
silverbells
Knowflake Posts: 1506
From: The second star to the right (which shines in the night for'eer)
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted June 08, 2004 03:13 PM
It is a good mark. I know how you feel though. If you think that she is doing it on purpose then you should say something after grades are in...you don't want her to use the power of the pen on you. As long as your final grade is not less than you want it to be, there is no reason to talk to her before grades are in. I had an English teacher who was obviously giving me lower marks than I deserved. And my friends noticed it too because there was a girl in our group of friends whos work was lacking and she got better grades than me all of the time. Apparantly I didn't write about family values and the American mainstream culture enough because everyone who did that got better grades than me no matter how atrocious their grammer or sentence construction was. I also noticed a weird way that she had with me.
Many teachers, I would think especially English teachers are very arrogant and pretentious, sometimes if you do not follow the ways of the masters or the ways of people who are "accepted authorities" then in their estimation you are not doing it right and you should have points off, especially if you think that you are good at English - "then you need to be made aware of your deficiencies." Also some teachers just have an aversion to giving perfect marks.How advanced of a class is this? Is this a core course in college (English major)? Though that still wouldn't explain her contradictory statements about the characters. ------------------
Get some love in your groove, just get hip to forgive - Michael Franks IP: Logged |
pidaua
Knowflake Posts: 7314
From: Schweinfurt to Grafenwoehr all within 6 months LOL
Registered: May 2002
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posted June 08, 2004 03:51 PM
Did you read the other person's essay?Sometimes the teacher can guide, but you must meet the challenge. Should the teacher keep going over point after point with you, does it not then become his or her essay? On another level, the 99% may have gone to a person that covered all the bases without needing the guidence or rewriting. To take away from his / her success on the 1st try in order to reward you with what may have taken 2-3 tries would not be fair to the other student. What do you think? IP: Logged |
FishKitten
Knowflake Posts: 1033
From: on the trail of the Old Ones
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted June 09, 2004 03:20 PM
Moonat, I sympathize totally. I'm also one of those people who always tried for top grades. Here's something I noticed along the way: Sometimes people who didn't do quite as good a job as I did on certain projects occasionally still got a slightly better grade. A teacher told me that was because for me to get an A was easy, but some people had to work really hard for it. So even though my paper might have technically been better (like teachers reading it out loud), I didn't actually put in half the effort that the more challenged student put in. At the time (when I was a teenager) I didn't find that explanation very satisfying. I felt that if my writing was the best, it should be rewarded as such, not put second because it came to me easily. Now that a few years (OK, decades) have gone by, I understand a bit more. People who really, really give something their all must be rewarded at times. Otherwise, they end up thinking that no matter how hard they try, they'll never make it. Sometimes they quit trying all together. Those of us with good grades coming out our respective educational noses have to learn to back off sometimes and let someone else have a little glory. (And yet to this day, if someone gets 100%, I expect to be right up there.) Don't take it too hard. Raw talent is worth it's weight in gold in the so-called "real world" once you are done with school. Be of good cheer, my friend, because I have a feeling that you will find all you ever seek.IP: Logged | |
Lindaland
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