The School/Uni Thread

[skeptik]

I hate reading other people's papers because they suck 99% of the time.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

youre really bitter its unhealthy

Re: Death Aflame...I have the same problem in my writing class. I am clearly the most articulate writer in the class. Everyone else's papers usually seem like freshman high school papers to me or something. Lame.

 

[The Ozzman]

It's amazing how many people in college can't write a decent paper. Luckily it was drilled into my head in high school and I consider myself a decent writer. Though, when you're in a business school, prose writing takes a back seat to technical writing and most of my technical writing sucks.

 

[skeptik]

I'm fucking sick of writing papers already for this semester. I've already lost count of how many I've had to write thus far. I'm currently stuck sitting here working on one right now.

 

[The Ozzman]

Well, it goes with the fucking territory man..

 

[skeptik]

The workload for this semester has been uncharacteristically high, actually. I seem to have picked a horrible combination of classes as far as the amount of reading and papers goes.

 

[Death Aflame]

I have noticed a definite increase in the workload in each year of uni. First year was easy as shit with papers no longer than 5 pages and no more than say 3 a semester (reasonable IMO). In 2nd year the amount of papers per term and a significant increase in the size of each paper occurred and now in third year it seems commonplace to have more than one paper assignment for each class. At this rate, fourth year is going to suck big time.

Regarding peer reviewing: I am by no means the greatest writer but I do consider myself to have a solid grasp on most of the basic skills necessary to write a decent argumentative essay. This is why it is so troubling to me to read others work and find that they possess none of the qualities required (suitable diction, academic tone, sufficient research, appropriate citation style, clear and precise theses augmented by well supported examples etc.). Even basic formatting seems to be a huge issue as the first paper I looked at for this peer review assignment lacked any paragraph indentations whatsoever; in fact the entire paper appeared as a massive wall of text that ran rampant with every form of typographical error known to man.

 

[skeptik]

I think I've only ever had two classes for which I didn't have any papers. Almost every class has at least 3 papers. One this semester has 6.

 

[Death Aflame]

I think I've only ever had two classes for which I didn't have any papers. Almost every class has at least 3 papers. One this semester has 6.

Now THAT is fucking brutal. What year are you in? You are still an undergrad, correct?

 

[skeptik]

Third year. I don't intend to go to graduate school. I probably couldn't afford it anyway. I actually have no idea what the hell I'm going to do after college.

 

[Zephyrus]

Looks like I'm going to add Latin to Secondary Education in order to form a double major. I'm meeting with my dean next Tuesday to finalize things.

 

[Death Aflame]

Third year. I don't intend to go to graduate school. I probably couldn't afford it anyway. I actually have no idea what the hell I'm going to do after college.

I am in the exact same boat here, man. Though I am taking Film Studies and Communication Studies while I presume you are taking something to do with Philosophy and or History/Classics?

 

[unknown]

I think he's a loser English Major like myself (even though I'm English Ed...whatever)

 

[Pessimism]

You guys could start writing sensual stories for us

 

[cookiecutter]

Regarding peer reviewing: I am by no means the greatest writer but I do consider myself to have a solid grasp on most of the basic skills necessary to write a decent argumentative essay. This is why it is so troubling to me to read others work and find that they possess none of the qualities required (suitable diction, academic tone, sufficient research, appropriate citation style, clear and precise theses augmented by well supported examples etc.). Even basic formatting seems to be a huge issue as the first paper I looked at for this peer review assignment lacked any paragraph indentations whatsoever; in fact the entire paper appeared as a massive wall of text that ran rampant with every form of typographical error known to man.

Ouch. I am not that great a writer but I think my strong point is providing evidence for the arguments I make. My problem usually lies in (lack of) style and repetitiveness.

I have proofread one paper this year and it was atrocious. He just put in quotes and then didn't talk about them. He ended up getting a C+

 

[The Ozzman]

I did Finance. I didn't have to write many papers in my major classes as a result. This is barring my capstone class, of course, which taught me how to bullshit 10 pages of information. Seriously, the class was pretty much a soapbox for the professor. He would sit there and talk about politics for an hour rather than teach me something finance related. It really pissed me off that I was paying him 1200 bucks to lecture me his personal views on things.

Not only that, but nobody got an A in his class. You pretty much walk into the class with a B, so there was no point in really putting effort into anything (other than seeing the red marks on the paper dissipate after you turned each one in). That was a true exercise in technical writing, which I suck at doing.

 

[DarkBliss]

I am in the exact same boat here, man. Though I am taking Film Studies and Communication Studies

I applied for Communication Studies immediately after getting my English degree, but had to quit after one year. The workload got too high. Some of the lecturers I had, were not present at half the lessons, since they were bigwigs in the media; teaching at the Uni was more like a hobby to them and they sucked at it.Most of the time when they were present in class, they rambled about their troubles at work, the intricacies of their profession and bragging on about the prestigious awards they received for various personal achievements.
So,after barely making through the first year, I gave up. What a terrible waste of time and money it turned out to be.

 

[Death Aflame]

I am sorry to hear that DarkBliss. All of the professors I have had for Comm. Studies are full time professors so they devote all of their time to teaching and research, which means I haven't encountered any of the problems you had. One downside to the major at my particular school, is that it is entirely theoretical without any practical aspect at all. Don't get me wrong I do enjoy learning about Semiotics, Lacan, Marx, Structuralism, Post-Structuralism and whatnot but I wish their was at least a slight focus on practical application.

It looks like I'll have to go to college for that though, hopefully my wallet can handle that.

 

[Zephyrus]

I was informed today of the curriculum for the next installment of Civilizations: Past Present & Future, my Honors course, for next Spring. Looks pretty interesting.

Confessions by St. Augustine
The Inferno by Dante (already read it)
The Holy Bible (not sure which parts we're reading, we already did Genesis and Exodus)
The Golden Ass by Apuleius
The Meaning of the Holy Qu'ran by Ali
The Prince by Machiavelli
Revelations of Divine Love by Norwich
Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius
This Longing by Rumi

 

[skeptik]

Theory > practice imo, it's much more interesting.

I'm an English major (though I haven't declared yet because I'm fucking lazy as hell). All I've been taking thus far has been literature, politics, and philosophy classes mostly. I took a few psychology classes until I got to physiological psychology, which annoyed the fuck out of me. I'm actually taking my first college level history classes next semester, The Hellenistic World and Historical Studies: Religion in America.