Sunday, April 17, 2016

I guess I went to the wrong college, or just teach at the wrong school, or something. Because I don't get this



1.  What does "writing lots of papers" have to do with it being "Final Exam Week?"  Does the person who wrote the script for this commercial really think that research papers and exams are the same thing?  Or did this girl just admit that she blew off all her research assignments until the end of the semester and now will be basically living in the library trying to do everything all at once because she's really lousy at organizing and avoiding procrastination?  BTW, Earth to scriptwriter:  this is the year 2016, not 1986.  When I was in college, studying for finals meant a lot of time in the library.  Research meant even more time in the library.  Today, not so much.  You even show this girl with a MacBook-is she just there to use the library's free internet?

2.  Grammarly is a program which fixes grammar mistakes- so you don't have to, I guess.   If this "promotes better writing," then calculators "promote better mathematics."  The girl in this ad seems positively proud of the fact that she's using software to cover up her crappy grammar skills.  Which leads me to...

3.  Her professor, who apparently would rather have a clean, easily-graded paper edited by Grammarly than an honest one written by a student.  He barely glances at the paper before telling her that he won't be needing his Red Pen of Pain- because he heard her telling us about Grammarly.  So all this guy grades on is grammar?  This college student has a real problem stringing together coherent sentences in essays she's handed in previously, but that's been solved with a quick download, so he's not even going to bother with the substance of the paper?  What the hell?


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3 comments:

  1. Tal HartsfeldApril 18, 2016 at 9:40 AM

    Just wait until people like her get hired into the professional circuit and customers like us have to do business with the likes of her.
    No wonder competence and efficiency are at such all-time lows these days.

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  2. Morning KvetchApril 23, 2016 at 1:14 PM

    Tell me about it. This is also why editors aren't appreciated and get such lousy pay--people think they can be replaced with software.

    What John says about the library is true--in my last grad school stint, I hardly had to go there at all. How wonderful to be able to download whatever research material I needed from my college's library journals any hour of the day or night, from the comfort and safety of my home! Beat researching back in the '80s all to hell.

    Let's get real, though. Truly lazy college students aren't interested even in this corner-cutting means of getting their papers done. If they really want to take the easy way out and get good grades on their papers, they'll just buy them ready-written online. Or at least they will until they discover their professors know about turnitin.com.

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    Replies
    1. John F JameleApril 23, 2016 at 1:32 PM

      I remember reading "the essential steps to writing that annual research paper." It seems that High School kids used to be expected to research a subject throughout the year and then write a paper on it for a final grade. The steps included going to the library and consulting with librarians on how to use the Dewey Decimal System, how to write index cards and keep them organized, how to complete a rough draft, etc. etc. Ancient skills now rendered obsolete by the internet, and relics of a byegone era. Kind of sad.

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