TheOfficeMut
Unconfirmed Member
For some reason your comment reminded me of the Sonic Obama meme. I finished your sentence with '...clutching her red pen and chaos emeralds.'
Got an F on a college essay for swearing?
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For some reason your comment reminded me of the Sonic Obama meme. I finished your sentence with '...clutching her red pen and chaos emeralds.'
shnurgleton
Member
Dude are you serious
Academic writing doesn't have profanity in it
You got some learnin to do
Academic writing doesn't have profanity in it
You got some learnin to do
Theonik
Member
If you are going to resort to swearing, you need to be able to justify the use of it as you should any part of your written work. Keeping mind of the nature of your work and the audience is important to any kind of writing.
An essay on the impact of age-related tensions to social cohesion probably could do less with 'Them fuckers bearing on old-folk and shit'. This is college, not the street corner.
Bitch puhlease.
An essay on the impact of age-related tensions to social cohesion probably could do less with 'Them fuckers bearing on old-folk and shit'. This is college, not the street corner.
Bitch puhlease.
prag16
Banned
I didn't want to get on a "kids these days" soapbox, but yeah... refraining from that type of language on a college assignment absolutely should be common sense, 100%. Regardless of whether the OP got away with it with another professor in the past.
Automatic F is kind of harsh, but you reap what you sow.
Future PhaZe
Member
An F is extreme. I would certainly have a discussion with the professor.
Lol that's some shit you bang out the morning it's due because you forgot about it and would be happy just getting a B-
But not the conversation with the teacher about the word's use. Got it.
backflip10019
Member
Yeah, you do not write profanities in formal essays, unless they're creative writing.
I don't agree with the professor giving you an F but you should have known better. Cursing is a telltale sign of laziness in writing.
I don't agree with the professor giving you an F but you should have known better. Cursing is a telltale sign of laziness in writing.
Silent Chief
Member
If you're writing a novel you swear as much as you want. Fuck and shit are colloquial English. In a business setting, you have to use formal English. Prime example, if you're receiving an Oscar for a movie in which you said fuck in every line, you can't say fuck in your acceptance speech.
At school, it's debatable if you can use those words. Some parents will complain if the teacher let their kid do it. Even if everybody is of legal age. So, instead of writing I said "Fuck!", you simply wrote I swore. Now, all of you who wrote about a Thesaurus, I'd like to see your list of acceptable swears. Go ahead. Make me cringe.
An F is pushing it. Ask if you can resubmit it without the profanity.
At school, it's debatable if you can use those words. Some parents will complain if the teacher let their kid do it. Even if everybody is of legal age. So, instead of writing I said "Fuck!", you simply wrote I swore. Now, all of you who wrote about a Thesaurus, I'd like to see your list of acceptable swears. Go ahead. Make me cringe.
An F is pushing it. Ask if you can resubmit it without the profanity.
I remember being really nervous about referring to something as "damned" in a high school essay, but that made sense. I thought this was going to be something like that. I can't believe you littered an essay with "fucking shit" and your defense is the old Spongebob "sentence enhancer" argument.
I'm just imagining the OP like
"Cmon Teach, ya really sayin I gotta censor myself like that?"
prag16
Banned
That's what I thought at first too, but judging by the excerpts, the paper is probably barely coherent regardless. The OP's gaf posts contain better prose for crying out loud.
Your professor can eat shit. Put a bunch of swearing in each essay and after you fail move out into the woods and do a bunch of drugs. These motherfuckers are doing their damndest to get you to join the borg.
Tell or email the teacher "if your goal is to get students to quell any creative impulse and become another cog in the soulless capitalist machine, you're doing a great fucking job". Then go smoke weed!
Tell or email the teacher "if your goal is to get students to quell any creative impulse and become another cog in the soulless capitalist machine, you're doing a great fucking job". Then go smoke weed!
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
As others have pointed out to me, the required style of writing (poem) as well as the consultation with the teacher were both extremely relevant, probably more so than the fact it was a high school assignment.
LMAO. Like what? Ive spent days writing something and going over everything. I honestly never thought people actually would write an academic paper like they are posting on a message board. lmao.
Glass Rebel
Member
What did you think a formal essay was?
EscapingJail
Member
You don't curse in an academic paper, For a college student this should be common sense. Did you try the same thing in highschool and it worked?
lucebuce12
Member
My opinions and shit?
PeskyToaster
Member
I just read the short story. Quite the twist at the end. I know the Wikipedia says that the point is honesty is the best policy but I dunno. I think we can go deeper. What about a commentary on the facade of the wealthy. That those within the circle know that their shit is fake but people on the outside, like Loisel, don't. And they are only chasing a facade that only appeared out of reach but really was within her means the whole time.
One PDF I saw used Mine. Loisel and Mme. Forestier. I couldn't find what Mme. means but other documents just used Madame Loisel
Oh lol I thought the A- essay was the F one. Damn, if that doesn't say something.
One PDF I saw used Mine. Loisel and Mme. Forestier. I couldn't find what Mme. means but other documents just used Madame Loisel
Oh lol I thought the A- essay was the F one. Damn, if that doesn't say something.
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
In a few years there will be a thread about some poor GAFer flunking an essay for using gifs to express their point.
TheOfficeMut
Unconfirmed Member
It's all too common in college for students to write papers merely hours before it's due. I did it all the time and I regret it because looking back I would enjoy taking the time out to write better material and actually learn something from an assignment instead of hacking together piecemeal thoughts from my ass and elbows.
whatevermort
Member
If you're writing, say, "I fucking hate that people abuse elders! It's fucking disgraceful!" then, yes, absolutely you should be marked down for it. That's not the point of an essay.
OmegaTreeFish
Banned
My favourite bit is easily the "45 minute film in full" bit. I mean, holy shit lol. I put more effort watching the latest fantastic 4 film without turning it off
.
I should have turned it off
This. I did this one time on a paper in college and I got an A on the paper. It wasn't even part of the paper, just an explanation I posted at the end about why my paper was only six pages instead of the stated minimum of ten. The paper was for a media studies class, and I quoted a professor I'd had for a business law class. He was letting us go early from class one night and said it was because, "Continuing to speak when you have nothing more to say is the hallmark of an asshole." I quoted that after explaining that I had fully fleshed out my argument in fewer pages than the minimum.
Kabuki Quantum Lover
Member
Reading the OP almost made me pop my gasket.
Perfect Blue
Banned
You lack the ability to express your feelings without using expletives. Learn to write better, there are finally better ways to express your disgust at such abhorrent acts without resorting to expletives. Its not about censorship either its about civility and professionalism is it really worth tanking your grades just to say shit and fuck in your academic papers?
You need to report the teacher that let you pass.
I don't want to be a dick about this, but I don't think that your writing is particularly strong, even without the swearing. I think you need to focus on making sure your sentences are well constructed, and that they flow well into each other. Make sure they don't wander too much, don't start them with "and", avoid fragments, and watch your spelling. Most importantly, remember that writing takes time and focus, and if you don't allow yourself enough of both, your writing will suffer.
Just for fun:
Just for fun:
You said:
You said:
aygomyownroad
Member
I like that quote, and it probably helped that the 6 pages you did do was quality work.
At Uni I remember going in to a mid term exam and leaving after 30 minutes. People thought I had failed it and I wasn't prepared but I was the only one to get an A on it.
A single A4 sheet of paper, no crap just facts. It was brought up in class that its quality not quantity at the end of the day
Wowfunhappy
Member
Was this a "creative essay"? If yes, your annoyance is justifiedswear words should definitely be fair game there, if used where truly appropriate.
If it was a more formal type of essay though... sorry, but that was stupid.
If it was a more formal type of essay though... sorry, but that was stupid.
It is not. OP is not going to learn if the professor is not firm on the matter.
She will most likely let him resubmit.
excelsiorlef
Member
In the chain of conversation you described the swearing as merely something the teacher didn't like. You said they were abusing their power and unjustly punishing the OP for using words used in novels. What the instructor was really was doing: was expecting and applying the most basic academic standards.
Your entire stream of consciousness literally is derived from the start of the chain of conversation where you felt the instructor, due to your weird hookups with literature instructors, was being unfair to the OP.
You've consistently shown you can't differentiate between creative writing and academic writing. You've compared the academic standard of no swearing to Putin's Russia.
When you decouple writing from the rules (and suggest the rules aren't important), that's what I mean by saying you are making arguments against academic standards.
Literary/English courses are where you learn how to write academically. It is an important skill and teachers aren't just docking marks (justifiably severely) for poor writing and unnecessary vulgarity because they're personally offended but because such writing is unacceptable in a formal setting outside of school and students need to learn how to write properly.
Chuck Norris
Banned
Dear College Professor,
Where do we start, really? The essay by yours truly is an absolutely well crafted essay from a man who is too much a dreamer, a man foolish enough to tolerate it, and finally, a man of a wealth of vocabulary who, in the end, becomes the "antagonist" of this story, but by no fault of his own. One extravagent night out led to a life of hard work and strain, with 2.5 really sad, quite morbid, fucked up hours put into this piece of writing which you shit all over.
Your syllabus doesn't explain why I need to censor myself as a writer. Maybe I'm simply unfiltered but that's a good thing. Maybe I'm getting angry about nothing however I don't understand how your choice of fucking language is something you can be penalized for.
In other words... honesty is the best policy.
Peace
Cant wait for someone to say they wrote a paper including emojis in a formal paper and got and F and dont understand why.
I understand that. I think more of saying anything longer than 2 hours ever is too much. lol.
I think the F is symbolic for his usage of the word fuck.
Vincent Alexander
Member
Agreed. I would have knocked off points for sure, but an F blanket ignores the rest of the work and quality of the paper. Or maybe the paper just sucked.
The only "cursing" I did in college papers was "damn". Never had an issue. I would never have the balls for "fuck" in my film classes.
"Then we watch as they throw shit in the fire, and close in on a sled. Rosebud. It was the fucking sled the whole time. You believe that shit?"
TheOfficeMut
Unconfirmed Member
Two hours is a fraction of the time one should spend on a paper, you're right. I don't know how anyone could think such a short amount of time is too much.
Jerry
Member
You're a fucking idiot OP
what if it was an E->F
Actually I think we're done here. What with a smorgasbord of everything from witty comments, insults and actual good advice.
OP, hope you take the good advice to heart, best of luck in your future academic pursuits.
Which, based on his writing excerpts, looks worse than subpar.
'fucked up' is slang, and generally slang is looked down upon when grading. The fact of the matter is that there are far better adjectives than 'fucked', so you should still be graded poorly without even accounting for the curse.
I think this line right here shows your fundamental misunderstanding of essay writing, being an adult, and college in general:
So much wrong with a single part of a sentence.
First, you always need think about your audience (whoever is reading it). That's who you are writing to! That's like essay-writing 101. The last think you want is your audience to read a few sentences and completely lose interest in the subject matter because they were turned off by the writing style. Writing whatever you want because you feel like it isn't 'being an adult'. The opposite is true. Being conscious of your language and carefully crafting your point so it makes the best impact, is the most convincing, whatever - that's being an adult.
Likewise you can never 'freely write how you want' unless you are on a specific class catered to that nonsense. Can you write in baby speak? What if you wrote the entire paper from the perspective of a pirate? What if you wrote the entire thing in whale?
I went to university in the United States (I'm from Canada), and I remember asking professors if they would be okay with Canadian spelling for certain words (ie. colour vs color). Meanwhile you're dropping fuck and shit in sentences lol. Welcome to college.
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