“I have a friend who is a professor in Queens College in NY, he asked me to read several essays from his students. These kids should never have made it to high school, never mind college.”
A couple of years ago I set next to a lady on a plane who was grading some essays to pass her time. I glanced at them a few times and assumed they were high school level assignments from the presentation and general appearance. Some very sloppy. In talking with her I learned she was a college English prof. I was shocked at what was being turned in to her as final, finished English papers. It was junior high/high school level work at best and in my days in college (not that long ago) I would have had such poor material rejected outright.
I love reading, but I hate writing. I hated Eng. 301, so I faked, slouched, and basically gave the perfesser a good reason to think I couldn't write well. Typical lib, he believed it, and graded what should have been an F or D final paper as a B. Sucker. I gave my all in my other classes (well, there was one other that was just as bad, but that's a whole other story), but I just couldn't perform for this guy. Wasn't happening.
Plus our essays had to be typewritten with a hammer-style typewriter.
Anyone remember those?