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What is the most insulting comment a professor has ever written on your work?
Barmymoo:
In my english class last week we were all in hoots as the teacher read out particularly choice phrases from one girl's essay (the girl in question was also laughing her head off, she knows it was a bad essay). She referred to King Lear as "that bloke" and used the phrase "and other stuff". The problem is that most people don't read enough formal writing to know how to use it. It's also not something we're properly taught at school here, and when you reach eighteen and can't write an essay without resorting to colloquialisms, there is something wrong.
That said, even I struggle when I read an article in the Times referring to a woman living "without a hint of unction or moral hauteur". Who exactly uses these words? I mean, really. Unction?
pwhodges:
While I know unction has that secondary meaning, I would prefer the word unctuousness in that position; but I can't conceive of writing that sentence anyway.
Spluff:
That just sounds like they used a thesaurus without actually understanding the word.
KickThatBathProf:
Oh, well, I guess the Times writes like a college freshman then
-Karamazov-:
Formal writing has really begun to go down hill. When ever I have a group project, I am usually the one who volunteers to put together everyone's individual parts. I do this because I enjoy editing the paper and I like to see the final product come together. Another reason is I do this is because I just don't trust some of the other people with the task. After seeing some people's writing styles, making a group paper sound coherent is pretty hard.
There was a kid in my last group, his idea of formal writing meant using the thesaurus to make every short and properly used adjective long and superfluous. However, he still directly addressed the reader and kept referring to himself. I highlighted all the mistakes and emailed it back to him along with a link to a formal business writing guide.
I think the most annoying thing is when someone writes a well thought out paper, but the style is so radically different from the other parts that you need to go through word by word to make it flow.
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