Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT strips 4251-4255 (27th to 1st May 2020)
Gus_Smedstad:
--- Quote from: Pilchard123 on 30 Apr 2020, 12:21 ---I also wrote an essay for another class (first-year university this time) and got full marks for it, but was still told that I didn't write enough. I'm not sure how that works...
--- End quote ---
Impossible to say without knowing your professor (or teaching assistant, or whoever was grading it) and what they meant. BUT. I can imagine, for example, having a minimum standard for an "A," but an internal standard for what a really good paper should be that's higher than that. It depends on how that person views grades and what they mean.
For example, a paper could answer the question, but not go into as much detail in the answer as a really good paper would. Some professors might give a "right answer, not enough supporting argument" paper a B even though it's correct. Some might consider "right answer" to be enough to justify an A.
Tova:
--- Quote from: Pilchard123 on 30 Apr 2020, 12:21 ---I also wrote an essay for another class (first-year university this time) and got full marks for it, but was still told that I didn't write enough. I'm not sure how that works...
--- End quote ---
I obviously cannot say whether this applies to you at all. But I went though this situation at high school. I was frequently told that I wrote essays that were clear, grammatically correct, and factually correct.
The only problem, I was told, was that I wasn't writing enough words.
I didn't understand why my teachers were getting hung up on the word count. Was I supposed to pad my essays out, I asked? "Well... no....," they would reply, unconvincingly. I never got a satisfying answer.
It was only years later, as I realised just how much better my writing could be, that I began to understand what my teachers were trying to get at.
At the time, I had seen the goal as merely proving to the teacher that I had absorbed the subject material. In truth, in asking you to write an essay, the teacher is testing whether you have the ability to successfully convey that information to someone who didn't already understand the material.
Merely laying the facts out in the most concise and grammatically correct fashion is only half the battle. I was submitting first drafts without getting even re-reading them myself let along getting someone else to proofread them for me. I wasn't putting effort into truly engaging the reader. I wasn't introducing the material in an accessible way. I wasn't telling a story.
I am not going to claim that my writing is brilliant now. But it is better than it used to be because I have a better idea of what I am trying to achieve. And unlike those days, my writing goes through at least a couple of drafts. If I don't have someone handy to proofread for me, I will at least put it down for 24 hours to separate myself a little from the writing before rereading. This will inevitably result in numerous corrections.
I would suggest finding an article from a writer that you admire on a similar topic to one you've written. Read that article a couple of times. Then go back and read yours. And ask yourself whether there is something that writer is doing that separates their work from yours.
Don't get too hung up on word counts, but you will probably find that your attempts to elevate your essay writing in that way will mean that instead of working to try and pad your essays out, you will be putting effort into trimming them before submitting.
TLDR You have to write a lot of words before you can arrive at truly great concise writing. Maybe your teacher sees writing that meets the standards for an A, but also sees its untapped potential.
Zebediah:
Comic’s up.
Yeah, we know how it is.
cesium133:
The cannon is, of course, full of dildos. Why else would Pintsize need to decock it? :psyduck:
Mordhaus:
I'd be a lot more careful about asking Pintsize to decock anything.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version