Inventing the Teacher
My first semester as a student at Weber State found me in a variety of general-ed classes. I had science, history, English, and some FYE class that they made the freshman student athletes take. Just like everyone else, I had to write papers in all of them. While my English 1010 professor read my paper to the class as an example of what to do, because I proclaimed myself as Bobby Freaking Lambert and gave hilarious reasons for why I should be called such, my History teacher gave me a "C" on everything because my language was overly colloquial. At the time I thought I was a great writer because I could make my English teacher laugh herself into giving me all A's, and at the same time I felt infuriated because my dull history teacher wasn't getting it. The real problem was that while my history teacher expected sophisticated academic language in her essays, my English teacher just wanted us to write with a fresh creative voice.
The definition of academic language is sort of mysterious. I can write a literary criticism on a book in one class and get a great grade on it, while I hand in the same paper based on the same book, having been given the same requirements, and I could fail miserably. Much of the definition of "academic language" is left up to the individual teacher's preferences.
While it may not be fair to expect a student to have to adjust their language, organization, thoughts, and voice in their writing for each individual teacher, it doesn't matter because that is how it is going to be. Even if specific rules and laws were made up and written down to define what academic is and is not, the red grading pen would still be in the hands of individuals with free will. Each teacher would still decide what they thought was acceptable/non-acceptable and grade accordingly.
In real life it is almost completely frivolous for a student to try figure out what "academic language" is and how to write it. The real trick is figuring out what your teacher wants as early on as possible and adjusting accordingly. This I realize is not the ideal, but it is the reality.
The definition of academic language is sort of mysterious. I can write a literary criticism on a book in one class and get a great grade on it, while I hand in the same paper based on the same book, having been given the same requirements, and I could fail miserably. Much of the definition of "academic language" is left up to the individual teacher's preferences.
While it may not be fair to expect a student to have to adjust their language, organization, thoughts, and voice in their writing for each individual teacher, it doesn't matter because that is how it is going to be. Even if specific rules and laws were made up and written down to define what academic is and is not, the red grading pen would still be in the hands of individuals with free will. Each teacher would still decide what they thought was acceptable/non-acceptable and grade accordingly.
In real life it is almost completely frivolous for a student to try figure out what "academic language" is and how to write it. The real trick is figuring out what your teacher wants as early on as possible and adjusting accordingly. This I realize is not the ideal, but it is the reality.
posted by Bob at 1:06 PM
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