Current Complaints

[TEO]

Not able to make the trip to Da'Ville this evening to see the Windbreaker show. But have requested a setlist so might be able to post later.

[tomEisenbraun]

Tom,

This is so well written. Truly. Unfortunately, it's not the genre required for this paper. It's not that it's bad—writing is so clearly easy for you—it's just that it doesn't contain the elements necessary for a critical/philosophical argument. And, let's be fair—there's not an attempt to even make a specific argumentative claim here. I don't want to criticize you for doing something weakly when I don't have anything to work off. A lot of what is here is impressionistic, response—it's like turning in a beautiful editorial when you were contracted for a piece of investigative journal. Great work, just not the work that this assignment requires.  

Plus, it's a full page short.  

Next time: make a specific, arguable claim, back it up with continued analysis and strong argumentation. Let your beautiful prose work for you—it doesn't have to be sidelined. The best philosophers, intellectuals—the make claims, they make strong arguments—but the language is equally inspired. Don't think of it as an either/or, it can—nay, should—be both.

Gabriel

FINAL GRADE: 60

---------

Shit.

Plus, I can't figure out whether to feel really complimented or somewhat peeved? If I wrote a good paper, give a little leeway? No?

[capt. scotty]

Your Prof def seems like a stickler which sucks. I dont know if this was your first major paper or not with this prof, but I usually judge the prof based on class and being strict on assignments and such. Obviously I dont know the details of your paper or the assignment, but I do understand his angle if your paper was off point and didnt address the main argument. That said, if he/she thought it was good, I would think you would at least get a C.

I enjoy writing a lot more than studying/test taking, but 1 of the biggest things that sucks is something like this. Your hear what the Prof is initially looking for or something, the idea is primed in your head and fantastic, but for whatever reason it doesnt fit the criteria of the paper, etc. Ive been there man, except I typically suck it up and write what I think the prof is going for instead of what I want to write exactly. Its a tough ship to keep steady, but at least you threw the chum in the water  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[ALady]

What was the assignment?

[aMillionDreams]

I'm just amazed that you didn't write enough.  Never making a specific point seems about right though.






Sorry, Tom.  Couldn't help myself.  In seriousness, I wouldn't feel complimented or peeved, I'd take this constructive criticism for what it's worth and try to learn from it.

[Bumbeli]

I'm just amazed that you didn't write enough.  Never making a specific point seems about right though.






Sorry, Tom.  Couldn't help myself.  In seriousness, I wouldn't feel complimented or peeved, I'd take this constructive criticism for what it's worth and try to learn from it.

True. I don't know if you have that problem too, but I once got something similar from one of my profs, and I wouldn't have bothered me at all if it hadn't been such an important grade. But if that's not the case, don't bother too much, what he wrote was quite positive, apart from that "no specific point"  :)

I got some stupid stuff going on at university too, if I want to continue with my 2nd study philosophy, I have to pay about 500€ per semester, which isn't that much, but it's still annyoing.
Then, I wanted to buy loads of books today and I kinda failed because the stores didn't have most of the ones I wanted. So I went to buy CD's, failed again, same reason.


Edit: I don't have any idead what "final grade:60" means, but I guess it's not that good

[vespachick]

I'm just amazed that you didn't write enough.  Never making a specific point seems about right though.

;D ;D ;D  Good one aMD!

But seriously, I would take it as both a big fat compliment and a big fat fire under my ass!  Cuz he's right, you're clearly talented.   :-*

[tomEisenbraun]

What was the assignment?

Shoosh, I pulled it up and it's:

Write a 5-7 page college paper that either uses the arguments that Sidney makes in defense of poetry to defend one of the assigned poems by Shelley, or that uses the arguments that Shelley makes in defense of poetry to defend one of the assigned poems by Sidney, or that uses both Sidney's and Shelley's arguments to defend one of the assigned poems by either poet. In any case, you should feel free to add your own, carefully-reasoned arguments in defense or in critique of poetry in general or of your poet in particular. You should also feel free to argue that your poem does not conform to Sidney's or Shelley's definitions of poetry, whether because the poem lacks some essential quality or because the definitions themselves are limited. If you pick this later argument, however, make sure that you include counter-arguments or oppositions and that you offer a new definition of poetry to replace the one you critique (or else mount an argument that we don't need a definition at all). You could also consider using Sidney in the main body of your argument and concluding with Shelley.

So I took Shelley's "England in 1819" and used Sidney's "Defense of Poesy" to tear into it and examine whether or not Sidney would have conceived is as good or effective poetry. I suppose the trouble comes in the fact that I didn't pull in any quotes from Sidney, but I did use him extensively. Which makes it frustrating.

The class is supposedly the introduction to the study of English, and this is the second time I'm attempting it. I made a D in it last semester. I think there's a mix of apathy and a firmly rooted knowledge that, now in my fourth semester of upper level work with this school, I have never encountered assignments in my 4000-level courses that have been this specific. They want us to get a feel for upper level work by deciding exactly what our topics will be? That actually turns out to be more difficult than having to craft your own thesis for a course you don't care about. Thing is, I've had this TA last semester, and she (sorry about the androgynous name, guys) has told me that she sees me as a strong writer before. She may expecting more out of me than I'm willing to put in because of that, but if being into my fourth semester of 4000 level work and I still can't write a paper that my TA sees as passing, where are all the first semester juniors at?

I think the aim of this course is to weed out the people who don't want to be in the major. I don't really care for the major any more, but I would like to fuckin graduate without taking a full five years to do so.

End rant. Sorry.

aMD, she hasn't even come close to experiencing my verbosity. Maybe I'll give her a 12 pager next time around.

Bumbeli: The final grade is a 60 out of 100, or a D by US standards. One point lower and that would be an F.

[ycartrob]

I think the aim of this course is to weed out the people who don't want to be in the major. I don't really care for the major any more, but I would like to fuckin graduate without taking a full five years to do so.
 

there's your answer.

I got weeded out of the course just from reading your post. The notion of "arguin' 'bout poetry" turns my latte cold...

but to each, his own.

(BTW, I think that was your longest post during actual daylight hours; my people are still running some tests and crunching the numbers, but confidence is high that you just set your all time character max with an authentic daytime post. This is huge.)

[ALady]

Wow.  Arguing about poetry has got to be pretty damn nebulous.  What were your arguments?

[tomEisenbraun]

Wow.  Arguing about poetry has got to be pretty damn nebulous.

Egggggsactly.

I'll take another look at it when I'm not in class (or maybe later this hour...we'll see...) and see if I can figure what went wrong. I thought it was a prett decent paper, though? Especially if it's for the first assignment, you'd imagine there'd be a little more leeway? Hmmm...

And Tracy, should we mark it on the calendar? I'm pretty impressed with myself...

[tomEisenbraun]

Posted it on my 'blog' in case anyone was interested enough to read it (not expecting you to, but it's up here if you're curious): http://pirateradiosermon.blogspot.com/

[capt. scotty]

Mmm, yeah...you know how I said I enjoy writing papers more than studying earlier? Well Id rather take 3 exams in 3 days then right a paper on which poet's dick is longer.

No wonder you find you 4000-level courses hard though, bc at Penn State all I needed was 400-level courses. Youre school must be hardcore  :D

[capt. scotty]

(BTW, I think that was your longest post during actual daylight hours; my people are still running some tests and crunching the numbers, but confidence is high that you just set your all time character max with an authentic daytime post. This is huge.)

;D

[tomEisenbraun]

Mmm, yeah...you know how I said I enjoy writing papers more than studying earlier? Well Id rather take 3 exams in 3 days then right a paper on which poet's dick is longer.

No wonder you find you 4000-level courses hard though, bc at Penn State all I needed was 400-level courses. Youre school must be hardcore  :D

haha, we just add an extra 0 at the end. but still, definitely hardcore.

[Ruckus]

None

[tomEisenbraun]

None

Not a bad way to be!

[ritchiem4812]

I wish I could write. I failed the easiest class in high school history due to my lack of wanting to write and my lack of coming to school. Current Events was the class and every other week or so we'd have to write a paper on a topic given to us by the teacher. The teacher was great, but he subjects were to me, "unwriteable." So once he told us we had one week to write a 3 page paper about the history of the county we lived in. I ended up smoking a bunch of pot the Sunday night before it was due and decided I'd much rather listen to the White Album with headphones in the complete darkness of my room than write about his subject. So around '...Bungalow Bill' I decided to start writing about the White album. I ended up writing 6 pages while listening to the album three times and smoking about 3 joints. I was so excited to go to school in a few hours and let my friends read what I thought was the greatest thing to ever come out of my head. The few people that actually read it all the way through loved it. My teacher however, even though he was cool did not. I never did a read over or anything before I turned it in. I just wrote what I thought as I thought. I didn't realized that I had included information about me smoking weed in the paper. So, for a week or so while the teacher graded the papers I'd get weird looks in class and stuff. The day when he finally gave the papers back I was excited to get my paper back so I could re-read what I had written. Instead of getting my paper back I got a piece of his paper back explaining why I got a 0 on the paper. I asked for my paper back at the end of class but he said that he threw it away.

I like to think that he kept it so that he could read it again while he enjoys some green. ::)

[The DARK]

Tom,

This is so well written. Truly. Unfortunately, it's not the genre required for this paper. It's not that it's bad—writing is so clearly easy for you—it's just that it doesn't contain the elements necessary for a critical/philosophical argument. And, let's be fair—there's not an attempt to even make a specific argumentative claim here. I don't want to criticize you for doing something weakly when I don't have anything to work off. A lot of what is here is impressionistic, response—it's like turning in a beautiful editorial when you were contracted for a piece of investigative journal. Great work, just not the work that this assignment requires.  

Plus, it's a full page short.  

Next time: make a specific, arguable claim, back it up with continued analysis and strong argumentation. Let your beautiful prose work for you—it doesn't have to be sidelined. The best philosophers, intellectuals—the make claims, they make strong arguments—but the language is equally inspired. Don't think of it as an either/or, it can—nay, should—be both.

Gabriel

FINAL GRADE: 60

---------

Shit.

Plus, I can't figure out whether to feel really complimented or somewhat peeved? If I wrote a good paper, give a little leeway? No?

Can I go ahead and tell you that this sounds beyond familiar?

One of my recent papers got a 75 for going "off-topic" (going into division and classification when it needed to be a definition essay). In her notes on the side, she told me it should be in the literary magazine.  :-? Ditto for my description essay: she insisted that i was wandering into narration. Those were admittedly my fault (I was having too much fun with them), but I know where you're coming from.

[mjkoehler]

Lets see.....I have to buy a brand new ladder due to mine breaking. Unfortunaly it broke, while I was standing on the next to top step cutting branches. Nothing like landing with a solid thud on top of a dwarf rose bush, with broken bits of ladder rung poking you in places you really do not want to be poked, the ladder spliting in half and sort of wrapping itself around you, and having cedar needles rain down into your face just before the branch you were cutting lands on your chest. I'll have to post pics of the mangled mess. Its a wonder I didn't get hurt other then a nice bruise on one of my calves and my back being slightly tight.