I have the best professors ever.
Yikes, almost a week without updating! I really don't want to fall off the wagon. I was aiming for at least two or three updates a week (as you can see by my calendar on the right). This week was just filled with writing assignments, though, and my improving but still-awful time management skills left me with little free time. I had a one-page essay due Tuesday, a four-page summary due Wednesday, and a two-page writing exercise due today, along with a written quiz worth 8% (random number, I know) of my grade on Tuesday. So, I've been keeping busy!
Oddly enough, the hardest assignments are the one-page essays and the two-page writing exercises.
The weekly four-page summaries are literally pure summary, no analysis whatsoever. The professor just wants us to reduce the level of detail in the source document and convey a sense of the big picture unobscured by very fine details.
The weekly one-page essays, on the other hand, tend to cover very long readings. The last reading was 143 pages long(!) Half of the page is dedicated to summary-although this summary requires more analysis of broad interpretive themes, significance, and so on-and the other half is a critical response, which is considerably easier (for me, anyway). I always find poking holes in arguments and finding exceptions to rules rather fun. The tough part is having only one paragraph to summarize so many pages, figuring out what the most important bits to discuss are, and demonstrating that I actually did the reading in as few words as I can manage.
The two-page writing exercises are due less frequently and cover much shorter readings, but the assignments are more heavily weighted in my grade. And since the class is specifically a writing class, I always feel a greater sense of trepidation about structure and organization or whatnot. Anthropology professors care more about the content of the analysis than the format (although you don't want your papers to be disorganized messes either), but in writing classes, I have to worry about the strength of my thesis, having clear sub-claims, and organizing my paper in a way that reflects that expected structure.
To my shock, I've actually done really well on my assignments this far despite my horrible time management! In fact, two of my professors asked me to share my work as a positive example to the class! I definitely flipped out in a good way. In my "Culture and Emotion" class-the class with the one-page essays-my professor asked me to read my paper out loud to the class. My essay was the only one she asked to be read in its entirety; the other examples that were read were only parts of other students' papers. Yesterday, my ANTH 102 professor e-mailed me to ask if I'd be okay with having my four-page summary posted to the class website to serve as a guideline to other students for the level of detail she wanted in the summaries. Her e-mail totally made my day not only for the request itself but also because of how sweet my professor is! She wrote (and I'm copying and pasting):
>> Your paper was exceptionally good... CONGRATULATIONS on doing such a fabulous job! Your paper was one of the very best we received from the entire class -- well done!!!
After I thanked her and told her that I'd be honored, she wrote back saying:
>> Congratulations again on being such a wonderful writer, and for doing such a great job -- I know how much work you must have put into it to have written up such an excellent analysis and presentation!
On top of that, last week, my DOC 100 professor handed back our two-page writing exercises, and I got an A! Plus, I got a full score on my ANTH 102 summary and the highest possible score for both the "Culture and Emotions" essays that have been handed back (including the one I read to the class).
Not to mention that my DOC 100 professor is the cheeriest professor ever! The class is at 8 a.m., and I keep on waltzing in a tad late to hand in my writing exercises, but he's completely generous about it. Seriously. I have never had a professor so openly gracious and unfazed at all by that sort of lateness. I'm lucky that my professors and TAs in the past have liked me, but they still weren't thrilled, usually, when I rushed in late, but my DOC 100 professor literally said, "For me? Why thank you!" with absolutely no irony or malice whatsoever. And considering that a student in that class constantly makes the most unintelligent remarks ever-I died inside when aforementioned student said that World War II was "the one where we fought the Communists" *bangs head on desk*-my professor really has to be born with superhuman patience. He has never even once said anything remotely arrogant or condescending in reply to those types of comments. He always manages to use students' comments as a springboard to the right answer, even when the comments aren't the right answer. All my professors have been amazing, but some of them flat out say, "You're wrong," even when the answer is relatively close.
... So, basically, I have the best professors ever. And I really shouldn't take them or their hospitality for granted. Fortunately, I've gotten much better at churning out quality papers in less time and not cutting my deadlines so close, but I'm still a little too close to the edge for comfort. *sighs* I need to keep praying and working harder to overcome my procrastination... It's possible! I know it! ;)
Oddly enough, the hardest assignments are the one-page essays and the two-page writing exercises.
The weekly four-page summaries are literally pure summary, no analysis whatsoever. The professor just wants us to reduce the level of detail in the source document and convey a sense of the big picture unobscured by very fine details.
The weekly one-page essays, on the other hand, tend to cover very long readings. The last reading was 143 pages long(!) Half of the page is dedicated to summary-although this summary requires more analysis of broad interpretive themes, significance, and so on-and the other half is a critical response, which is considerably easier (for me, anyway). I always find poking holes in arguments and finding exceptions to rules rather fun. The tough part is having only one paragraph to summarize so many pages, figuring out what the most important bits to discuss are, and demonstrating that I actually did the reading in as few words as I can manage.
The two-page writing exercises are due less frequently and cover much shorter readings, but the assignments are more heavily weighted in my grade. And since the class is specifically a writing class, I always feel a greater sense of trepidation about structure and organization or whatnot. Anthropology professors care more about the content of the analysis than the format (although you don't want your papers to be disorganized messes either), but in writing classes, I have to worry about the strength of my thesis, having clear sub-claims, and organizing my paper in a way that reflects that expected structure.
To my shock, I've actually done really well on my assignments this far despite my horrible time management! In fact, two of my professors asked me to share my work as a positive example to the class! I definitely flipped out in a good way. In my "Culture and Emotion" class-the class with the one-page essays-my professor asked me to read my paper out loud to the class. My essay was the only one she asked to be read in its entirety; the other examples that were read were only parts of other students' papers. Yesterday, my ANTH 102 professor e-mailed me to ask if I'd be okay with having my four-page summary posted to the class website to serve as a guideline to other students for the level of detail she wanted in the summaries. Her e-mail totally made my day not only for the request itself but also because of how sweet my professor is! She wrote (and I'm copying and pasting):
>> Your paper was exceptionally good... CONGRATULATIONS on doing such a fabulous job! Your paper was one of the very best we received from the entire class -- well done!!!
After I thanked her and told her that I'd be honored, she wrote back saying:
>> Congratulations again on being such a wonderful writer, and for doing such a great job -- I know how much work you must have put into it to have written up such an excellent analysis and presentation!
On top of that, last week, my DOC 100 professor handed back our two-page writing exercises, and I got an A! Plus, I got a full score on my ANTH 102 summary and the highest possible score for both the "Culture and Emotions" essays that have been handed back (including the one I read to the class).
Not to mention that my DOC 100 professor is the cheeriest professor ever! The class is at 8 a.m., and I keep on waltzing in a tad late to hand in my writing exercises, but he's completely generous about it. Seriously. I have never had a professor so openly gracious and unfazed at all by that sort of lateness. I'm lucky that my professors and TAs in the past have liked me, but they still weren't thrilled, usually, when I rushed in late, but my DOC 100 professor literally said, "For me? Why thank you!" with absolutely no irony or malice whatsoever. And considering that a student in that class constantly makes the most unintelligent remarks ever-I died inside when aforementioned student said that World War II was "the one where we fought the Communists" *bangs head on desk*-my professor really has to be born with superhuman patience. He has never even once said anything remotely arrogant or condescending in reply to those types of comments. He always manages to use students' comments as a springboard to the right answer, even when the comments aren't the right answer. All my professors have been amazing, but some of them flat out say, "You're wrong," even when the answer is relatively close.
... So, basically, I have the best professors ever. And I really shouldn't take them or their hospitality for granted. Fortunately, I've gotten much better at churning out quality papers in less time and not cutting my deadlines so close, but I'm still a little too close to the edge for comfort. *sighs* I need to keep praying and working harder to overcome my procrastination... It's possible! I know it! ;)