Got an F on a college essay for swearing?

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1upsuper said:
Filtering yourself is absolutely necessary in academic writing. You aren't writing a blog post. You're writing a paper that needs to follow certain conventions, because you're writing for an audience that isn't you. You have to tailor your work if you want to produce good work. You have to be conscious of your audience. It isn't optional. College essays aren't soap boxes for your own impassioned, vulgar, stream of consciousness speeches. You need a filter, and you need to develop one quickly, because your writing needs serious work.
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no i just tell my teachers im cormac fucking mccarthy bitch i dont need punctuation or quotes or conventional grammar
bitch
 
chronic_archaic said:
"Watching the film was really sad, quite morbid, fucked up, and too close to home"

"It went from "I don't care about you" to "fuck you" and I still feel that
way to this day"

"They're awful, sickening, fucked realities"

"The emotional problems my REDACTED still suffers from REDACTED, I've came to the point
where if REDACTED REDACTED died today, right now, I wouldn't give a shit"

"Apologizes that are all bullshit and
emotions that end up with the person hurting more and more"
Click to expand...

This is bad writing.

If anything, the F should have been for creating sentences that look like they came straight out of journal entries from a depressed teenager circa Warped Tour 2007.
 
I'd have to be insanely familiar with a particular professor before I even thought about swearing in the body of a report or paper, and even then I don't think I'd even be able to let myself do it.

I did use a handful of fucks in an English paper in first year, but they were in quotes from a book related to the subject and I felt weird enough putting that in.
 
chronic_archaic said:
This thread went fast... wow.

Okay, so it looks like I'm in the wrong, but, this doesn't explain why I need to censor myself as a writer. Maybe I'm simply unfiltered but I think that's a good thing, I figured in high school you'd avoid that, but in college you're an adult, you can freely write how you want and get your opinions across without having to worry if you tailor it to whoever is reading it, since it's your work. Maybe I'm getting angry about nothing however I don't understand how your choice of language is something you can be penalized for. I re-read the essay and admittedly I recognize some things that could be fixed but even with that scrutiny and barring in mind this isn't my writing course a B seems perfectly fair. Have a read but I know I'm about to get dogged on like crazy regardless. No, I'll just post the relevant uses of swears. It's partially too personally and I'm not rewriting the damn thing.

"Watching the film was really sad, quite morbid, fucked up, and too close to home"

"It went from "I don't care about you" to "fuck you" and I still feel that
way to this day"

"They're awful, sickening, fucked realities"

"The emotional problems my REDACTED still suffers from REDACTED, I've came to the point
where if REDACTED REDACTED died today, right now, I wouldn't give a shit"

"Apologizes that are all bullshit and
emotions that end up with the person hurting more and more"
Click to expand...
So in other words, in an essay that requires a professional tone and likely written in the third person is filled with personal judgments (written in the first person) and feelings and no actual evidence to support your arguments.

You may want to re-evaluate.
 
OP reading that sample you may need to research a little more on what an university level essay actually is.

Figuring out how to write a good paper is difficult but you will be able to handle it. I’d recommend searching out an essay writing guide or short class from the library or something to help you do better in the future. I’m sure there’s something available there to help you grasp exactly what kind of thing an essay is.

Keep working at it and you’ll improve in the future
 
chronic_archaic said:
This thread went fast... wow.

Okay, so it looks like I'm in the wrong, but, this doesn't explain why I need to censor myself as a writer. Maybe I'm simply unfiltered but I think that's a good thing, I figured in high school you'd avoid that, but in college you're an adult, you can freely write how you want and get your opinions across without having to worry if you tailor it to whoever is reading it, since it's your work.
Click to expand...

It's really the opposite dude. Picture the audience for an academic essay as a dry, pedantic, stick-up-their-ass intellectual, who's ready to jump on you for even one minor ethical, logical or technical slip-up.
 
chronic_archaic said:
This thread went fast... wow.

Okay, so it looks like I'm in the wrong, but, this doesn't explain why I need to censor myself as a writer. Maybe I'm simply unfiltered but I think that's a good thing, I figured in high school you'd avoid that, but in college you're an adult, you can freely write how you want and get your opinions across without having to worry if you tailor it to whoever is reading it, since it's your work. Maybe I'm getting angry about nothing however I don't understand how your choice of language is something you can be penalized for. I re-read the essay and admittedly I recognize some things that could be fixed but even with that scrutiny and barring in mind this isn't my writing course a B seems perfectly fair. Have a read but I know I'm about to get dogged on like crazy regardless. No, I'll just post the relevant uses of swears. It's partially too personally and I'm not rewriting the damn thing.

"Watching the film was really sad, quite morbid, fucked up, and too close to home"

"It went from "I don't care about you" to "fuck you" and I still feel that
way to this day"

"They're awful, sickening, fucked realities"

"The emotional problems my REDACTED still suffers from REDACTED, I've came to the point
where if REDACTED REDACTED died today, right now, I wouldn't give a shit"

"Apologizes that are all bullshit and
emotions that end up with the person hurting more and more"
Click to expand...

I apologize if I sound rude here, but all of those sentences would work just as effectively if you either removed the profanity, or replaced one word. Professors want you to sound professional in an academic work, so even if it's your raw emotion, it still makes you sound less sincere & more immature.
 
Jesus Christ. They weren't even good uses of the words and just seemed lazy.

Like you said OP, you're in college, you're an adult now. Act like one.
 
Unless your quoting someone or in a creative writing class, you should not be cursing in a college paper. This isn't censorship, it's acting like a fucking professional
 
You probably just shouldn't be writing about anything that's so deeply personal you can't even bring yourself to edit what you've written.

This isn't a therapy session. This isn't your magnum opus. This is not the place to exorcise your demons, not anymore than your PSY101 class is the place to finally solve racism once and for all.
 
I literally signed in to stay how my sides hurt after reading the excerpts.

Like LOL. Im literally dying of laughter
 
Yes OP that's right, as a writer you should never have to self censor yourself. Just say what you really feel and then tell people that you're the artist here and no one has the right to question your freedom of speech and expression. I cannot wait for the day when you get hired by NYT or some other newspaper and all first opinion piece could be titled "Goddamed Self Censorship of Writing is Fucking Bullshit". Pulitzer material for sure!
 
NH Apache said:
Would you seriously go to war over this?

Take the L is the prof says no. You don't learn grading habits for papers until you submit your first. It doesn't need to be a guideline.
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What does he have to lose?

Depends on what % of his grade this is IMO.

excelsiorlef said:
Maybe the essay also wasn't very good either.
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Maybe!

Phu said:
Profs don't need a 'don't swear' clause to ding you for swearing.



Hmmm...
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Ding =/= F.

JCHandsom said:
There might be something about it in university standards.

Or The Big Book of Common Sense.
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Maybe.

Game-Biz said:
Chances are that if the OP put "shit" and "fuck" is a college essay, I'd take a guess and say he probably made a good number of other mistakes. The professor highlighted the cursing probably because it's beyond common sense not to include swearing on a written assignment. I've heard colorful language in speech classes, but in an English class? Haha, holy shit.

But, yes, op, PLEASE post your essay and have this thread become legendary.
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lol yup.
chronic_archaic said:
This thread went fast... wow.

Okay, so it looks like I'm in the wrong, but, this doesn't explain why I need to censor myself as a writer. Maybe I'm simply unfiltered but I think that's a good thing, I figured in high school you'd avoid that, but in college you're an adult, you can freely write how you want and get your opinions across without having to worry if you tailor it to whoever is reading it, since it's your work. Maybe I'm getting angry about nothing however I don't understand how your choice of language is something you can be penalized for. I re-read the essay and admittedly I recognize some things that could be fixed but even with that scrutiny and barring in mind this isn't my writing course a B seems perfectly fair. Have a read but I know I'm about to get dogged on like crazy regardless. No, I'll just post the relevant uses of swears. It's partially too personally and I'm not rewriting the damn thing.

"Watching the film was really sad, quite morbid, fucked up, and too close to home"

"It went from "I don't care about you" to "fuck you" and I still feel that
way to this day"

"They're awful, sickening, fucked realities"

"The emotional problems my REDACTED still suffers from REDACTED, I've came to the point
where if REDACTED REDACTED died today, right now, I wouldn't give a shit"

"Apologizes that are all bullshit and
emotions that end up with the person hurting more and more"
Click to expand...

Your writing is bad.
 
Know your audience is writing 101. The fact that OP is in college, presumably taking an English course that isn't 101 and don't know this speaks to OP's lack of writing sensibility.
 
ZeroX03 said:
Because you're writing an academic paper, not something for you
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Just want to reiterate this for you OP. These college papers you're going to write, they aren't for you, they're for your teacher / TAs to grade. It sucks but there are rules and guidelines. It's same reason why you have to format your pages and have a bibliography as well. Makes me glad I got decent at writing argumentative essays early on. Helped me out a lot with my later college courses.

Also, thanks for the laugh! The big thing here is to learn from this and to move forward.
 
OP, you seem to be unaware of what tone to take in certain academic situations. Just so you can't say no one ever told you: you shouldn't greet your professor with "What up, cuntasaurus rex?"
 
I used colorful language in a few essays for a creative nonfiction class and the professor obviously didn't mind, but you need to read the context before you try to get away with this sort of thing.

That said, I'd still try to dispute it on the grounds you've stated. To dock points for the language not suiting the context/audience would be fair enough. An immediate F is not in any way fair.

Edit: just noticed you shared some choice bits. Never mind; even if you were merely docked points for the profanity, you'd still get at best a D- given the writing quality. Make use of your university's writing help services. It'll make a huge difference and help you understand things you currently do not.
 
The title of OP's research paper:
BORN TO FAIL/COLLEGE IS FUCKED/FAIL EM ALL 2017/I AM WRITER MAN/ 410,575,837,990 FAILED PAPERS
 
chronic_archaic said:
"Watching the film was really sad, quite morbid, fucked up, and too close to home"

"It went from "I don't care about you" to "fuck you" and I still feel that
way to this day"

"They're awful, sickening, fucked realities"

"The emotional problems my REDACTED still suffers from REDACTED, I've came to the point
where if REDACTED REDACTED died today, right now, I wouldn't give a shit"

"Apologizes that are all bullshit and
emotions that end up with the person hurting more and more"
Click to expand...

Sorry but LOL
 
chronic_archaic said:
"Watching the film was really sad, quite morbid and too close to home"

"They're awful, sickening realities"

"The emotional problems my REDACTED still suffers from REDACTED, I've come to the point where if REDACTED REDACTED died today, right now, I wouldn't care"

"Apologizes that aren't genuine and emotions that end up with the person hurting more and more"
Click to expand...

OK OP, I want to help you. I modified the sentences you quoted, slightly. I removed the swear words and used slightly different wording. Do you see how the points you were trying to make are the same? Removing the curse words, didn't change anything except make you sound more serious. Also, I don't know if you offered only small quotations, but a couple of your sentences are fragments and I can't tell the point you were trying to make...that probably didn't help things either.

You were brave to post the sentences in this thread, so try to learn from it.
 
chronic_archaic said:
This thread went fast... wow.

Okay, so it looks like I'm in the wrong, but, this doesn't explain why I need to censor myself as a writer. Maybe I'm simply unfiltered but I think that's a good thing, I figured in high school you'd avoid that, but in college you're an adult, you can freely write how you want and get your opinions across without having to worry if you tailor it to whoever is reading it, since it's your work
Click to expand...

If the assignment is writing about American Politics would you write about how fucking cool the ninja turtles are?

Why would being an adult mean you get to just write whatever you want in an academic essay?

That's actually not an adult POV, that's a childish idealization of what being an adult is...

And btw I'd note you actually are allowed to write however you want... bu you're not entitled to a good grade for it. You are not being oppressed here, you wrote a bad essay and got marked accordingly. Being an adult doesn't mean I get to do whatever I want without consequences.

And an essay is not really a work, it's not an artistic endeavour for your to express your creativity, it's intended to be a formal argument on a specific topic.
 
Don't take too personally, OP. We all make dumb mistakes. This was an embarrassing lesson to learn I guess, but now you know and you're better for it.
 
chronic_archaic said:
This thread went fast... wow.

Okay, so it looks like I'm in the wrong, but, this doesn't explain why I need to censor myself as a writer. Maybe I'm simply unfiltered but I think that's a good thing, I figured in high school you'd avoid that, but in college you're an adult, you can freely write how you want and get your opinions across without having to worry if you tailor it to whoever is reading it, since it's your work. Maybe I'm getting angry about nothing however I don't understand how your choice of language is something you can be penalized for. I re-read the essay and admittedly I recognize some things that could be fixed but even with that scrutiny and barring in mind this isn't my writing course a B seems perfectly fair. Have a read but I know I'm about to get dogged on like crazy regardless. No, I'll just post the relevant uses of swears. It's partially too personally and I'm not rewriting the damn thing.

"Watching the film was really sad, quite morbid, fucked up, and too close to home"

"It went from "I don't care about you" to "fuck you" and I still feel that
way to this day"

"They're awful, sickening, fucked realities"

"The emotional problems my REDACTED still suffers from REDACTED, I've came to the point
where if REDACTED REDACTED died today, right now, I wouldn't give a shit"

"Apologizes that are all bullshit and
emotions that end up with the person hurting more and more"
Click to expand...


I'd probably have failed you without the cursing. This is poor writing, let alone for something being submitted academically.
 
LOL you used the shitty Art student excuse for bad work. "Isn't this college where I am an adult and can express myself freely? When I applied terrible proportions, color theory, and balance to this art piece it is because it is what I meant to do!"
 
No fucking shit OP geesus.

Next time, apply it to all your written work. How about adding profanity into your fucking CV and selection criteria to let them know how much you want the job?
 
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