So, has anyone else had the experience of reading a piece of student’s work that is so bad that it is LAUGH OUT LOUD funny?
If I had any faith in the ability of students to do the work then I might actually be lead to believe that such comically bad work is actually good comical work. That is, constructed as a joke to point out the absurdities of university discourse and the relationship between pedagogy and assessment.
No, but, it isn’t. I laugh anyway!
Glen, as a student of yours I can’t help but feel horrified that your, what I assume are ‘girly giggles’ are going to be focused at myself or one of the ‘crack addicts’ I associate with.
None the less I am quite pleased that you are able to take such a tedious task and turn it into something you can laugh at. If it were my essay I would like to think that I am helping break up your mundane experience with a small amount of satire, earning me a pass.
Had a good laugh at ‘lost left socks’, thoroughly enjoyable rant.
Enjoy the rest of your marking I hope that you are able to continue laughing.
Wouldn’t want to be there when the laughing stops though.
A loud Snap is heard throughout Western Sydney.
Regards,
Philip J. Millar
Musician, Actor and all round good Guy.
[edit by glen: removed email address!]
I read the best and funniest line in a student’s paper this term…something like:
“Textual analysis, developped by Karl Marx in the 19th century, argued that societies are always at war with each other due to class differneces.”
hi phillip, as I made clear in my tutes when I mentioned this post, i wasn’t laughing when marking anything from uws tutes. If I was marking your work then I can understand how you would be horrified. As a sidenote, maybe you should go some lectures…? I was talking about the expreince of marking so you have some idea what tutors go through when marking. The funniest thing about the marking is that I marked a 90% paper and then a 30% paper.
graham, yep. lol!
Not making any excuses at all as it is to no others fault then my own but I have not been able to apply myself sufficiently this semester and will not be at all surprised with outcomes that are not all that pleasing.
I am aware that you were not refering to our tute papers but I had nothing to say about that, HA so I made up my own little story.
If nothing else though Glen I honestly hope you are able to have a good laugh at my essay either in surprise or from the content. I have taken some of your advice on board and will be doing the analytical reading and writing subject next semester. Maybe they can teach me not to just argue and rant my way through an essay. Fingers crossed.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
Hey, I love the automatic word-replace that spellcheck does. I caught myself laughing out loud a few times. And I remember something about ‘pants’ instead of ‘pance’ (or was it trousers? eithe way, I drew a pair of trousers and asked if that was what the student had meant).
I say it to every tute group, but they never listen:
“be sure you know what the word means before you allow spellcheck to insert it for you.”
I think marking would be unbearable without those LOLs though.
wow interesting blog glen, I can only imagine how frustrating marking would be..I missed yesterday so who knows what you gave me.. shall find out soon enough Im sure.
have a good weekend.
Nicole (one of the ‘crack addicts’)