What does this mean? I see so many students who want me to help them learn to “write at the graduate level.” I tell them there’s no magic rule that will automatically make them a graduate level writer. I fluff my way through and tell them their papers are expected to have more complex thoughts and blah, blah, blah, but that doesn’t satisfy them. They leave still not possessing the valuable gem that will make them write like a graduate student.
What I don’t tell them is that if they don’t know what “writing at the graduate level” is or if they still believe (and somehow made it through undergrad believing) that a research paper is simply a book report or a biography of someone’s life, they shouldn’t be wasting their time in graduate school. I have seen too many students graduate with their master’s (and many of the degree’s are terminal and that’s as high as they can go) and not even be able to write a complete sentence. Their theses papers are usually 7-15 pages long and bam! A master of their field! A master who cannot understand why you don’t need a comma in “My favorite colors are red, and purple” or why “And immediately popped their flares and life vests” isn’t a complete sentence.
One of the professors has had a problem with our department as of late. The professor in question feels as if we’re not hard enough on the students in her particular graduate level class. She seems to think that because the students come to my department for assistance with their writing, they will walk out with a perfect, graduate level paper. 45 minutes is not enough time to make a 15-page paper perfect in every respect. Nevermind that we’re not here to proofread or edit for the students but are here to make them better writers so they can someday function in the real world. I would love to tell her that the majority of her students are performing so far below the graduate level of thinking and writing that no amount of help I can give them in 45 minutes will help. However, this can never be said since I would probably lose my job.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Writing at the Graduate Level
Posted by Kirsten at 4:11 PM
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2 comments:
I can imagine how frustrating your job must be at times. I noticed, while sitting in on Dr. Winterhalter's 3010 class, I am learning that some students feel they are smart enough and cannot be taught anything else. What most people don't realize is that writing is hard work. Practice still does not make perfect. Next time that professor says something, tell her to "sMELL tHIS, cRAPBAG." That should do it.
I feel like I was never given the tools to write a good research paper. I can write any other type of prose (articles, reflections, lesson plans, annotated bibliography, fiction, non-fiction, poems, etc.) but when it comes to writing a research paper, I am very self-conscience. I wish that someone would have shown me how to write a professional-level research paper so that I wouldn't have had to struggle so bad. I only predict one or two classes that I will have to take that require research papers, so I am not so concerned about it now. However, I loathe them and they are not necessary outside of the institutional realm.
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