Journal IV
Let me start by say this was a long reading. This entire section by Sommers was a battle against teachers, and how they criticized their students papers. It stated how the students would write a first draft for their teacher, turn it in for comments, and receive a paper back with with comments and corrections to which the student could not understand. Whether the comments were poorly written or contradicting with other comments they wrote the, students would either ignore them, in their next draft, or use the comments to please their teacher. The students paper however, would usually suffer while trying to please the teacher because they lose focus on their main topic and start to drift away.
I see where this paper was coming from. I had teachers in the past who would write this and that, but they would write it in a way where you were stuck asking yourself, "how the hell does she want it!" In my grade school years, especially, I had trouble writing, and my paper would have more writing from the teacher then myself. I despised seeing the red lines crossing out words and adding commas, but it was a necessary part in learning how to write effectively. In all I believe that I was taught well in the area of writing, and all of those squiggles on my paper I learned from. Teachers do their best most time to help and to point you in the right direction with your paper, but it is after all your paper. If you think those red lines do not make sense in part of your paper, or if the comment is a bad one, then do what you please to fix it. They try to help but in most cases you are not the first paper they have graded, and if you go by the reading they could have already been grading papers for days.
I liked what you said about how the teachers comment om student drafts and they students will do it just to please them or have the good grade, but in reality they didn't really understand what was going on. I bet every student would dislike the fact that the teacher will just have red comments and crossed lines over it, mind as well just color the whole paper red; but it was also an experience for the students to know what is wrong and what is right.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that teachers try to fix your paper the way they wanted to sound instead of the way it should be fixed. They look at structure instead of the purpose on that paper. Teacher leave all these red marks and because you know the teacher knows more than you, you change it. No matter how much you dislike the way the teacher fixes your paper you feel like it was writen wrong and you must fix it. Sometimes you do not want to take that advice they give you but either way you take it because your grade is going to be affected if it is not writen the way your teacher tells you to. I always kept in mind that she is the one grading it and if that is how she wants me to fix it, i would do it.
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