Stupidity
[mood| 
aggravated]
[music| "Pledge of Allegiance" - Louis XIV]
Okay. So I know that I'm not a wiz when it comes to knowing every minute detail about the English language, but I know a fair bit. Where am I going with this? Here's what happened:
Two weeks ago, I was given an assignment in my Acquisition of Knowledge class (it's for the Honors College. Like a philosophy class) that required us to analyze a scholarly article in relation to one of Plato's Five Dialogues. I chose an article that had to do with the Apology, the dialogue I best understood. We had to write an abstract, followed by a rough draft, which would be peer edited, and then, we were to hand in a final copy to the professor today.
And normally, I'm all for peer review. It's a great way to grow as a writer and, in my experience, you can kind of cheer on/support your peers. When I peer review (and I asked several other friends of mine who are either not in my class, or go to a different university, and they all agree with me), I'll make the usual comments regarding punctuation and sentence structure, but I'll also let the person know when I find their argument, or any particular phrase, to be especially good. So when I looked over the two papers I had to edit, I let them know where there needed to be corrections, but I also let them know when I liked something. Because to me, it's always nice to get that affirmation that what you're doing is good/right.
Last Thursday, I get my paper back from the two girls who decided to peer edit it. One of the girls didn't really edit a whole lot. Didn't leave any positive comments, but, well, I can live with that. The other girl who had my paper tore it apart. She made constructive comments, I'll give her that, but she kept on making comments about the fact that I use parallel syntax from time to time. I may be mistaken, but I'm more than positive that there is absolutely nothing wrong with using parallel structure, rather than using several conjunctions to get your point across. There may be times when the parallelism is awkward, but, not to sound pompous, I know how to use parallel syntax without it sounding awkward. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH PARALLELISM!!! And no joke, I texted that to Rio and IM-ed that to Lisa I was so pissed off.
Not only did this girl nag me about my syntactical choices, but she also questioned my interpretations of the text. By that I mean that she asked me the question, "Is that what he's [Socrates] really trying to prove?" in reference to a point that was made in class that we had discussed in great detail that I have notes on. And I wouldn't have been so bothered by that question except for the fact that we're in a freaking philosophy class! The entire class is pretty much based on opinion! It's not a factually-based class! People are going to have different interpretations on the same text(s). That's why you discuss those opinions -- to either verify your opinion, or to determine whether your interpretation is the best interpretation you can come up with; are other interpretations better?
I decided to create my final copy last night, and I'm proud of it. It took a lot of yelling and ranting in front of Rio and Lauren (my roommate), but I got it done. I was seething, though, when I first started editing my paper. It was so bad. It took at least four or five people to calm me down: Rio, Lauren, and Lisa, in addition to my friends, Dan and, to a lesser extent, Leah.
*sighs* I'm loads better now, though. I promise. Last night was just really frustrating for me. But, I have things to look forward to this week: tomorrow Joe Biden is going to be on campus and I'm going with Rio to see him AND I'm going home this weekend!! :D I'm so excited! ^^ Rio's also coming with me and I get to see one of my best friends who's still in high school, Tori, and I'm getting bangs! 0_o I've never had bangs before, so I'm rather excited to see how they'll turn out.
Oh, and I have a new Potterpuffs moodtheme!! ^^
xoxox
aggravated]
[music| "Pledge of Allegiance" - Louis XIV]
Okay. So I know that I'm not a wiz when it comes to knowing every minute detail about the English language, but I know a fair bit. Where am I going with this? Here's what happened:
Two weeks ago, I was given an assignment in my Acquisition of Knowledge class (it's for the Honors College. Like a philosophy class) that required us to analyze a scholarly article in relation to one of Plato's Five Dialogues. I chose an article that had to do with the Apology, the dialogue I best understood. We had to write an abstract, followed by a rough draft, which would be peer edited, and then, we were to hand in a final copy to the professor today.
And normally, I'm all for peer review. It's a great way to grow as a writer and, in my experience, you can kind of cheer on/support your peers. When I peer review (and I asked several other friends of mine who are either not in my class, or go to a different university, and they all agree with me), I'll make the usual comments regarding punctuation and sentence structure, but I'll also let the person know when I find their argument, or any particular phrase, to be especially good. So when I looked over the two papers I had to edit, I let them know where there needed to be corrections, but I also let them know when I liked something. Because to me, it's always nice to get that affirmation that what you're doing is good/right.
Last Thursday, I get my paper back from the two girls who decided to peer edit it. One of the girls didn't really edit a whole lot. Didn't leave any positive comments, but, well, I can live with that. The other girl who had my paper tore it apart. She made constructive comments, I'll give her that, but she kept on making comments about the fact that I use parallel syntax from time to time. I may be mistaken, but I'm more than positive that there is absolutely nothing wrong with using parallel structure, rather than using several conjunctions to get your point across. There may be times when the parallelism is awkward, but, not to sound pompous, I know how to use parallel syntax without it sounding awkward. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH PARALLELISM!!! And no joke, I texted that to Rio and IM-ed that to Lisa I was so pissed off.
Not only did this girl nag me about my syntactical choices, but she also questioned my interpretations of the text. By that I mean that she asked me the question, "Is that what he's [Socrates] really trying to prove?" in reference to a point that was made in class that we had discussed in great detail that I have notes on. And I wouldn't have been so bothered by that question except for the fact that we're in a freaking philosophy class! The entire class is pretty much based on opinion! It's not a factually-based class! People are going to have different interpretations on the same text(s). That's why you discuss those opinions -- to either verify your opinion, or to determine whether your interpretation is the best interpretation you can come up with; are other interpretations better?
I decided to create my final copy last night, and I'm proud of it. It took a lot of yelling and ranting in front of Rio and Lauren (my roommate), but I got it done. I was seething, though, when I first started editing my paper. It was so bad. It took at least four or five people to calm me down: Rio, Lauren, and Lisa, in addition to my friends, Dan and, to a lesser extent, Leah.
*sighs* I'm loads better now, though. I promise. Last night was just really frustrating for me. But, I have things to look forward to this week: tomorrow Joe Biden is going to be on campus and I'm going with Rio to see him AND I'm going home this weekend!! :D I'm so excited! ^^ Rio's also coming with me and I get to see one of my best friends who's still in high school, Tori, and I'm getting bangs! 0_o I've never had bangs before, so I'm rather excited to see how they'll turn out.
Oh, and I have a new Potterpuffs moodtheme!! ^^
xoxox