I'm a senior in a 4000 level history class. I'm a history major. So is everyone else in the class.
Everyone in the class has presumably graduated high school and is at least a sophmore in college.

WE WRITE FUCKING PAPERS IN EVERY CLASS. IT'S HISTORY.

WHY CAN NO ONE WRITE A GOD DAMN PAPER?!
Basic rules of grammar, gone. Apostrophes all over, where they don't belong. Using cliches in ACADEMIC WRITING.
It's a book review! Of a scholarly book! And people are making value judgments on the topic of the book (which is Nazis by the way).

"The Nazi's were really barbaric." This is an ACTUAL line. "Nazi's" is a term used to show possession.
And NO SHIT they were barbaric! The job of the book review is to read the book, examine the sources and evaluate the author's argument...not make value judgments.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH.

I'm going to become an educator if for no other reason than to make students write essays.

I don't even think I'm that great of a writer....I just think somewhere along the line, some stupid ass educators decided it was no longer necessary to teach kids how to convey thoughts in an educated manner....

My grammar has always been atrocious. Luckily its more important to convey your meaning and explain elaborate theories in a simple manner. I mean, its gonna be read by other science lecturers who often have as many grammar issues as me anyway.

What does get me is the group work, where I get some of the most retarded questions. (Somehow I ended up being the group 'leader,' organising people). I remember one girl came up to me after failing to write her section as planned, and she asked "How do you write an introduction." This wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't been given a handout explaining what the subject was and what we needed to do.



All she needed to do was shorten it down to a paragraph. I did it myself in about 10 minutes, made sure not to send her the emails with regards to our group meetings and removed her name from all the work.

ThePitGoddess wrote:

I'm a senior in a 4000 level history class. I'm a history major. So is everyone else in the class.
Everyone in the class has presumably graduated high school and is at least a sophmore in college.

WE WRITE FUCKING PAPERS IN EVERY CLASS. IT'S HISTORY.

WHY CAN NO ONE WRITE A GOD DAMN PAPER?!
Basic rules of grammar, gone. Apostrophes all over, where they don't belong. Using cliches in ACADEMIC WRITING.
It's a book review! Of a scholarly book! And people are making value judgments on the topic of the book (which is Nazis by the way).

"The Nazi's were really barbaric." This is an ACTUAL line. "Nazi's" is a term used to show possession.
And NO SHIT they were barbaric! The job of the book review is to read the book, examine the sources and evaluate the author's argument...not make value judgments.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH.

I'm going to become an educator if for no other reason than to make students write essays.

I don't even think I'm that great of a writer....I just think somewhere along the line, some stupid ass educators decided it was no longer necessary to teach kids how to convey thoughts in an educated manner....

A lot of that went over my head, but my advice to you is to ditch school, burn all your clothes, go and live at the top of a mountain and shit on the entire world systematically

Rosalind wrote:

My grammar has always been atrocious. Luckily its more important to convey your meaning and explain elaborate theories in a simple manner. I mean, its gonna be read by other science lecturers who often have as many grammar issues as me anyway.

What does get me is the group work, where I get some of the most retarded questions. (Somehow I ended up being the group 'leader,' organising people). I remember one girl came up to me after failing to write her section as planned, and she asked "How do you write an introduction." This wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't been given a handout explaining what the subject was and what we needed to do.



All she needed to do was shorten it down to a paragraph. I did it myself in about 10 minutes, made sure not to send her the emails with regards to our group meetings and removed her name from all the work.

Haha, maybe for science. But in history and historical publications, grammar is important.
So is meaning....but nobody wants to read your ideas if you write like a fucking troll.

People say things like "Hitler was a bad guy and he was mean and also the socioeconmic situation helped germany into Nazis."

I'm not even joking. Besides the more nitpicky critiques (socioeconomic situations don't help anyone, they lack that ability)....its poorly written.

I hate cliches more than anything. Everyone who uses cliches in academic writing needs to be hunted down and destroyed.

Yeah, I can see it holding more weight there.

I remember a mate commenting on how I was capable of using terms such as 'particulate re-agglomeration of CVD MWNTS within a thermoplastic polyurethane matrix" with ease, but kept muddling they're/there/their

[quote="ThePitGoddess"]I'm a senior in a 4000 level history class. I'm a history major. So is everyone else in the class.
Everyone in the class has presumably graduated high school and is at least a sophmore in college.

WE WRITE FUCKING PAPERS IN EVERY CLASS. IT'S HISTORY.

WHY CAN NO ONE WRITE A GOD DAMN PAPER?!
Basic rules of grammar, gone. Apostrophes all over, where they don't belong. Using cliches in ACADEMIC WRITING.
It's a book review! Of a scholarly book! And people are making value judgments on the topic of the book (which is Nazis by the way).

"The Nazi's were really barbaric." This is an ACTUAL line. "Nazi's" is a term used to show possession.
And NO SHIT they were barbaric! The job of the book review is to read the book, examine the sources and evaluate the author's argument...not make value judgments.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH.

I'm going to become an educator if for no other reason than to make students write essays.

I don't even think I'm that great of a writer....I just think somewhere along the line, some stupid ass educators decided it was no longer necessary to teach kids how to convey thoughts in an educated manner....[/quote]

Holy shit I'm with on all points! I'm a history major too and people are just fucking stupid. One kid in one of my classes said something like "it was evil", and my professor tore him apart. He put it so perfectly, "History makes no such judgments, there is no good or evil in history. Historians simply inquire as to what, but more importantly the why. Those who make judgments do so with an agenda, which is by far the worst kind of history. Oh and the Nazis did exactly that."

If history is written by the winners, does France have no history?

[quote="Rosalind"]If history is written by the winners, does France have no history? [/quote]

France hasn't had history since Napoleon.

son_ov_hades wrote:

Holy shit I'm with on all points! I'm a history major too and people are just fucking stupid. One kid in one of my classes said something like "it was evil", and my professor tore him apart. He put it so perfectly, "History makes no such judgments, there is no good or evil in history. Historians simply inquire as to what, but more importantly the why. Those who make judgments do so with an agenda, which is by far the worst kind of history. Oh and the Nazis did exactly that."

That's a really awesome quote by your professor.

And true And! Another history major!!!! YAYYYYYY!

son_ov_hades wrote:

Rosalind wrote:

If history is written by the winners, does France have no history?

France hasn't had history since Napoleon.

Heres another one, if history was written by the winners, why are there so many fucking Nazi documentaries on the history channel?

[quote="Rosalind"][quote="son_ov_hades"][quote="Rosalind"]If history is written by the winners, does France have no history? [/quote]

France hasn't had history since Napoleon. [/quote]

Heres another one, if history was written by the winners, why are there so many fucking Nazi documentaries on the history channel? [/quote]

Well in all seriousness that phrase is largely inaccurate. A better one is "History is written by those who have a voice".

Why does the quote thing never work for Geoff?

ThePitGoddess wrote:

I'm a senior in a 4000 level history class. I'm a history major. So is everyone else in the class.
Everyone in the class has presumably graduated high school and is at least a sophmore in college.

WE WRITE FUCKING PAPERS IN EVERY CLASS. IT'S HISTORY.

WHY CAN NO ONE WRITE A GOD DAMN PAPER?!
Basic rules of grammar, gone. Apostrophes all over, where they don't belong. Using cliches in ACADEMIC WRITING.
It's a book review! Of a scholarly book! And people are making value judgments on the topic of the book (which is Nazis by the way).

"The Nazi's were really barbaric." This is an ACTUAL line. "Nazi's" is a term used to show possession.
And NO SHIT they were barbaric! The job of the book review is to read the book, examine the sources and evaluate the author's argument...not make value judgments.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH.

I'm going to become an educator if for no other reason than to make students write essays.

I don't even think I'm that great of a writer....I just think somewhere along the line, some stupid ass educators decided it was no longer necessary to teach kids how to convey thoughts in an educated manner....

You think you have it bad? I was a fucking English and writing major as well as being the News section editor on the university's paper. I edited papers ALL the fucking time that look like they were written by fifth graders.

Ahmedeus wrote:

Why does the quote thing never work for Geoff?

He has BBCode disabled.

Rosalind wrote:

Ahmedeus wrote:

Why does the quote thing never work for Geoff?

He has BBCode disabled.

I can't blame him. Their programing is shit

[quote="Rosalind"][quote="Ahmedeus"]Why does the quote thing never work for Geoff?[/quote]

He has BBCode disabled.[/quote]

I never did that, been trying for awhile to figure out why it doesn't work.

son_ov_hades wrote:

Rosalind wrote:

Ahmedeus wrote:

Why does the quote thing never work for Geoff?

He has BBCode disabled.

I never did that, been trying for awhile to figure out why it doesn't work.

Profile ---> Preferences ---> Always allow BBCode.

AarO)))n wrote:

Rosalind wrote:

Ahmedeus wrote:

Why does the quote thing never work for Geoff?

He has BBCode disabled.

I can't blame him. Their programing is shit

I C WUT U DID THAR

I think everybody ought to read the book 'Eats Shoots and Leaves' http://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolerance-Punctuation/dp/1592402038/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253058423&sr=1-1 before going to college. Seriously. This book tells you basically everything you ever need to know about punctuation in the English language.

Back in high school I was in a fiction writing class where we had to peer-edit each others' stories, and some had some of the most atrocious punctuation--I mean 30+ comma mistakes in one 3-page story

So far I haven't come across any dumb history majors (in regard to grammar), though in my history colloquium course last semester where we essentially learned how to analyze sources and write history papers, there still seemed to be some people who couldn't quite get the assignments.

Also, Americans need to learn how to use adverbs. It irks me to no end when people say 'good' rather than 'well', or when they simply use an adjective rather than an adverb (c'mon people, all you gotta do is add '-ly'). One of my German English teachers was able to point this out, and it frankly embarrasses me that foreigners for whom English is a second language can speak it better than most native speakers.
/rant

Rosalind wrote:

son_ov_hades wrote:

Rosalind wrote:

Ahmedeus wrote:

Why does the quote thing never work for Geoff?

He has BBCode disabled.

I never did that, been trying for awhile to figure out why it doesn't work.

Profile ---> Preferences ---> Always allow BBCode.

Fixed, btw I didn't know I had it turned off, as soon as you told me it was off I turned it on. I'm not that stupid, not to know where the settings are.

Ziegenbartami wrote:

and it frankly embarrasses me that foreigners for whom English is a second language can speak it better than most native speakers.

It shouldn't tbh. Did you ever sit down and learn grammar? Unless you did English language, you probably picked up most of your habits from using the language, so any common mistakes will remain. Unlike someone who's learnt it from a text book, who has probably sat down at some point and memorised rules.

You're more than welcome to proof read my story, though its a little longer than 3 sides


Geoff: I can't physically turn it from my end, which means you must have done so at some point

Rosalind wrote:

Ziegenbartami wrote:

and it frankly embarrasses me that foreigners for whom English is a second language can speak it better than most native speakers.

It shouldn't tbh. Did you ever sit down and learn grammar? Unless you did English language, you probably picked up most of your habits from using the language, so any common mistakes will remain. Unlike someone who's learnt it from a text book, who has probably sat down at some point and memorised rules.

Fortunately I had a class my junior year of high school (11th year of schooling overall) where we did "sit down and learn grammar", thereby weeding out a lot of those nasty little habits and instilling some good ones. For that I am forever thankful.

Rosalind wrote:

You're more than welcome to proof read my story, though its a little longer than 3 sides

Because I don't have enough reading and assignments for the 5 history classes I'm taking this semester

This is all interesting, but I actually got "news" stories in when doing the paper where people used internet slang and acronyms. Not to mention that I have also edited papers where there were 20+ comma mistakes on a single page.

People also don't know the difference between the following:
To
Too
Two

There
They're
Their

Bare
Bear

Its
It's

Effect
Affect

Etc.


Everyone who is a writer, or a student for that matter, should have this:

^ The bible. I'm usually a pretty strict stickler for grammar as well. "Your" pisses me off especially.