Friday, October 2, 2009

Consider your audience...

I am by no means a "feminist" in the culturally connoted sense of this word, but there are times when people still shock me.
I am in the midst of grading my students' first big paper assignment, an arduous process with occasional glimmers of good writing, thoughtful analysis, or downright hilarity.
For instance, I just finished a paper that includes the following sentences:
"Education is a major reason this country has as much power as does. (not as IT does, just as does)
It takes smart men to get us this far in the world and it will take more smart men to take us even further."
SERIOUSLY? To a female instructor? C'mon buddy, consider that two people in the entire world will read this paper and one of them is the girl WHO WILL GIVE YOU YOUR GRADE.
Don't worry, I am not going to give him a low grade for this sentence. Rather, he has earned a low grade based on the other three pages of the paper that are filled with gems like "Teach this, teach that, learn this, learn that, it could go on forever."

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