Monday, December 15, 2008

Grading Hell

As you know if you've ever looked at the description thingy, I teach Shakespeare. I don't teach much later than that. This year, I taught into the 1680s, which was quite edgy for me.

So why am I reading a paper about the French Revolution?

I got about three pages in and checked to see if the student had handed in a paper for a different class by accident, but the title seems to indicate that it's for my class.

7 comments:

  1. could have been written for another class, and pulling extra duty in yours....

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  2. Maybe they are really confused about the time period covered in your course?

    I've had several students before who thought that the Civil War (American) was in the 1920s, you know, between WWI and WWII. And others who thought that the Declaration of Independence was written in the 1870s.

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  3. Well, yeah, duh, wasn't the French Revolution when all those French dudes came over to England in 1066?

    That's why Shakespeare wrote in Olde English. Cause he was old. And cause the Frenchy dudes brought over New English, which is also called French.

    Ahh, I feel better now that I've amused myself.

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  4. The aspect of the error that most entertains me is the Shakespeare - French connection. How do you get from Shakespeare to French?

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  5. I second the thought it's a paper doing double duty. (The one time I caught a student doing that, it was the head of the honor committee!)

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  6. Anonymous12:45 PM

    I agree with Susan, it might be a paper doing double duty. I was TA for a course when a student did that and we went back to the mailboxes to find the paper was doing triple duty for three different courses.

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  7. Because it's the only paper the student could buy online?

    Seriously, though: my vote is for double-duty. Some students don't realize it's a no-no. Although how the student thought French Revolution = Shakespeare is beyond me.

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