Day 207: Bear & Clouds

In class tonight I was handed a paper where I was given 1 out of 3 possible marks for grammar, spelling, etc. Normally I would take the "meh" approach and move on with my life, however, the professor started an in depth discussion with the entire class about paper-writing skills. It was interesting to hear my peers describe the struggles they have when writing papers. Commonly, we were frustrated with the University Library website for having conflicting referencing information (such as APA format stated in two different ways). Most of us haven't received terrible grades before while at University, even if our papers had a myriad of errors. I completely agree with the professor that this shouldn't be acceptable.

If someone hands in a paper that is strewn with spelling and grammar errors, they should fail the paper. How frustrating do you think it is for a professor with a PhD to read a paper that should be at University level, but appears to be written by someone in grade 8?

Obviously people make small mistakes. Myself included. I often put commas in the wrong place or use a semi-colon inappropriately. If my professors don't call me out on it though, I may never know what I'm doing wrong.

While I think that a harsher correctness policy will be hell, I truly believe that it would make me work harder to ensure that everything I hand in is of highest quality.

My prof. tonight was telling us that some industry contacts she has have told her that they often hire grads from my school for junior to intermediate level positions. For management or senior level positions, they will be more likely to hire from the more well-known, prestigious Universities nearby. This was disheartening. I realize we just became a University this year. The transition from College to University could be a long, tough process, but I don't want to be painted with the brush of only being good enough for intermediate level work.

I'll be taking this as a challenge. All of my papers for the rest of the semester will be edited with the utmost attention to detail. I'm going to see if I can change my usual A papers into A+ papers by being more careful and attentive.

xo