The Waiting Room

Today, I returned my Survey of Law students' rough drafts of their research paper. Their papers were so pitiful. I got a headache just reading them. Their errors blew me away. Needless to say, the papers were swimming in a sea of red. I think I wore out my red pen.

Here is a list of the top five most common errors brought you from the home office in Lake Effect Snow Central, USA.

5. The spelling of the following words:

Themselves spelled as there selves
Myself spelled as my self.
Where spelled as were,

4. Run on sentences, sentence fragments and incomplete thoughts,

3. Cutting and pasting information in the paper without actually reading to see if the information is appropriate or makes sense,

2. Failure to cite sources within the body of their paper using proper MLA format or only citing quotations (tie) ,

And the number one error made by my students is

1. Outright cases of plagiarism.

As I handed back the papers, there was the sounds of groaning, complaining and the muttering of obscenities that they think I did not hear. I explained to them that the purpose of submitting the rough draft is to give them a chance to make their mistakes in a controlled atmosphere. That way, when they submit the paper, it should be their best work. I explained that my comments are not meant to criticize, but to help them.

Just then, one of my former students stopped by my class. She overheard my class complaining about their papers. She told them that they need to get over themselves. She began to explain to them how she experienced the same thing two semesters ago when she took my class. She told them how I tore apart her research paper. She said that at first she was angry when she received her rough draft and found it covered with red marks. She then explained how once she got over her anger and really read my comments; she understood that I was trying to help her. She told the students that she worked on the paper that entire weekend. The end result was that her paper was virtually perfect. She received an A for her effort. She told the students how lucky they are to have a professor who takes the time to help them and show them how they can be the best that they can be.

Maybe they are listening after all.

PS: Shout out to Statgirl: Where are you??? I hope all is well! Give me a holler!