when students know best
I feel the need to rant about yesterday's lecture because... well, because it was just rubbish from start to finish and... nnnnnnghh! It makes me want to scream. But I won't. Because I don't live in the middle of nowhere anymore. Yeah.
Subject: Grammar. And I'll be honest, the lecture comes from the same man that two weeks ago used BLUE font on BLACK background slides, that just didn't bode well right off the bat. It was actually semi-interesting at the beginning, because the subject interests me! I didn't quite understand what he said about comma splices (which is one of my weakest strengths as far as grammar goes), but I thought I'd check the slides again later and let's move on. He decided to have a Grammar Game Show.
Now, you could have most certainly heard the collective groan from the next room.
But nevermind, give the guy a chance, it might be fun. The first couple of questions were sentences and we had to determine why the structure didn't work, or why the word order was incorrect (e.g. 'Refusing to drop his gun, the police shot the thief')... I was being quiet because I was taking notes, but then we got this:
'I saw a shadow behind me' said Tony, 'It must have been the mirror'.
I raised my hand and literally said, 'Shouldn't there be a comma between me and the apostrophe?' - in fairness, maybe I shouldn't have stopped there and continued with what was going to be my next question, whether there shouldn't have been a full stop after Tony, but honestly, I thought, let's go with order. You want to know what HE said? 'No, I'm sorry, you're wrong,' and he showed us the solution, which was:
'I saw a shadow behind me,' said Tony. 'It must have been the mirror.'
You can see it, right? There's a comma! (There's also worse, but bear with me on this) So a guy behind me (bless him) raised his hand and said that that was what I had said. Stupid slide-man said no, I was still wrong, moved to the next slide and when two other people called him out on his mistake, he refused to go back and show us the solution again!
O.o
I promptly tuned out of the lecture for the remaining hour. And I still caught more imprecisions (Oxford vs. non-Oxford commas come to mind), but as half the room turned to look at me, some actually urging me to speak up, I shook my head and started proof-reading my essay draft.
Afterwards HE, the sort of people that need to start reading Lynne Truss, had the audacity to come and thank me for "getting the game going"! As my friend, sitting next to me, sharply pointed out: I did not say 'You're welcome'.
Subject: Grammar. And I'll be honest, the lecture comes from the same man that two weeks ago used BLUE font on BLACK background slides, that just didn't bode well right off the bat. It was actually semi-interesting at the beginning, because the subject interests me! I didn't quite understand what he said about comma splices (which is one of my weakest strengths as far as grammar goes), but I thought I'd check the slides again later and let's move on. He decided to have a Grammar Game Show.
Now, you could have most certainly heard the collective groan from the next room.
But nevermind, give the guy a chance, it might be fun. The first couple of questions were sentences and we had to determine why the structure didn't work, or why the word order was incorrect (e.g. 'Refusing to drop his gun, the police shot the thief')... I was being quiet because I was taking notes, but then we got this:
'I saw a shadow behind me' said Tony, 'It must have been the mirror'.
I raised my hand and literally said, 'Shouldn't there be a comma between me and the apostrophe?' - in fairness, maybe I shouldn't have stopped there and continued with what was going to be my next question, whether there shouldn't have been a full stop after Tony, but honestly, I thought, let's go with order. You want to know what HE said? 'No, I'm sorry, you're wrong,' and he showed us the solution, which was:
'I saw a shadow behind me,' said Tony. 'It must have been the mirror.'
You can see it, right? There's a comma! (There's also worse, but bear with me on this) So a guy behind me (bless him) raised his hand and said that that was what I had said. Stupid slide-man said no, I was still wrong, moved to the next slide and when two other people called him out on his mistake, he refused to go back and show us the solution again!
O.o
I promptly tuned out of the lecture for the remaining hour. And I still caught more imprecisions (Oxford vs. non-Oxford commas come to mind), but as half the room turned to look at me, some actually urging me to speak up, I shook my head and started proof-reading my essay draft.
Afterwards HE, the sort of people that need to start reading Lynne Truss, had the audacity to come and thank me for "getting the game going"! As my friend, sitting next to me, sharply pointed out: I did not say 'You're welcome'.