Day 6: So I was...

...taking a leak in the bathroom (because that's where people take leaks, we're not animals) and I was thinking of what to write for this entry.

And then it hits me: essay writing. The biggest thing to avoid in any sort of writing (unless for journals) is speech-writing. What is speech-writing? Speech writing is the style where the writer emulates how he or she would say things as if he or she were talking.

Just.
Like.
This.


And I realize this because I was reflecting on my first year philosophy essays (when I was washing my hands after taking a leak, we're hygenic you know) and my current history essays and it just comes to me: I got really good on my essays (well...good according to UofT standards) but I broke so many rules.

1. It was pseudo-speech-writing: was not amazingly informal but not that formal (see introduction: "So I have a BIO150 exam coming up and I haven't studied: is this an example of determinism?").

2. I went over the word-limit, a couple of times. (1500 words? I had 11 000).

That's kind of it.

Reason why I bring it up: because I remember my T.A. saying a statement after someone in the tutorial pointed out that practically all of us (about 25/30) were science students and NOT history buffs.

"We [the staff] understand where you guys are coming from, but remember: this is a 3rd year history course, we do expect SOME standards."

Case in point: we just got owned.

Oh, and a funny thing happened the other day. It was after this chemistry test that had 30 total marks, and 10 of those were STRAIGHT FROM THE LECTURE.

I mean STRAIGHT, FREAKING FORMULAS, FROM THE LECTURE. (And another thing: don't use caps a lot).

So lose those marks, lose 33%.

Someone decides to go on the university message board and rant about how it wasn't fair and it wasn't testing us on our comprehension. I only saw a post, but I hear from a peer that it was people ranting.

I turn to my peer and tell him: you know, I so wanted to go on those boards and post saying "Have you taken BIO150? BIO250? MGY377? PSL302? If you haven't then SHUT THE @%$* UP because THOSE courses are (though technically all courses are) PURE details (especially MGY377). This was EASY memorization and you had to know those formulas anyway to derive stuff!

I'll admit, I'm biased (got those 10 points, wait, got 9.5...lost 0.5 for forgetting to put the 2 in a second-derivative, as in the d^2 f(x)/dx^2, forgot the last 2) but honestly...damn sophomores.

Hmm...maybe I'll finally get some comments here!