The Way You Do The Things You Do [reprise]
Today, I'm marking assignments.
Last week I told you about the student who emailed me to ask what I hesitate to call a stupid question, because I always tell my students there's no such thing as a stupid question, but really, there is, and when you ask a question like "Can I make it up?" when the assignment instructions clearly state, "Do not make it up," well, that's a stupid question.
What I didn't tell you was how I replied to that email. I wrote back to the student to point out that the point of the assignment is to choose a real company, and to personally meet with or talk to someone at that company, and I gently directed him to re-read the assignment instructions. Then I added a few lines about ABC Pizza: I told him that I had worked there when I was in highschool. I told him the name of the owner, then recounted an anecdote about how the owner chose the name of the store by randomly sticking his finger into the Yellow Pages. Then I said, "See, the truth is always more interesting than making it up."
Perhaps you, Gentle Reader, will understand that I was intending to communicate to this student that he'd better get off his ass and call ABC Pizza because if he tries to make up details about the company's background he ain't gonna be foolin' this here professor none.
Perhaps you can explain to me why the student apparently thought I was trying to help him out by giving him the company background. You can, perhaps, understand my utter bafflement to find that he wrote in vague generalities about how the company has been in business "for a long time" and "has a lot of stores" and then threw in the anecdote about the Yellow Pages and then, then, as if that wasn't cause enough to look forward to a D, at the end he writes "For more information contact John Smith, Owner" using the name I'd given him of the person I knew to be the owner twenty years ago but not actually giving any contact information.
And perhaps you can explain to the student why he's getting an F on this assignment.
* * *
This won't be the last time her students will baffle Postmodern Sass. Click here to read about the next time. In the next story in sequence, Sass explains why she has no time to write stories. Sort of. And then, finally, she gets around to writing the story she's been promising you all summer, about her friend Angela and The Cult. And she's not referring to the band, that is. It's a two part story. The second part will address the Boz situation.
Last week I told you about the student who emailed me to ask what I hesitate to call a stupid question, because I always tell my students there's no such thing as a stupid question, but really, there is, and when you ask a question like "Can I make it up?" when the assignment instructions clearly state, "Do not make it up," well, that's a stupid question.
What I didn't tell you was how I replied to that email. I wrote back to the student to point out that the point of the assignment is to choose a real company, and to personally meet with or talk to someone at that company, and I gently directed him to re-read the assignment instructions. Then I added a few lines about ABC Pizza: I told him that I had worked there when I was in highschool. I told him the name of the owner, then recounted an anecdote about how the owner chose the name of the store by randomly sticking his finger into the Yellow Pages. Then I said, "See, the truth is always more interesting than making it up."
Perhaps you, Gentle Reader, will understand that I was intending to communicate to this student that he'd better get off his ass and call ABC Pizza because if he tries to make up details about the company's background he ain't gonna be foolin' this here professor none.
Perhaps you can explain to me why the student apparently thought I was trying to help him out by giving him the company background. You can, perhaps, understand my utter bafflement to find that he wrote in vague generalities about how the company has been in business "for a long time" and "has a lot of stores" and then threw in the anecdote about the Yellow Pages and then, then, as if that wasn't cause enough to look forward to a D, at the end he writes "For more information contact John Smith, Owner" using the name I'd given him of the person I knew to be the owner twenty years ago but not actually giving any contact information.
And perhaps you can explain to the student why he's getting an F on this assignment.
This won't be the last time her students will baffle Postmodern Sass. Click here to read about the next time. In the next story in sequence, Sass explains why she has no time to write stories. Sort of. And then, finally, she gets around to writing the story she's been promising you all summer, about her friend Angela and The Cult. And she's not referring to the band, that is. It's a two part story. The second part will address the Boz situation.
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