Memo of the day to students, everywhere:
IT'S "BIASED," DAMN IT! PAST PARTICIPLE OF "BIAS" IS "BIAS-ED." THE AUTHOR DOES NOT HAVE "BIAS OPINIONS."
There, I feel better now.
Also: "Unique." "Random."
Also: PAST, NOT PASSED. MIGHT HAVE!
Is it too early to drink?
Its rediculus how you take your'e students for granite.
ReplyDeleteOk, so some of them ARE thick as bricks....
"Defiantly" instead of "definitely" has always made me laugh. It's like Allie Brosh's "Alot."
ReplyDeleteIs it wrong that I totally fucking HATE when my 18-year-old first-years write "nowadays"? As if they know anything about "thenadays." And it's such an old-timey word -- I feel like only people who have accumulated 90 years on the planet should be allowed to say "nowadays" with any modicum of earnestness.
I feel you on "bias," too. The other weird problem I see in my students' use of that term is that they seem to think that anything with any kind of identifiable perspective or message has a bias. Which I guess is sort of true, but they seem unable to see any gray area between "informative" and "propagandist." Part of my job is teaching them to look for this gray area, but it seems so odd to me that they can't see the difference between well-supported opinions and truly biased, propagandist rants. Probably a function of our 24-hour-news-cycle, Fox "News" culture.
I am very, very, very tired of having juniors (and above; usually in Communications) propose "x's account of y is biased" as a possible research paper argument. Theoretically, this isn't a bad start, since one can ask "in what way is it biased [or, better, what perspective(s) does it represent, and how/why]?", "how is that bias demonstrated?", "what does the author seem to be trying to accomplish by telling the story from this perspective?", etc., etc., until one arrives at a reasonably complex, interesting thesis that takes into account bias/point of view, but/and does something with it. In practice, 90%+ of the students I've had propose this sort of argument just cannot move on to the more interesting questions. I think it's partially a function of age and idealism/vehemence ("but it's biased! that's wrong!"), and partially a function of temperament and/or intellectual inclinations (or lack thereof) that keep them from getting beyond black/white thinking (perhaps ever). In any case, it's frustrating, and the dropped "d" (a function, I suspect, of their being very much aural creatures, and many dialects not really pronouncing the final "d" very strongly) simply adds insult to injury.
Delete"Nowadays" is one of those "useful" writing words that my students are apparently taught in their English prep courses. Some of them have really embraced it (because I think there's a standard, less oddly connoted word in their native language), but I don't have the heart to tell them that they sound like old fogeys yelling to scare those pesky kids off their lawn.
Delete"Bias" shows up all the time in online reviews. "Professor Radical is very bias. He didn't respect my opinions and gave me a D because I didn't write exactly what he said." Never mind that those "opinions" were probably along the lines of penguins having three feet or something.
DeleteCareful Dr. L or you might "loose" your mind which you know you aren't "suppose" to do. Your student's are just trying to share Important Things they now.
ReplyDeleteSources:
The Bible (C) A long time ago. Written by: alot of guys
Was there a point to this post? I mean, I might of past out from bordum butt for my accepshunal constintuition.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, it's not too early to drink.
DeleteI had a student spend an entire paper talking about "analising" research.
ReplyDeleteThey also create analyzations of things (never having heard, apparently, of analyses).
DeleteI had one who discussed "trails"... you know, like in court rooms. For pages and pages.
Delete*headdesk*
Given the examples by you and comments, I am reluctant to complain about my pet peeve. Element names should not be capitalized. It's just iron, for fuck's sake. Though not at the level of suppost and alot, I still see graduate students and faculty make this mistake. Grrr.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes flip back to the title page of a student paper to make sure their name doesn't clearly indicate a native German-speaker, because their Writing capitalizes Nouns with no apparent Rhyme or Reason.
DeleteIt's also just science, not Science, and it's certainly not Creationism.
DeleteAs far as science, Scientist publish there in-depth results in creditable journals.
DeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one this annoys. It's a symptom of their never having read a goddamned word in their lives.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty much it. I sometimes (rarely) tell students that if they don't read for recreation, they won't know how the English language actually works.
DeleteI tell my non-native speaker students the exact same thing, introvert.prof.
DeleteI once had a student use the word "hazzard" (as in "Dukes of . . .") for "hazard" TWENTY-FIVE TIMES in a report.
ReplyDeleteSince I promised 2 points off for every misspelling, that was 50 points. Flake insisted it should only count once, since it was a CONSISTENT mistake. Just as s/he'd only serve ONE sentence for robbing 25 banks, I guess.
My pet peeves: latin plurals:
"It is a well-known phenomena . . ."
"This spectra shows . . ."
I have given up trying to get anyone to use "datum" and "data" correctly; I just wince very slightly.
I have to say, though, "analising" is almost too funny to be true.
Media/Medium is the one that I get most confused. No one uses "medium" anymore, and yet, I still cringe.
DeleteIt's in my syllabus: "College-level writing is expected on all assignments. Essays with more than five errors in spelling, punctuation and/or grammar will be returned to the student for cleanup, due at the next class with a grade penalty. Misspelling the same word five times counts as five errors."
DeletePG, that's a great standard. I'd be inclined to adopt it if I didn't teach non-native English speakers (several of whom actually write better than the majority of my students back in the old country).
Delete"Apart" does not mean that you belong to something. This is driving me crazy this semester. And the latest: in an otherwise good essay, the student kept saying "demon straight." It took me a few minutes to realize s/he meant "demonstrate." REALLY?
ReplyDeleteDamn Straight!
DeleteYour defiantly such a brave sole for not shrieking your duties to help them rite better.
ReplyDeletei learned alot from the novel about oldtimers disease and being an old age person. Old age people need to take alot of vitamines to prevent oldtimers disease. i also learned that your never to old to start to excercize and eat right. It defiantly helps. There also helped by reading and going to school. This helps there brain. Their is alot of information in this wonderfull novel about seniors.
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
This discussion reminds me of my friend, the alot.
ReplyDeleteLOVE that! Just because of that blog, I've been fond of the 'alot' this year. :)
DeleteI had a student write a paper about someone, whose name they did not spell correctly once.
ReplyDeleteWhat's worse is when colleagues do this, and it clearly isn't a typo. A colleague recently advised me to "goggle" a term. I once attended a conference (an education conference - not my field, but I had been invited to present). I listened to a presentation where someone was making reference to a number of well-known historical figures, but had not learned to pronounce their names (which were not particularly difficult to pronounce).
Oh, and now that advising is upon us... students email me regarding their "advisement".
ReplyDeleteOr "writting" in an English class, defiantly.
ReplyDeleteOr having them "wreek" havoc after having their interest "peaked."
ReplyDeleteI get 'reap' havoc, too.
DeleteBetter than 'reek' havoc, I suppose.
DeleteAll of the above, plus "everyday" versus "every day." My students cannot tell the difference.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite is still "inferred spectroscopy." ("Infra-red" as the Brits spell it.)
ReplyDeleteI think I just got, rather than "from an artist's point of view", "as an artist point a view". I think. Hard to tell. . .
ReplyDeleteI know someone who always wants to address incipient problems by "nipping them in the butt"
ReplyDeleteMultiple explanations have not helped.
How about this?
ReplyDelete"Now WE will look at...." OR "WE will try to...." OR "WE will examine...."
Ummmmm....who the fuck is WE?!! I have no interest in joining you in this venture. You wrote it yourself, so take ownership. Although I hate the use of "I" only slightly less. UGH!
That sounds like an el-ed major. "Now, children, let's take out our crayons!"
DeleteYes, this is an old issue. I mentioned it on my list of student nonsense here a while back.
ReplyDeleteRight now, I'm reading a paper in a 400 level class in which the author demonstrates that he does not know the difference between "number" and "amount." He writes over and over again about the "amount of people" who do this or that. I keep picturing a huge container full of bodies.
What I don't get is that most of these mistakes are easily caught by Microsoft. Now that I'm forced to collect papers electronically, I see that students just blatantly disregard the green, blue, and red squiggly lines that appear multiple times throughout multiple paragraphs. WHY??? How fucking lazy are you that you can't hit a right click and figure out where you've gone wrong?
ReplyDeleteI'm one-up on you, GG. My students have at least figured out that Microsoft is better at thinking than they are.
DeleteYes, but they all a a huge amount of self of steam.
ReplyDeleteAs for their analising, it's not too strange when you consider where their little snowflake heads are.