Dear Grad School Classmates,
Please start taking the suggestions made to you by Microsoft Word. Those little green and red squiggly lines that appear under your words actually mean something. Please try a little right-clicky-clicky and see what they have to say. There is a writing center on our campus, you could also use that. As an international student, they know that English isn’t your native language and that you might not know all of the rules of grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or insanely long incomprehensable sentences. They are there to help you. They want to help you. Paragraphs are your friend. I’ve never seen a four page long paragraph before. Please tell that other guy that he doesn’t need to start a new paragraph after every sentence.
We go by first names here…please stop saying “Hi Lastname.”
I know we don’t have the same educational background so I don’t know about the things you know about and vice-versa. I would love to understand what you are talking about but when the sentence doesn’t make any sense, I can’t possibly grasp the concept. Unfortunately a large chunk of my grade is dependent on my comments, insight, and discussion of what YOU have to say. That is where we really have a problem. Your crappy writing has potential to affect my grade. If you would take the time to get some of the free writing help available to you, we would all benefit - not just me. I know you have the time. In the orientation meeting they said you couldn’t work because you have a student visa, not a work visa. I know you’re on campus on a regular basis, because your visa requires you to constantly be enrolled in at least one face-to-face class or they will send you packing.
I really hope that I am not being held to a higher standard than you when it comes to writing and research. This entire grad school program is all about writing and research. We will be doing that for the next 2 years. We spent a solid month on how to do in-text citations, APA format and how to avoid plagiarism, yet you still write whatever the hell you want. We just spent another month discussing peer-reviewed journals and why it is important that we get our information from them - and yet you still get your information from Wikipedia. The instructor even said “Do not use Wikipedia. It is not peer-reviewed research.”
So I ask again: Please…above all…do NOT let me find out that you’re being held to a lower standard than I am because that would be just plain WRONG. I value my grades. I’m earning them.
Thanks in advance,
J.
4 comments:
I love this! I could have written these same thoughts a few times during grad school…
Oh that would piss me right off. Maybe you should just post this on the discussion board.
Oh! I haven’t had this experience with fellow G-schoolers, but I have graded quite a few papers you described. Amen to Wikipedia! That was one of my biggest pet peeves. One the Nest once, I saw someone go on a rant about another girl and it was something like “If Google were a valid research tool, I’d have B.A. in ex-boyfriends and an M.A. in Pornographic Studies.”
Ha! I had the exact same experience in grad school. My “minor” was sport management and about 50% of the students in the classes I took were international students. My person favorite was when we had to do a project with a partner. My partner gave me his section of the project for me to proofread; I cried. And then I re-wrote the entire effing paper for him so we wouldn’t both fail.
Hang in there. I promise you’ll laugh about this later!
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