College Assigments

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College Assigments

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amother

Aubergine

Sun, Jul 30 2017, 10:17 pm

I started college - yay for me!

I am old enough to be a mom of more than half the class in my course.

I received an assignment, due this week, titled: "Should private journals be assigned in college"? I received tips and a couple of articles to help back up the decision but I'm stumped. This topic is beyond boring. As of now, I've spent 3 hours trying to figure out what my topic sentence should be.

I started with something along of the lines of: "White and pink striped or silver with a lock and key these are ways for a college students to get excited about a private journal assignment."

Then I thought to myself that this would be the topic sentence about an actual journal as opposed to my view of the assignment of the journal writing.

I wrote a couple of really boring topic sentences.

agrhhhghghghghghghghgghgghghghhhhhh

amother

Salmon

Sun, Jul 30 2017, 10:27 pm

What course is this for? That would inform the type of paper you are supposed to be writing.

amother

Aubergine

Sun, Jul 30 2017, 10:42 pm

It's prerequisite English, the instructor is not expecting us to write a thesis or to submit the essay to the New York times.

Sun, Jul 30 2017, 10:53 pm

Is this meant to be a creative writing assignment or a position paper?

Does your college have a writing center where you can seek assistance?

amother

Aubergine

Sun, Jul 30 2017, 10:57 pm

We're learning how to write essay's and this is a first, rough draft of two or three.

amother

Salmon

Sun, Jul 30 2017, 11:11 pm

amother wrote:

It's prerequisite English, the instructor is not expecting us to write a thesis or to submit the essay to the New York times.

Okay. I was trying to understand if this was a general writing class, or if you were in a philosophy of education type class. You also have some liberties with the 'facts'.

I understand its not a dissertation on the topic - but you do need a thesis statement somewhere..

Anyway.. does this help

"Should private journals be assigned in college"?

Many colleges have a long standing tradition of assigning freshman the tedious task of writing down their personal observations of the material they are learning in the form of a 'private journal'. Though this is meant to further engage students in their work, it actually creates an additional unnecessary burden for students who have limited time for course work.

amother

Aubergine

Sun, Jul 30 2017, 11:30 pm

Thank you

Amarante

Mon, Jul 31 2017, 10:59 am

On the other hand, the act of journaling is helpful for many people - especially those who are college freshmen. It makes people examine their life and if you keep your journals, provides insight into your personal and emotional history.

Also some people might not have much experience in writing etc.

The act of writing a journal takes so little time that it's a non-issue to me that it takes time away from other studies.

At any rate for this kind of basic English class, the instructor is really just checking to see what level of communication skills are in the classroom - I.e. basic grammar, spelling, the ability to construct sentences that express and support the these of the essay. Are there paragraphs. Is there a beginning, middle and conclusion. Depending on the college, you really can't underestimate the potential lack of communication skills of some of the freshman and perhaps this can be seen as a way to check if any students need extra help.

Since the topic is so ridiculous it doesn't need to be researched nor does it require the writer to know anything about dissection literature. Were you given a copy of the curriculum - a future writing topics more of the research mode to check whether the writer knows how to footnote, how to quote and how to differentiate between primary and secondary sources; opinions and facts etc. All of those would be necessary for critical thinking and writing.

amother

Aubergine

Sun, Aug 20 2017, 4:26 pm

Thank you all for your suggestions. I got 14 out of 15 points available for this assignment.

debsey

Sun, Aug 20 2017, 4:40 pm

amother wrote:

We're learning how to write essay's and this is a first, rough draft of two or three.

just because you mentioned you are in an intro to college writing class, I figured I'd point this out to you. It's essays, not essay 's. The apostrophe is used to indicate possession. When you write "essays" this would be the possessive, meaning "belonging to the essay." That's not the meaning you intended to convey. An apostrophe to indicate multiple, rather than possession, is one of those common errors that many people make. I figured I'd educate you about it before you lose points in further assignments. Hope u r not offended! Hatzlacha with your schooling!

amother

Aubergine

Sun, Aug 20 2017, 4:42 pm

Not offended at all and I also discovered a typo in the title:)

amother

Salmon

Sun, Aug 20 2017, 4:59 pm

amother wrote:

Thank you all for your suggestions. I got 14 out of 15 points available for this assignment.

Which side did you write - For it or against?

Tziril Miriam

Sun, Aug 20 2017, 5:23 pm

We Imamothers appreciate that you read and took our advice.

Be sure to find out from your professor why you lost a point on your grade. True, you got 14/15, which is an A, or Excellent.

You are enrolled to learn as much as possible.

Best wishes!

amother

Aubergine

Sun, Aug 20 2017, 5:24 pm

amother wrote:

Which side did you write - For it or against?

For

amother

Aubergine

Sun, Aug 20 2017, 5:25 pm

Tziril Miriam wrote:

Yes, she had a whole checklist and clearly marked exactly the reason why I lost the point.

Thank you!

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