Profs' Higher Expectations

Things here are certainly a lot different from what they were in High School. Most of the time when I was there, you got a reasonable mark if you were in class all the time, paid attention, read all the articles on the Course list, did the work , and then studied hard for the exam.

Not the same now. Last week I got back and assignment that I thought was good for a B+ at least . I’d been to all the lectures and taken full notes. I’d done all the readings. I’d read the textbook chapters and all the articles on the list we got the first day of the course. And I’d studied the assignment instructions very carefully, and did all of what they said to do. It looked good and felt good when I handed it in, and I was proud to have got it done on time, and that there were no rushed parts in it.

It came back with a C-. I was astounded and extremely upset. If you’ve done everything you were told to do, what else is there? How could I explain this to my mum, for one thing, and how could it be that perfectly good work got such a low mark? I am here! It's costing me a lot of money to be here -- all of what I saved from my various jobs in the past and what I'll be doing in the summer! I'm doing everything I'm supposed to!

At first I thought there must be some mistake, and I was going to complain to the Prof. Fortunately perhaps, though, it’s quite hard to get to see him, because he has too many students. Then I asked some other people in the course, and found that many had had the same experience.

There didn’t seem to be much on my assignment in the way of criticism, just the mark and some very lukewarm comments here and there. I still knew there was a problem, so I went to the Student Academic Centre to see if I could get some idea of what was wrong.

The Counsellor looked at my work, and said something that, truth to tell, I had begun to suspect. She said that she could tell that I’d paid attention in all the lectures, and read everything we were supposed to. The assignment was well-constructed too, appropriately broken down into sections, and put together properly. Then she said, “But that’s all you’ve done.”

Y-e-e-s-s. And what else could I have done?

She replied with something I’ve since taken to heart. “You must read for understanding, as you’ve done. And the next stage is that in the writing, you’ve got to explore the ideas.”

And she explained what she meant. Imagine you were in the Student Centre with some other people in the course, and discussing the work that was in the assignment. Nobody would say what was in your work, she said, because it would be boring. People would know it already. If you wanted to get their attention, you’d have to put your own slant on it. Relate it to other things you’d read in the past, or even to some more general ideas about the subject as a whole. For example, if it was anything to do with History (which it was), you could bring in some things that had happened previously, or in another place at the same time. Or (rather carefully!), you could explain how it fitted with some political opinions you or other people might have.
Well, it reminded me of what some of my idiot friends did in High School. They hadn’t paid attention in class and had skipped over the reading or asked other people at the last minute what it was about. Their writing, on tests or assignments, was of the kind “In my opinion I think that …”, totally devoid of any sign that they knew anything about the subject. They got mediocre marks, and they deserved even lower ones in my opinion. But none of them are here in this university now. So that’s not what was needed. I had to have a view or an angle on the material, and then when I wrote I had to make it clear that I knew what I was supposed to, but then slant some of the things from my own point of view. Only some of the paragraphs in some of the sections had to be written this way; others would just tell what had happened, and then what various sides in the war, or whatever, had thought about it, in the way I’d done the first assignment.

At first, I thought it was impossible. But then gradually, I began to see how I could have rewritten my first assignment to include some of the things like this. Truly, I do have a personal view of the things the assignment was about. And I could back it up, using other things I knew or at least could google.

Too late for this one. But the next, which I’m just beginning now: yes, I can see how. I’ll need to do all of what I did before, and then some. But know what? I can feel myself feeling quite strongly about the topics we have to deal with. Some of what the historical people did and said makes me mad! Bringing this in might even make it more fun to do the assignment.