I did, eventually, work my way through that stack of papers. And I don't want to sound as if I neglect my grading because students' work is poor or boring, it's just that after you read 25 papers, they all start to sound eerily similiar, and while there are definitely those who excel at the work, most are average writers who make the same average mistakes over and over. It's hard, therefore, to remain fresh with each paper.
But I finished those, and have another stack to work on today, and I get a final stack today which I'll need to read by tomorrow afternoon before submitting grades -- with all that reading (not the fun kind), I'll be happy to sneak out this evening for my 5 miler.
As per some comments yesterday on how I must have brain bleeding reading your blogs and comments -- I can assure you, it's not true. Certainly, my inner grammar Nazi does provoke me sometimes to wince at grammatical errors, but my mother always told me it was impolite to correct others' grammar, so I usually refrain. Besides, I certainly make errors as well! In fact, sometimes my typing (especially for commentary on posts) looks as though it's been done by a drunken monkey!
Plus, many of you are WAY faster and WAY stronger runners than I: If I criticize, I don't think I could outrun you, and I don't want to get beat up.
11 comments:
I have been putting off reading your "Procrastination" post until now ;-) , but I understand why your blog has always struck me as perfectly groomed from a grammar and punctuation standpoint. I will have to make sure I cross my "T's" and dot my lower-case "j's" around you now.
sometimes a 5 miler is just the ticket! have fun!
i refrain from criticizing bad blog design...there's a time and a place for being a "nazi" i think. and blogland is for the most part recreational.
Glad you got that stack done :-) Next time give them something more interesting to write about. Deep dark secrets, secret sexual fantasies, or something along those lines. You'll never have to be bored again! LOL
Hm.... grading papers doesn't sound too fun. And to think that I wanted to be an English teacher, hehe.
Hope you have a nice day :)
I don't think correcting grammatical errors on folk's blogs would win the hearts and minds of fellow endies! With that said, that IS some mental toughness to slog through so many papers. I do admire that. Almost as much as your running skill ;-)
At least your mother taught you not to correct people. My mom does it incessantly, and I inherited the habit. People loooove me sometimes.
But, I agree - if you have to spend all day correcting people for a living, you should be able to be lazy and grammar-imperfect in blogland!
I have a vendor I work with that always responds with "Your Welcome." That drives me crazy, but otherwise I can overlook grammatical errors. In my own life, I need to hear sentences something to find errors, that was very enjoyable with my undergrad and grad school theses (which might actually be spelled wrong in this comment).
do we seem like violent people that would beat you up in a backyard brawl?
way to get through those papers! A 5 miler is just what you need!
P.S. What kind of training schedule are you currently following?
I wince in agony when I see misspellings, incorrect use of apostrophes, misused homonyms, subject-verb disagreement, etc. It grates on my nerves like nothing else (except that friggin' gum snapping thing some women do). It's everywhere, and most often in professional writing -- everything from menus to reports. I so so so want to correct people! You're a better woman than I.
After working at a newspaper for the past two years, I have an almost physical reaction when I see bad grammar and misspelled words (a big chunk of my job involves proofreading).
I don't mind it as much on blogs, because I'm glad people are writing, but when it's in books and magazines, I usually have to put them down.
I just bought "Running for Mortals" by John Bingham and found so many errors in the first few chapters. But I made an exception and powered through it since I need all the running motivation I can get right now.
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