I weep for the future.

“In the book of Death of a Salesman by Authir Millar was about a family that lived a typical life. Now with Authur Miller writing this play he wanted to show his point in the book to show how criticism works and the different ethnics. In all the world and years that we the people have been through this was formed to make a point out about how criticism reflects. When you pick up a book and read the first couple of pages you will only buy it if you seem interested in it. The writer wants you to see his/her art of the text. The interesting part of the text is that it’s a game, you have the cards in your hand and the book is the deck. If you play the cards right you can see how the text is written It’s a pick and guess game that would make the book work your mind. If you read over the text you’ll miss all the hints and interpretation of the book. My point is in this, is that in every book has to have text. In ever text there is art formed to explain what the author has benn through or what he/she wants to happen. Everyone has a unique life stye; this could lead to “misreading” or changing how the book is empathized. With everything that is happening in the book, it can effect on how the text is plotted out in the book.”

A real life introduction to a criticism paper for my class. This is by far the worst one I have seen so far. It could get worse. heh (Typos and not ever spelling the author’s name correctly… that’s all her.)

15 thoughts on “I weep for the future.

  1. fyfer

    Yikes! Though, it sounds like she’s thinking interesting things even if she can’t express them… How much of the lit crit aspect is just a regurgitation of things you said in class?

    Reply
    1. Krissy Gibbs Post author

      Very little of lit crit should be regurgitation of class discussion. I give them some ideas for each criticism but not anywhere near enough for them to write a paper. They have to think for themselves, damnit. 🙂

      She has very interesting ideas, but she is incoherent throughout. I don’t know what was wrong. She isn’t a stupid kid.

      Reply
      1. wendyrama

        I thought you had written the critique and were either piss drunk or in the midst of a massive stroke.

        The good news is you are a dedicated, talented teacher who can help her.

        And I suppose I am no longer a stalker. Lurker, perhaps.

        Reply
      2. fyfer

        Oh, that’s not what I meant at all. I meant, there are some interesting ideas trying to fight their way through that horrible, horrible writing. I was curious if they were her own original thoughts, or if she doesn’t even deserve that credit because she was just parroting back things you’d told the class.

        Reply
      3. japlady

        Thats what got me when working with the other kids in my HS class. “You make sense when you talk, how come I can’t at all track what your just wrote? What you just told me isn’t anywhere on this page.”

        Reply
        1. angelbob

          Yeah. I can understand people not getting the subtle nuances of writing, but I’m constantly confused by people who can’t even write by putting down the words they would say, on paper, in exactly the same form.

          Apparently there’s some difficulty in that and I’m just not seeing what it is.

          Reply
  2. cyranocyrano

    Ow. Every book has to have text? Maybe she’s thinking ‘subtext’?
    This hurts my brain. Maybe I don’t want to be a teacher after all.

    Reply
  3. essaying

    Please. She hasn’t read it and so she’s cobbling together half-remembered ideas of what literary criticism is supposed to be, hoping that you won’t notice that she has no idea what actually happened in the play. She could have rented the movie if she didn’t feel like reading the script 😉

    Reply
    1. Krissy Gibbs Post author

      What is really sad is: I showed them the video. It’s a hard script to visualize so after each act we watched the movie to see the different nuances. It’s so painful…

      Reply
  4. japlady

    Dear lord, I’d forgotten how bad they can be. In HS they did an experiment and took the advanced placement kids and had us become tutors for the 2 levels (the kids expected to go to community college at best), and at the time I was stunned at how horrible the writing of kids my own age, some of whom were my friends, was. As in I know my writing is bad, but I was really astounded at how much I had to teach these guys who were my friends.

    Thanks for the reminder

    Reply
  5. rbus

    the more things change…

    30 years ago i used to help a grad-skool friend grade freshling “english” comp papers.

    we’d each have a beer (to dull the pain), read the papers aloud to each other, and howl with laughter.

    those papers were *at least* as bad as the one you present.

    i’m certain at least some of those kids went on to be presidents of companies and congress-folks and leaders in their communities.

    really:
    you student: “The interesting part of the text is that it’s a game, you have the cards in your hand and the book is the deck.”

    George Bush: “I said I was looking for a book to read, Laura said you ought to try Camus. I also read three Shakespeares. … I’ve got a eck-a-lec-tic reading list.”

    sounds pretty much the same to me…

    Reply
  6. mira_fastfire

    My mind died at “family that lived a typical life”. Families live lives? That’s…different.

    I fear for the future. And your sanity. >.< *hugs*

    Reply

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