It's a good policy to write something, put it aside for a day, and then read it again before you send it
But considering the circumstances, I think I did a not-horrible job moderating the angry tone:
Dear all,
If you choose to rewrite a paper, I expect to see an honest consideration of the critiques I made on your first paper - not just a a sentence or two added wherever I made a comment, or a correction of typos. The fact is I let a lot of typos slide, so you have a good chance of still having a very flawed product if you don't go through the rewrite with a fine-toothed comb yourself. The same goes for my comments: often (though not always) they reflect a larger structural problem, not just a mistake you made in that one sentence.
As a result, I'm reserving the right to assign a LOWER grade (ie, something closer to an absolute grade, not the relative grade after I add in points for effort) in the future if I don't see a real attempt to address the weaknesses in your arguments. We're supposed to work together to help you become better writers - and to that end I invest a lot of myself (I at least never got back a paper with as detailed comments as I put on yours) - so if you don't take your half of the job seriously, it's a waste of everyone's time. And please, clean up your typos; there's no excuse for why they should still be there. In old school academia, they should have been caught even before you turned in the first version of your paper.
Yours truly,
Rex
I mean seriously! It's bad enough they think of me as their own personal proofreader, but then it take a whole other level of nerve to expect an A on a silver platter like that - ie, with myself as the co-author. For some of these bastards I bet I spent more time writing comments and suggestions (avg. 30-40 min.) than they did revising.
Dear all,
If you choose to rewrite a paper, I expect to see an honest consideration of the critiques I made on your first paper - not just a a sentence or two added wherever I made a comment, or a correction of typos. The fact is I let a lot of typos slide, so you have a good chance of still having a very flawed product if you don't go through the rewrite with a fine-toothed comb yourself. The same goes for my comments: often (though not always) they reflect a larger structural problem, not just a mistake you made in that one sentence.
As a result, I'm reserving the right to assign a LOWER grade (ie, something closer to an absolute grade, not the relative grade after I add in points for effort) in the future if I don't see a real attempt to address the weaknesses in your arguments. We're supposed to work together to help you become better writers - and to that end I invest a lot of myself (I at least never got back a paper with as detailed comments as I put on yours) - so if you don't take your half of the job seriously, it's a waste of everyone's time. And please, clean up your typos; there's no excuse for why they should still be there. In old school academia, they should have been caught even before you turned in the first version of your paper.
Yours truly,
Rex
I mean seriously! It's bad enough they think of me as their own personal proofreader, but then it take a whole other level of nerve to expect an A on a silver platter like that - ie, with myself as the co-author. For some of these bastards I bet I spent more time writing comments and suggestions (avg. 30-40 min.) than they did revising.
posted by Rex at 12:24 AM
2 Comments:
I think it's fine. I've had TFs who were much meaner, and besides, yeah, they don't deserve good grades if they're wasting your time.
Good. Grad students - we're a petty, mean-spirited bunch.
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