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izmeinaSo the madness is nearly over. Only one week remains in the time sapping online Sci Fi and Fantasy course. Only a masochist would voluntarily sign up for ten weeks of reading with essays and peer reviews due every week. There is nothing like trying to explain something to force you to actually learn and understand it but when all that effort is tossed in a barrel and randomly assigned then it is very likely that it will end in tears.
Some folks are interested in the civil exchange of ideas and ask questions and make comments in the spirit of mutual enrichment and learning while others are just little tin pot dictators on power trips making the most of this one chance to lord it over others. Not just nit picking grammar Nazis but Literature majors on a mission to put the lowly uneducated plebs back in their boxes.
A certain sort of grammar Nazi takes great delight in tearing an essay to shreds for bad grammar, spelling and punctuation without any sense of awareness that those who cast the biggest stones need to demonstrate a flawless mastery of the language. Not for these lot. They are definitely of the “Do as I say not as I do” camp of critics and their comments are full of the very mistakes that they are so quick to denounce in lesser mortals.
They pretty much left this serpent alone but there were some sad and pathetic tales of woe from other folks on the forums who were not so lucky. Oh what Schadenfreude to post a scathing report on some one else's grammar that is simply dripping with spelling mistakes and assorted errors.
But the run of good luck could not last. This week got only four reviews instead of the usual five so there was a better chance of getting a good store as it would not be watered down by the median. Was so hoping for a 5 as the essay ticked all the boxes. It was not the most original of insights since that path was abandoned due to the difficulty of doing it justice in only 320 words.
The grade of 4.5 meant that there were two 3s and two 2s for content. Two reviewers gave nice but not particularly specific comments and another gave specific constructive criticism which was actually useful. But of course it is the fate of any squiggler to remember only the bad reviews to the exclusion of all others.
This critter posted a rather snarky comment with a link to some Spark Notes type of site and a remark to try harder. I could not quite work out if the implication was that I had just gone and plagiarized stuff or was simply saying that the theme was so obvious that it was not even worthy of discussion. This was then followed by a link to some arty farty academic site probably written by the reviewer herself.
It was like this book was her own personal Sacred Scripture and she was on a mission to convert the ignorant and uninformed infidels.
What was particularly amusing was a second comment with a word count as long as the essay itself. Here’s guessing it was her own submission and the example par excellence of what a proper essay on this subject should be.
The final remark from this literary goddess was a classic “you need a better grasp on how to write a thesis” And that you at the beginning of the sentence was written in lower case.
Looks like little Miss Phd in Literature princess after some nine weeks has still not noticed that there is nothing said in the course syllabus about writing a thesis. An idea or an argument maybe but no thesis here unless she was just flaunting her erudition.
It is silly to be getting the Izzie knickers in a knot over such trivia - an online course with no validity whatsoever in the big bad world. But deep down there is a competitive streak and annoyance at how the whole structure of the course creates a breeding ground for petty tin pot dictators on a power trip.
But the Izzie was in it for the books. Just finished reading the last one - Cory Doctorow’s “Little Brother” Just loved it. All that Coursera crypto stuff had its uses after all.
The last ten weeks have confirmed beyond all possible doubt that my favourite genre ever is Dystopian, be it past, present or future.
Some folks are interested in the civil exchange of ideas and ask questions and make comments in the spirit of mutual enrichment and learning while others are just little tin pot dictators on power trips making the most of this one chance to lord it over others. Not just nit picking grammar Nazis but Literature majors on a mission to put the lowly uneducated plebs back in their boxes.
A certain sort of grammar Nazi takes great delight in tearing an essay to shreds for bad grammar, spelling and punctuation without any sense of awareness that those who cast the biggest stones need to demonstrate a flawless mastery of the language. Not for these lot. They are definitely of the “Do as I say not as I do” camp of critics and their comments are full of the very mistakes that they are so quick to denounce in lesser mortals.
They pretty much left this serpent alone but there were some sad and pathetic tales of woe from other folks on the forums who were not so lucky. Oh what Schadenfreude to post a scathing report on some one else's grammar that is simply dripping with spelling mistakes and assorted errors.
But the run of good luck could not last. This week got only four reviews instead of the usual five so there was a better chance of getting a good store as it would not be watered down by the median. Was so hoping for a 5 as the essay ticked all the boxes. It was not the most original of insights since that path was abandoned due to the difficulty of doing it justice in only 320 words.
The grade of 4.5 meant that there were two 3s and two 2s for content. Two reviewers gave nice but not particularly specific comments and another gave specific constructive criticism which was actually useful. But of course it is the fate of any squiggler to remember only the bad reviews to the exclusion of all others.
This critter posted a rather snarky comment with a link to some Spark Notes type of site and a remark to try harder. I could not quite work out if the implication was that I had just gone and plagiarized stuff or was simply saying that the theme was so obvious that it was not even worthy of discussion. This was then followed by a link to some arty farty academic site probably written by the reviewer herself.
It was like this book was her own personal Sacred Scripture and she was on a mission to convert the ignorant and uninformed infidels.
What was particularly amusing was a second comment with a word count as long as the essay itself. Here’s guessing it was her own submission and the example par excellence of what a proper essay on this subject should be.
The final remark from this literary goddess was a classic “you need a better grasp on how to write a thesis” And that you at the beginning of the sentence was written in lower case.
Looks like little Miss Phd in Literature princess after some nine weeks has still not noticed that there is nothing said in the course syllabus about writing a thesis. An idea or an argument maybe but no thesis here unless she was just flaunting her erudition.
It is silly to be getting the Izzie knickers in a knot over such trivia - an online course with no validity whatsoever in the big bad world. But deep down there is a competitive streak and annoyance at how the whole structure of the course creates a breeding ground for petty tin pot dictators on a power trip.
But the Izzie was in it for the books. Just finished reading the last one - Cory Doctorow’s “Little Brother” Just loved it. All that Coursera crypto stuff had its uses after all.
The last ten weeks have confirmed beyond all possible doubt that my favourite genre ever is Dystopian, be it past, present or future.
