The Freshman Essay Writer – A Funny Blast from the Past – Plus Useful Tips on How to Write a College Essay

As I was recently cleaning out some of my bookshelves and drawers to get ready for the next writing project now that my latest novel has finally been published, (you can learn more about that by clicking here), I came across a reference sheet handed out to us in our Freshman year in college typed up by Dr. Michael Murphy who taught the Romantic Era Music course in the department. 

If you are wondering what my major was, I studied music / musicology at UCC, Ireland.

Amazing I still had this leaflet after all this years, but then again, right now I still have all my college notes - never throw out a useful piece of information is my motto!

The sheet includes basic but some helpful advice on how to write college essays – and I couldn't help but have a good laugh over it. The good Professor had a sense of humour when it came to whipping the inexperienced writers into shape with his handouts.

It's worth sharing for its practical information, and, to show what greenhorns we were when it came to writing on an academic level. Hey, we were fresh out of high school after all, and in Ireland what they called an 'essay' in English class is what I would call creative writing and short story lessons, we hardly received a lesson on how to produce a real hard-core essay arguing a point, not like I remember when I was in grade school in the States. (Yeah, my Fifth and Sixth Grade teachers believed in starting early when it came to college preparation!)

However, the English classes in Ireland were different.  As a result, the professors had a mess on their hands when we Freshmen all arrived.   I was certainly rusty even after the 'creative writing classes'. They must have had a good snicker or two over the first wonky 'scholarly' scribbles we handed in as 'essays'. Prof. Murphy kindly gave us the following to sort us out.

Of course, the old sheet I discovered is geared to music students, but you can still learn a lot from this if you're new to essay writing, and, you might get a good chuckle to make your day. Here it is, an example essay title and how to begin along with Professor Murphy's comments. (My comments / explanations will be in red if and when needed):

::::::::::::::

STUDIES IN REPERTORY MUS 115

ESSSAY TITLE (with advice)

'Outline and discuss the main issues of Romantic programme music.'

There are two tasks involved (i) outline or identify and (ii) discuss the main (most important, seminal) issues (topics, themes, concepts as you perceive them) of Romantic programme music. You should identify the origins of programme music, the main genres which were dedicated to prog mus, the composers who championed it, the philosophy of prog mus (e.g. the nineteenth-century idea that instrumental music has the power to speak and be 'poetic', that music didn't need words to be complete, that music was more suggestive and expressive and insightful of the imagination than words could be because words are too specific whereas music has access to the imaginative world and can bypass consciousness without hindrance from specific categories.) There is also the issue of prog mus, symphonic poem and nationalism. Throughout your essay you must refer to specific works which were dealt with in class and with which you have become familiar from your own study. You may photocopy extracts from works to illustrate your points or you may refer to specific bar numbers. If you wish to quote an author or lecturer you must acknowledge the source in a footnote. (I have given advice on this below). It is immediately obvious if you copy something directly out of a book because the prose style suddenly changes (not always for the better) even if you scrape around for synonyms and alternate words and alternate grammar structures. There is nothing wrong with quoting other people. In fact you are supposed to do it, but you should (i) acknowledge your source and (ii) make an intelligent comment about the quote (e.g. state why you are quoting this author (because you can't think of anything of your own to write is not a good reason), do you agree with his / her point, do you wish to modify it, contradict it, do you think it clarifies some issues etc). Your first point of reference should be the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. There are two copies of it in the library (if you don't know where it is- I mean the dictionary of course) then ask a librarian or another music student. You should consult the article on Romanticism, Programme music, Symphonic poem / tone poem, and the article on relevant composers, and genres.

 

Please don't start your essay with a long definition from the Grove of what prog mus means. I know what the Grove and most other books have to say about the issue, I am more interested in what you have to say. Also don't write biographies of the composers. You should set out your main points in the first introductory paragraph.

Some points about writing an essay.

Refrain from using conversational idioms and informal phrases. Such as ' Ya know the way that Chopin begins the Ballade is a sort of like an introductory bit.' Don't ask questions in the essay for example, 'Why does Liszt give titles for his symphonic poems?'. Don't write long meandering sentences which never get anywhere, and which, through the inclusion of many, and sometimes superfluous clauses, tend to elongate the sentence to monstrous proportions which have the effect (and an undesired one at that) of boring the reader to distraction. Keep the sentences short and to the point. Don't use abbreviations when writing long words. You may type your essay. Use a dictionary (or spell checker) to clarify any spelling you are not sure of. All of these instructions are designed to get you writing in a professional manner. To be a good writer you have to be a good reader which means reading with a dictionary and with a critical attitude. Just because something is written in a book doesn't mean it is true. It could be an opinion, and opinions can be wrong or misinformed. You are in a university to form your own informed opinions. There is little merit in stating something without being able to support it with evidence and thought.

CORRECT             INCORRECT (even if I do it in handouts)

do not                             don't

cannot                           can't

does not                        doesn't

separate                       seperate

programme music      prog mus

Please note the difference between nineteenth-century and nineteenth century. The first one is as follows: 'Chopin is a nineteenth-century composer, and the Ballade is a 

nineteenth century programmatic genre.' In this case nineteenth-century is descriptive as an adjective. The other one is simply 'In the nineteenth century blah blah blah'.

PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THE FOLLOWING SPELLINGS.

Rythmn, genre, dialogue, legato, dissonant, virtuoso, interrupt, domineering, definite, equal, arabesque, metre, centre, programme (not 'program' which is the American style. Use the Anglo version of words.) competent. Not the difference between 'to compliment' and 'to complement' – I'm not going to tell you. Consult a dictionary.

(Note: Since the classes were very small, about 20 to 30 Freshman students if I recall, I think the rat-a-tat-tat about American spelling was added for my benefit. In Ireland the Anglo spelling of words is used. Hence, they did a good job of knocking the American spelling out of me! So, if you wonder about the British style is in my works with switched 'r' and 'e's, extra 'u's, not to mention 's' instead of 'z', things like that, now you know.   Also, as a music student we have to understand musical terms and titles in other other languages, which explains the next part. German terms and titles can be confusing!)

ALSO NOTE THE FOLLOWING GERMAN WORDS

'lied' = German song

'lieder' = plural of 'lied'

Ein Heldenleben

Dichterliebe ('liebe' means love)

Liederkreis

THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU SHOULD NEVER DO IN WRITING AN ESSAY. THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLES ARE TAKEN FROM YOUR LISTENING TEST ANSWERS.

(In 'listening exams', we had to recognise a piece played over the sound system, the composer, and if we didn't know the piece, that is if it was a surprise sound clip or we couldn't remember the piece, we had to explain who we thought it was and why, explain the style etc. Our listening test answers were also just as wonky!)

IF YOU SEE ONE OF YOUR MISTAKES IN THE LIST BELOW DON'T PANIC. I DIDN'T TAKE ANY MARKS OFF FOR THEM AND I WON'T REVEAL YOUR IDENTITY TO ANYONE UNLESS THE PRICE IS RIGHT. (Yes, the Professor typed that!)

Don't use words you don't fully understand, and don't use words in the wrong context e.g. 'befuddling' is not an apt choice in reference to piano technique.

Don't write 'Chopin wrote a lot of piano music in his day.'

Don't write 'This music is difficult to play live.'

Please don't write 'Strauss takes the mickey out of his critics in Ein Heldenleben.' Try to be more professional 'Strauss satirises his critics' would be more appropriate.

Don't write 'This music is definitely danceable to.'

Don't write 'In this piece there is a question and answer type of thing'.

Some of you are a bit confused as to which century you are in. Chopin was very dead in 1935 but he was composing in 1835.

(Chopin is not impressed.  Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)

Please don't repeat the same thing over and over and over and over and over again and again and again and again and again etc etc etc etc because it tends to make the reader very very bored and somewhat tired indeed when he / she realises that the writer has little to say but insists on saying it many times just to fill out the page with ink. State your point once and leave it at that. If you want to refer to a point you made earlier then do it, but don't repeat the same thing ad nausem.

GUIDELINES FOR (I) FOOTNOTES (II) BIBLIOGRAPHY

KEEP THIS PAGE FOR REFERENCE IN FUTURE YEARS

Footnotes:

The function of footnotes is to allow you to give the source of a book from which you quoted something in your main text. You can also use a footnote to add some opinion of your own to a statement in the text or to give some extra information which would interrupt the flow of your text (see example x, number 3 below).

Footnote can be located in two place (i) at the bottom of the page (ii) at the end of the essay. The choice is yours. Footnotes must be numbered (i.e. not with letters). There is a format as to how you present the information in the footnote. See example x

example x

1 Carl Dalhaus, Esthetics of Music, tr. William Austin, Cambridge University Press, Sydney, 1982, p. 122. (Henceforth Esthetics)

2 Ibid., p. 123.

3 Schumann also wrote songs to poetry by Heine.

4 Esthetics. p. 124.

In this example note the following:

(I) After the footnote number you give the Author's name <Carl Dahlhaus,>

2. After the comma you give the name of the book which should be underlined in Italics <Esthetics of Music,> (if a word is underlined it means it is in italics. If you are using a word processor you should give book titles in italics).
   (III) if the book is translated into English you give the translator's name (in this case <tr. William Austin,> if the book is not translated then ignore this section

4. then you give the publisher <Cambridge University Press>
5. Then you give the place of publication <Sydney>. Sometimes there are a few places given: give the first one mentioned.
6. Then give the year of the most recent edition / publication (sometimes it give the date of earlier editions)
7. Then you give the page number from which you have quoted.

In example x I have written in brackets (Henceforth Esthetics). This simply means that if I refer to this book again I don't have to write out al the details as before but I can just write the word Esthetics and then the page number, e.g. Esthetics, p. 124 as I have shown in number 4. However, if I refer to the same book twice in a row you can just write Ibid., followed by the page number as I have shown in number 2. Ibid. simply means 'same as the previous title'.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The layout of the bib is a tad different from the footnote layout. The bib comes at the very end of the essay and is arrange in alphabetical order. The examples below start at letter S. Please read through them very carefully. I chose these examples because they show you how to deal with a number of situations which arise when making out a bib.

Samson, J., The Music of Szymanowski, Kahn & Avril, London and New York, 1980.

Samson, J., (ed.), Chopin Studies, CUP, 1988.

Samson, J., (ed.) The Late Romantic Era: Man & Music vol. 7, Macmillan Press, London, 1991.

Samson, J., Chopin: The Four Ballades, CUP, 1992

Schoenberg, A., Structural Functions in Music, ed. Leonard Stein, London, 1969.

Schoenberg, A., Style and Idea, ed. Leonard Stein, University of California Press, 1984.

Stein, J., Richard Wagner and the Synthesis of the Arts, Wayne State University Press, 1960.

There are a number of things you should notice from the above examples.

1. Although they are arranged in alphabetical order, in the case where an author is quoted a number of times you arrange the books in chronological order (i.e. by year, see the Samson and Schoenberg examples)
2. CUP is an abbreviation for Cambridge University Press and OUP is an abbreviation Oxford University Press. Only use such abbreviations when you quote the same publisher numerous times.
3. There are finicky things like getting the commas in the right place. For example Arnold Schoenberg is given with the surname first and then the initial of the christian name followed by a full stop and then a comma.
4. Above you see Samson as an author and as an editor, hence you have (ed.) after his name to show he edited the book which is a collection of essays by different authors.

:::::::::::::::

This is where the Professor's handout ends. Of course, if you are currently in college and your professors have a different layout they would prefer you to use in your essays, do follow that. If you haven't been given a guide, well, now you have!

If you're curious about how my own essays progressed check out my book “A Compendium of Essays: Purcell, Hogarth and Handel, Beethoven, Liszt, Debussy, and Andrew Lloyd Webber”, click here.

For fun, see if you can guess which one of the essays WASN'T written while I was still in college.

You can also see the rest of my book titles, click here.

Also, if you want some more in-depth help when writing for the University, or even creative writing / fiction, etc, this is an excellent book, click on the title to read my review:  

The Oxford Guide to Writing: A Rhetoric and Handbook for College Students ~Book Review

TABLE OF CONTENTS - See past blog posts of “Books, Babble and Blarney”.

Your "Mona Lisa" Quote - Author, Explain Yourself!

Everyone once in awhile someone sends me a question about my work, which is all part of being an author.  

However, I also get pleas for assistance, asking me what did I mean by such-and-such a quote?  "I'm writing an essay, or dissertation, would appreciate your additional comments  or an explanation why you wrote that!"

And yes, it is obvious they have not read the book the quote has come from, or they wouldn't need to ask me why a quote is in the book and what it means, or what page it is on.  Some people even say so!  "Sorry, I haven't read your book, I would LOVE to read it someday, but if you could help me with this quote, and if you could tell me the page number it's on..."

Oh well. Because I'm trying to be a good person and not flip out when someone is asking me to do their research for them, especially as I recall what it was like being a student with the insane pressure of numerous final exams bearing down like a hammer on an anvil, I sometimes give an answer.  (I know, I know, I shouldn't), but here goes, the latest e-mail I received was a request to please explain the "Mona Lisa" quote in "Brushstrokes of a Gadfly".

Here is my response:

 

***

Dear John / Jane Doe,

The book is a Kunstlerroman novel depicting an artist's coming of age and as such features a Masters student, how she makes her way in the world after she has graduated from an exclusive arts humanities and college in New Jersey State. 

 

As part of the graduation ceremonies and traditions there is a special art competition sponsored by the famous Sirrac Gallery of Fifth Avenue that awards an enviable exhibition opportunity to the Masters student whom the judges deem has rendered exceptional work in representing the subject or theme chosen for the competition each year by the gallery.

Katherine Walsingham, the main character of the novel, is disappointed in how her entry is received, while what she deems to be 'insipid' and 'predictable' has been given the greatest honours. To add injury to insult, her work for the contest is ripped to shreds by an infamous art critic of New York known as the “Art Hacker” who has been known to make or break careers, which is just intolerable! Since she has the mind of a 'Socratic gadfly', she questions everything that 'The Establishment' and 'The Gatekeepers' hail as 'fine art', especially modern art, which can be ugly and quite atrocious in her view, while dramatic and beautiful works are relegated to the side or completely ignored.

After seeing the review, (which throws her whole family into a tizzy, it's that controversial), Katherine questions how people such as the college professors, modern gallery owners, and critics like the “Art Hacker” are allowed to dictate what is the epitome of 'fine art' and what should be considered famous or not, and in the process has also questioned why the “Mona Lisa” of all art works holds power over people.

I shall gave some of the text before and after the quote so you can see the context, beginning with her younger brother Stephen, or 'Steves' as he's called, the brainy genius of the family who doesn't quite take art very seriously but more of a slacker's hobby that might make an income once in awhile, (which also peeves Katherine sometimes). He thinks the scathing review misinterpreting her work in a foul light is actually a good thing!

* Beginning of excerpt *

“Let me see that article. Hmm, pretty good review, I think.”

“Steves! It’s not funny! How could you call it a good review? It’s horrible!”

“Now, sis, you shouldn’t have chosen art for a career if you can’t take the criticism, it’s part of the territory. Look, if you give a speech to fifty people in a room, they will repeat what they heard, not what you said. Art is in the eye of the beholder, and everyone will have their own interpretation. The review is good from the standpoint you have received some great publicity. Bad publicity is good publicity, after all.”

“Everyone is so upset, and I don’t want my work misinterpreted to this extent. I may not agree with everything that happens in the world, but I am not an anarchist or a religion-basher! Perhaps I should write a letter to the editor explaining the true symbolism, and make sure from now on I add a commentary to my works somehow … .”

Their mother nodded in agreement with this last suggestion.

“I wouldn’t, sis.”

“Why not?” the ladies chimed. Steves sighed with impatience.

“Well, you take away the thrill of discovery. If you explain everything for everyone, nobody will want to look further and study the work. It’s the unknown that draws people. Remember what you told us about the Mona Lisa, if da Vinci revealed why and how he painted it, would they still be gaping at it today, trying to figure it out?”

“No, I suppose not. That really is the ugliest portrait I’ve seen, the only thing that supposedly makes it famous is the mystery behind it,” Katherine admitted as she remembered her trips to the Louvre and how she shook her head at the poor tourists crowding around to see a jaundiced, eyebrow-less lady that reminded her of tight-lipped Washington on the dollar bill. Surely, they could have chosen a better portrait of the First President for their currency?

“Exactly. Take away the ambiguity, and nobody would pay two cents to see it. Let people try to fathom the meaning of something, and the mystery grows. So let certain misunderstandings and misinterpretations run wild, for there will always be those who want to see the work for themselves, and see it exactly as you intended. The more controversial a work is and talked about, the more famous it becomes.”

“How will I be able to handle the onslaught until they figure it out?” Katherine mused in dismay.” (…)

(End of Excerpt)

Katherine has visited the Louvre several times, and to see an eyebrowless woman that looks like she's suffering from jaundice get all the attention of all the crowding, oogling tourists that walk past all the other masterpieces as though they were only worth a footnote in the annals of Art galls her! Plus, the fact the most common note in their currency, the one dollar bill, has a unflattering portrait of President Washington that looks just like the “Mona Lisa” is another sore point!

 (C'mon, we've all thought about it!) 

(Washington can't even believe it.)

Of course Katherine will still continue on her personal philosophical quest to discover how the elements of “Mystery”, “Beauty” and “Truth” make a masterpiece, and at the same time do her best to battle against the strange paradox of how such 'ugly' pieces of work capture worldwide fame and attention simply because the 'Establishment' has made them famous.

She has some high-minded principles of her own, and the novel explores how she tries to put them into action in the 'real world' when she opens her own gallery and is confronted with 'Art as Business' and 'Art as Investment', paradoxes that clash with the philosophical ideals of 'Beauty' and 'Truth' associated with High Art. Yes, Katherine can be an annoying, but hopefully a lovable idealistic perfectionist, hence she stings like a gadfly. Sometimes, she is successful, other times she finds herself coming down off her high horse as the expression goes. (In the meantime, Life and Romance gets in the way of everything...which is a whole other ball game!)

Get your copy of Brushstrokes of a Gadfly today!

 (Click here for a list of shops in the book description.)

 

(Also, a SCARY sequel to Brushstrokes is NOW AVAILABLE! Click here for more details!)

 

School Daze

Oh my, it's that time of year  again when  pupils of all ages are just getting ready to go back to those legalized mental torture chambers, er, educational facilities called 'school' and 'college'.

Even now when I see Back To School ads I still panic and think, "Flip it!  Summer just barely got started!" only to remind myself I haven't attended any kind of school or similar environment in years and don't have to worry about it. Yeeeessss!  Still, I have fun looking through all the cool new school supplies that come out, that part you never outgrow.  I hear Trapper Keepers are back in.  Whoo hoo! Too bad they don't sell them in Portugal.

Anyway, to mark this time of panic and new school supply shopping sprees with a dash of humour, I've shared a few photos I've discovered online taken from students' exams, homework questions, and other school-themed memes that might make you smile.






This one sums up my first sentence exactly.

Just in case that wasn't clear enough, Jonathan Boothe from the Class of 2015 will spell it out for you.

Here's one reason school (college, whatever) can be such a drag: you get stuck with a group project, and you end up being the person on the far left of this meme a good 99% of the time.  What part of 'group work' actually ends up being 'GROUP'?

They should rename these 'One Man Group Projects' for the sake of accuracy.  (Or 'woman' in my case!)

Obviously, through 'work group' they were preapring us for the wild, wonderful realities of the 'Work Place'.




Well, whoever turned in this project sheet below obviously was one of those 99% percenters in a previous work group assignment.   Instead of identifying 'all the students with whom you worked on producing your solutions' as requested, they decided to go 'Lone Wolf'.  Brilliant!  Wonder what the lab teacher thought of this brave soul?

Speaking of doodles, that's par for the course.  Notebooks always get doodled on, and unfortunately some students also scribble on school books.  (Not me! I didn't do that dastardly deed!) However, I can't help but find this school book vandalism rather inventive:

 
However, I must admit, kids in the Far East are far advanced in the fine art of textbook doodling.

 

Here's a 'Before' and 'After' picture of  text book illustration which has undergone a makeover by one bored student.

 

Then, let's not forget the original answers penned on homework assignments with examples ranging from the genius to the strange, to the outright 'huh?' variety.

"Pattern Detection Quiz: How is the brain like a cantaloupe? List several ways."

The only answer given: "It is delicious."



Well, the pattern I detect here is mental derangement.  It looks like we have a future Hannibal Lecter answering this quiz, folks!









Hey!  The children may be our future, but we shouldn't dump our problems on them yet.  This kid below nailed it.

Here's an English grammar assignment in which an opposite must be offered to the word on the left.  What does the student say is opposite to 'original'?  China!  Well, with all the bootlegs, pirate goods and knock-offs pouring out of that country, you can't blame them for making the observation.    However, am I the only one who thinks the answer given by the teacher is not quite right either?  'Artificial' is actually the opposite of 'natural', not 'original', but I'm not an accredited high-school teacher, so what do I know?

 Okay, here's another 'list an opposite' assignment.

The opposite of the prefix 'pro' is 'noob'.

Not a bad word actually, even if it's incorrect.  I think 'contra-' was meant as the opposite prefix.

Still, there could be loads of uses for this.  If you're not a 'pro' you're a noob.  Has a nice ring to it somehow.

 UPDATE! Indeed, this informal slang word has made it into the online Cambridge and Oxford dictionaries, so it is useful after all! Who would have thought?  This noob-blogger sure didn't.  See?  You learn something every day.




  



Art class 101? At least this was an honest answer! This person knew their limitations.

Since we're showcasing kids giving honest answers, Frankie was brutally frank about his life.
 

 Indeed, why would you fill a 'super fun' aquarium with barnacles instead of seahorses?

Yes, it is one thing to set intellectual challenges, but obviously this pupil deemed the question was questioning their intelligence and didn't mind showing it!

Have at it, kid.  Whoever came up with this was asking for it anyway.














Again, we have a thinker here!

 Time-changing adventurer, I love you.













 
  Hmm, a name your 'hero' or 'heroine' assignment.  I have to agree, 'Harry Potter' is quite addictive reading.








Of course, you have those smart ones who dare to pose challenging answers in return, and get top marks too!

Reminds me of the legendary case that happened at my college during the philosophy department exams.  One question given to the students literally was:

"Is this a question?"



One student had the guts to write down, "Is this an answer?" and walked out of the exam hall like a Boss.  They Aced the exam.  Seriously.  I'm not kidding.


Ah, yes, exams.  Of course I'd study, but then, there was always that one question that despite all my efforts to recall everything I learned pertaining to the subject, I would still draw a mental blank, stressfully staring at that stupid exam sheet while the clock ticked away the few remaining mintues left.  I admire those brave rebels who drew something back in return, even if it wasn't the correct answer.  It was a daring, gutsy...SOMETHING.   Bravo!




 

The hours they spent teaching us this 'quadradic function' crud!  To think I used to know how to do things like this!  Yep, I agree, Tetris is more fun.

By the way kids, you never are going to need to know what the 'vertex of the parabola' is ever again. Unless you're going to be some kind of rocket scientist or high falootin' laser engineer or moon base architect, that sort of thing. You catch my drift.

As a 'Lord of the Rings' fan, I love this artistic rendering.  Too bad the teacher didn't appreciate Alex's inventive doodles of the Eye of Saron and Mount Doom.

 Question one: explain how the Cold War started, in 100 words.  The answer is a big fat NO from angry No-Meme dude!


Don't blame you kid, we're all sick of talking about wars.   Too bad about the F though.
















 Wouldn't it be funny if the pupil who was requested to discuss the Cold War in the previous exam did this doodle too?  First class chemistry test doodle!  Right on!  Don't share your secret formulas with the rest of the world.


















  Boy, this kid was really stuck on 'draw a human body' and show where the following organs and sundry  body parts are located.

True, the question didn't say draw an 'exact replica' of a human body, so a tribute to Picasso's 'Guernica' is the next best thing, right?


 Art is in the eye of the beholder~ if the artist says it's a body, it's a body.








This is Picasso's 'Guernica' ~ just in case you wanted to make a comparison. 

Yes, there are some really artistic students out there.  Mathematics is not their calling.  They might have had better luck drawing the ship in the earlier example shown above.















Sometimes, the teachers have no qualms sketching back a reply.  It just makes things more interesting.

 Apprently, the student was drawing himself strapping on a rocket pack to escape from this mathematical question.  Teacher asks "Y U no try" and doodled the correct equation.

Y u no try?

Umm, because advanced algebra and trigonometry type stuff is hard and not everyone has the patience to learn this twaddle which they might never use again?

 Here, a student has reported a volcanic eruption has just occured and has blocked out the question so they can't read or answer it.

The teacher drew in a stick figure of an island native with the text: 'frightened villager fleeing from your answer.'


 Good call, Teacher.

 Again, the angry 'NO' dude has reappeared.

 Teacher replies with a skeptical looking self portrait complete with questionable 'cool cat' spelling.









Then, there are some really awesome teachers out there that actually give credit for a student's desperate creativity.  'Trigonometric Forms Man' got a +1.  Cheers!

The student here couldn't be bothered describing the characters in a novel and all their convoluted relationships, so wrapped up his answer under a big question mark:

"I believe that sums up my response quickly and accurately without wasting your time reading a long drawn out answer which would not make any sense what-so-ever."


The kid got a mark for honesty!  However, I wonder if the teacher spotted the cynicism in the student's rather droll, long-winded answer.




Another honest answer, that also got a mark!

Again, an extra mark just because the teacher was nice.

How about this for extra marks?  Student draws in a ninja preventing 'any grading at less than 100%.'   The student scored 28 out of 30  marks and was two points short of earning 100%, so what did the teacher do?  Surrendered to the ninja's awesome protective martial arts skills with the word 'Scary!' and gave the two much-needed points, then added a smiley face as an extra touch.  Way to go!





You remember teachers like these, they help you get through the chaos that is called 'school'.

“It was only high school after all, definitely one of the most bizarre periods in a person’s life. How anyone can come through that time well adjusted on any level is an absolute miracle.”  ~   Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

 

Like my blog?   You'll LOVE my books!  Check them out! (Click here).