EPTso, TL, ask away! also, what were the biggest problems in your english classes? what did certain professors do that you found most helpful? i can probably answer some general questions about academia as well, if you like.
[bored] ask a freshman english professor
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
so, TL, ask away! also, what were the biggest problems in your english classes? what did certain professors do that you found most helpful? i can probably answer some general questions about academia as well, if you like. | ||
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Saracen
United States5139 Posts
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Megalisk
United States6095 Posts
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Saracen
United States5139 Posts
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Humbug
United States264 Posts
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number1gog
United States1081 Posts
Why does my word processor always give me shit when I try to type "it's." As in, "The cookerchiller 5000's ability to cook a steak while chilling my beer is it's best selling point." I'm trying to show that "it" possesses whatever it is that it possesses, but my word processor tries to tell me the correct spelling is without the apostrophe. What's up with that? | ||
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Bill Murray
United States9292 Posts
perhaps you should focus on that. | ||
Empyrean
17070 Posts
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Empyrean
17070 Posts
On July 01 2010 05:47 number1gog wrote: English questions huh.... Why does my word processor always give me shit when I try to type "it's." As in, "The cookerchiller 5000's ability to cook a steak while chilling my beer is it's best selling point." I'm trying to show that "it" possesses whatever it is that it possesses, but my word processor tries to tell me the correct spelling is without the apostrophe. What's up with that? "It's" is a contraction for "it is." "Its" is the third person singular possessive. EDIT: always. You pretty much wrote "The cookerchiller's ability to cook a steak is it is best selling point." | ||
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Bill Murray
United States9292 Posts
On July 01 2010 05:47 number1gog wrote: English questions huh.... Why does my word processor always give me shit when I try to type "it's." As in, "The cookerchiller 5000's ability to cook a steak while chilling my beer is it's best selling point." I'm trying to show that "it" possesses whatever it is that it possesses, but my word processor tries to tell me the correct spelling is without the apostrophe. What's up with that? it's = it is its = its best selling point a rule of thumb is if you cant say it is, it doesn't work. "it is selling point" doesnt make sense so it's not note how when i used it, it makes sense: it is its selling point | ||
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ella_guru
Canada1741 Posts
http://forums.somethingawful.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=158 That place ? | ||
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Baksteen
Netherlands438 Posts
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
you'll learn more in college english than from the AP Lit test i will edit your papers for a very competitive price of $500/hour, however i type with one finger which frequently cramps clarity of argument and clean writing is most important. some people forget that writing, even academic writing, is ultimately just a form of communicating, so anything that obscures what is aiming to be communicated is never an A paper trust your mind, not a machine! its is correct there. the best tip is to not use contractions at all in academic papers, in my opinion empyrean -- the short answer is that you usually don't. some journals will pay you for your work, and if you get an actual book published you'll get some money from that of course, but the funding is extremely limited, so must academics support themselves on their university salary plus whatever up they can scarf up. you can find some other outlets for cash, and a lot of universities will let you take a paid sabbatical to write a book, but the funding is nowhere close to the sciences. ella -- i'll check it out, but i figure TL will be a lot more friendly edit: grammar errors lulz | ||
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kzn
United States1218 Posts
I have never understood this once they stopped teaching like actual grammar and stuff and started making me read stupid political diatribes in book form. what, precisely, is the point? I mean no offence I just have literally no idea. | ||
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
On July 01 2010 05:54 Baksteen wrote: Do you cross check essays? :p if a professor can't spot a plagiarized section instantly, they either aren't paying very strong attention to what they are reading or they are a fool i am completely opposed to those online plagiarism tools and will do anything i can to circumvent them if the school wants my students to use them. do your job, profs | ||
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Piy
Scotland3152 Posts
I mean I'm 3 years in and holy shit it's easy. Most UK uni's = Most US uni's according to most studies for the record. Also, can you read Middle English? | ||
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
On July 01 2010 06:00 kzn wrote: wtf do you actually do in english classes I have never understood this once they stopped teaching like actual grammar and stuff and started making me read stupid political diatribes in book form. what, precisely, is the point? I mean no offence I just have literally no idea. on what level? on the level i'm teaching, the only real aim is to improve the writing/analytical reasoning of my students. on higher levels, we're talking literary study and literary theory, but i don't really want to turn this into a debate about the merits of that | ||
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kzn
United States1218 Posts
I'm more confused about things like my HS experience, where after I hit ~15 or so we stopped doing what you might call english tech and just read books and wrote about them (or, in my case, raged at hidden political messages). It seems like there would be more efficient ways of developing writing skills, and more efficient ways of developing analytical skills than having people read literature and write/talk about it. [edit] Of course if this is precisely the debate you dont want feel free to ignore me. | ||
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lac29
United States1485 Posts
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benjammin
United States2728 Posts
On July 01 2010 06:02 Piy wrote: Do you not agree that English degree's are the most ridiculously easy *real* qualification there is. I mean I'm 3 years in and holy shit it's easy. Most UK uni's = Most US uni's according to most studies for the record. Also, can you read Middle English? any degree is easy if you let it be, i'm sure there are plenty of engineers who would struggle with the work i've done the same way i would struggle with quantum mechanics. i don't think there's really any objective way you can evaluate the difficulty of one degree, it probably has more to do with your proficiency at what you're doing/your passion for doing it. if you don't feel like you're being challenged, that might have more to do with other factors. i had to read/speak middle-english for my chaucer class i took years ago, and i purged all that stuff from my brain ASAP. my main focus/interest is on post-wwii american literature, so the medieval works were a real bore for me. no offense to chaucer, a lot of the canterbury tales are awesome. the wife of bath got me through so many classes | ||
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