So I Have a Problem

Write tl;dr versions of every paragraph.

why cant i be an over achiever like you mrsa? why? why cant i write that much **** on a subject i don't give two rats asses about? i bet the subject of your essay was boring.

Being verbose does not necessarily denote over-achievement -- it simply means that one has trouble being concise.

It was boring, but I didn't just write "****" on the subject as you say. In college you don't get away with just BSing your paper through-and-through like you can in high school -- you can't just cram a 4-6 page paper full of fluffy intellectual-sounding nothingness and expect to get a passing grade.

Unfortunately, one of the skills you're going to have to learn for college is the ability to form a cohesive and complex thesis to defend and analyze on any subject, regardless of whether you like it or not.

I did.

It's called an outline.

And I swear the world would be a better place if we completely got rid of the essay and implemented outlines in its place. They're more concise, less visually intimidating, and save everyone time.

</coming from an English major>

You could in high school where teachers really don't even read your papers, yeah, but not in college.

In college they don't just base your grade on the simple ability to form a few coherent sentences and a thesis that makes a decent amount of sense.

And risk looking like a bad writer that doesn't understand synonyms can have drastically different connotations?

I think not.

then what did you write that took up 8 pages? goddamn most of the sentences i write only have like three or four words on them without the nothingness

I feel your pain. I'm terrible at shortening things.

I say you should look through the whole thing and take out the parts that you may be able to do without. That's usually how I shorten things.

I completely agree with you. I hate it when people can't get to the point and they drone on and on. You could say something in a shorter way but a lot of people just keep talking and talking. I know you weren't referring to people in general, but I'm just saying. Why would you write or say something incredibly long when you could just give a quick answer? It's annoying, repeatitive and reduntant.

This post has been edited by Morshu McPhereson on Oct 1 2009, 01:42 PM

I summarized, analyzed, compared, and contrasted two 200-page books.

Admittedly, there was a bit of redundancy and some prepositional phrases that weren't completely needed, which I have since cut out (seeing as the paper is due today), but I try not to write sentences that after weeding through the "fluff," there's nothing left that's really intellectual or analytical -- I kind of got out of writing like that after 3rd year high school English.

what are these books you wrote about

Haha

I need sleep

Laboring Women, by Jennifer L. Morgan, and Out of the House of Bondage, by Thavolia Glymph. They're both historical analyses of slave women's role in the antebellum South.

This post has been edited by Mrs. Aforcer on Oct 1 2009, 03:18 PM

inb4 bondage joke

Is it wrong that was the first thing I thought, too, when I saw the book on the syllabus?

its got the word bondage in it so of course

did you make a bondage joke in your paper


because if i was your prof. if that's ALL you wrote i would give you a perfect score

Ah, if only professors in college actually appreciated humour and creativity...!

NO FUN ALLOWED

SMART PEOPLE CAN'T HAVE FUN THEY JUST DO HOMEWORK ALL DAY

Trufax, f'real.

I usually tried to get to the freakin' point while the provided format seemed to be designed to account for nonessential fluff.

I.E "OH THIS BOOK IS SO WONDERFUL AND FULL OF MEANING *insert author butt-kissing" as opposed "This implies _____ and here's why..."

This post has been edited by Clutch on Oct 1 2009, 03:42 PM

i hated writing essays for school. they seem to require that you do not apply abstract thought at all.

all my essays feel very robotic and unnatural. every time i get a question where i feel like i actually know what i'm talking about (video games, etc.), but may not strictly follow what i'm taught in the syllabus, i get a fail despite my writing being considerably more natural and the teacher being unable to debunk my ideas.

bah

My old high school required us to write a five page research paper (this doesn't include the work cited) on top of all the other state requirements in order to graduate.