the verdict:

[fox]

supervisor:  "this is a very good essay, actually.  ... of course, it said all the things i wanted to hear.  but, no, it's really very good."


my question is this:  why, why, WHY are the essays at which i work conscientiously and over a period of time, and with which i am usually fairly pleased when they're done, always weak, while the ones i leave until after the last minute and then make up in a frenzy of must-write-something-NOW, and which i customarily think are crap, get all kinds of praises?

rar.

still, though.  not that i'm done running around frantically, but as i said to my friends at lunch, from here out i'll just have to rush about to get places, rather than to do things.  which, in the circumstances, will be positively relaxing.

Comments

[the-emu.livejournal.com]

Heee.

I had an essay, can't remember the subject, something Literature-esque, and it was such a bullshitty corner of lit crit that I couldn't even understand the question. I had no idea. I even went and read the relevant reading (a big step for me), which was as badly written and meaningless as the question. I had no understanding of the concept at all.

So I copied the question, and pasted it three times. And then I rewrote and rewrote what was there, working in references to the texts, still without understanding it.

And when I'd pushed as far as it could go, I copied those paragraphs, and pasted them a few times. And rewrote those paragraphs to say the same things in different words.

That got me... I don't know, about three quarters of the way to wordcount. No, it was to 1300 words, I remember. On a 2000w essay. And, I swear to you, I spent the entire night padding it out word by word. Expanding the few contractions that had slipped in. Changing 'This means...' to 'This could be interpreted to mean...' Expanding every possible phrase into things that would have dear Mr Strunk spinning in his grave. 700w of utterly meaningless word-level padding.

High Distinction.

8^-

[the-emu.livejournal.com]

Oh, and congratulations. :-)

8^-

[kmg-365.livejournal.com]

When I was taking my first journalism class in college, I found that if I worked really hard on a story (cracked open the AP style book, dilligently researched sources, etc), I would receive a failing grade. If I made the entire story up, including interviews, I would receive an A.

It was a bit discouraging, to say the least. In hindsight, though, I would have been a shoe-in for a reporting position at the NY Times ;)