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Bad grammar at uni?

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Reply 20
Original post by *mMmMm*
I always found geography incredibly interesting to study but not in school. It is interesting watching Coast etc and other documentaries or films around the topic, in my spare time but classes were the most boring and restless things ever.

AS Level geography, I aced my coursework which was fieldwork as I felt very engaged in the subject but exams hated me. Found exams for it very hard, remembering all the cases etc. The coursework was fun though, breath of fresh air and outside the classroom, seeing geography in real life besides a textbook.


Agreed. I'd say the responsibility to make the class interesting is with the teacher. Making the subject interesting is half the battle, as learning is becomes so much easier.
Original post by J.Thyme
I recently did a group project and we left the collation of individual contributions and submission to one person. Suffice to say we ended up with 58% and an appalling report!

So, I know how you feel. One thing I've learnt from it though is that if you channel their enthusiasm in another direction or area of the project that doesn't require amazing grammar, spelling or punctuation then you don't have to tell them they're bad and they continue to put as much effort in.

-JT

Can you give me a few examples please in how you do that and what you directed people to do?
Reply 22
Really sorry to hear that OP. I can't give you any advice since I've not really been in this situation. I do sympathise with you.
Reply 23
I'm personally not very good at mental arithmetic, and neither are a lot of my lecturers (they even admit this). My friend doing English is terrible at spelling. It's a common occurrence and personally I don't think it has any relation to intelligence. I should imagine people have similar problems with grammar.

I'm at UCL.
Reply 24
Original post by *mMmMm*
Can you give me a few examples please in how you do that and what you directed people to do?


Well in the example above it's in a Software Engineering module. I generally just encourage the person to get involved with the design aspect where we're not being marked on our writing ability and "suggest" that they do more of the practical aspects or the areas that we won't be penalised in for it being written in a crap manner.

-JT
Reply 25
I started school in August 1992. I still remember being sat on the classroom floor while the teacher taught us what a noun was, what an adjective was etc. We were worked hard and we learnt a lot, but nowadays, there are students graduating with 2.1 Honours and going into teaching and professional academia despite being basically incapable of correctly stringing a sentence together.

Unfortunately, academic standards these days are so low across the board that you can hand in half finished, factually incorrect, barely literate garbage and still get 50%+ even at many good universities. Obviously, those with genuine learning difficulties should be cut a whole lot of slack but there should be no mercy unless their learning difficulties are proved and verified. Marking schemes like that are a joke that makes a mockery of those who genuinely want to work hard and do well, as the slackers can cruise to vaguely acceptable marks by doing not too much above bugger all - not only that, but these people are often perfectly happy with disastrous grades despite being capable of much, much more. Working hard and excelling is devalued and discouraged, as the slackers get it all on a plate and those who do work hard and put the effort in end up thinking "Why do I bother if they can do nothing and still pass?" Our entire academic system is broken and the rot is spreading fast.

Group work can be frustrating indeed, for this reason. You always get one lazy asshat who does nothing and prides themselves on awful grades and laziness, but take it as a consolation that such behaviour would earn him or her a P45 in the business world.
(edited 13 years ago)
Reply 26
There are thick as **** people everywhere. Even at Oxford and Cambridge.
"I thought mine's was bad".
Reply 28
Original post by J.Thyme
I recently did a group project and we left the collation of individual contributions and submission to one person. Suffice to say we ended up with 58% and an appalling report!

So, I know how you feel. One thing I've learnt from it though is that if you channel their enthusiasm in another direction or area of the project that doesn't require amazing grammar, spelling or punctuation then you don't have to tell them they're bad and they continue to put as much effort in.

-JT


when i do group work i just change the grammar myself you don't have to say they are bad just say "oh you made a mistake here" or "it would sound better if we put this instead"
Original post by *mMmMm*
This isn't something that will get marked, for my education nor in use of my career.
~



Do people have issues with grammar from high ranked Universities?

IS this common?


Well...i'd say newcastle is highly ranked for medicine - and I tell you that it's not the students that are the problem - it's the LECTURERSm the one's who write the exams.

They're sooooo badly written. Half the sentences don't make any sence.
And sometimes the question is worded so badly that I've had to give upto three different anwsers, depending on how you read the question.

Nevermind the spelling and grammar.
(edited 13 years ago)
Reply 30
Original post by Barden
I know a girl at Aberystwyth who thought Argentina was in Europe - she studies Economics at uni, and got an A in A-Level geography.

Another girl I know is at Durham - she thought it was in Spain :facepalm: ...also got an A in A-Level geography


The sad thing is this is believable...
It seems for A-Level Geography you don't have to know the difference between a country and a continent or have any knowledge of where things are in the world atall.
You just sound like a bitch to me lol. Get over it, not everyone will vehemently try to correct every grammatical mistake they make, its human error. Part of life is being in these situations and taking the situation into your own hands, instead of bitching about it in a ****ing forum.
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No suprise. The national curriculum barely gives a **** about grammar. The only chance of anyone having a clue about it is if they are a pedant (like me) or went to a private school and were taught it.

By the way, if you are going to make a thread where you criticise grammar then make sure your grammar is spot on or you look a little silly.

Any university you go to will have many people who cannot write to save their lives, many learn by trial and error quite quickly but a great deal will always write terribly. It has been quite eye-opening doing my third year project - getting to know the PhD students and seeing the AWFUL essays they have to mark from first years. It beggars belief that some people are at university and think the hallmark of good essay writing is using 'clever' words as opposed to lucid construction of arguments.

As for group work, I think they realise that there might be an unequal distribution of effort in the group but at the same time recognise that this reflects real life scenarios. You might not be popular with the one or two lazy people but being able to confront people who aren't pulling their weight is an important life skill. At the same time, being overly demanding or pedantic yourself can be a negative. Learning to strike a balance somewhere between these two extremes will help you manage work in groups in the future (and team work is something you simply cannot avoid - much to the behest of all us control freaks out there, of which I include myself).
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I think it is because there was no tuition about grammar in high school, so people have genuinely just forgot everything they were taught about grammar in primary school.
I have been shocked and alarmed by the standard of some people's grammar at University. Apostrophes seem to present a particular problem for people, even though they're ridiculously simple. And commas - why don't people use commas? I have even seen pieces of Uni work where people didn't start their sentences with capital letters. :lolwut:

I'm so glad I haven't done group work like that. I think I would feel exactly the way you do!
(edited 13 years ago)
Reply 36
Original post by Barden
I know a girl at Aberystwyth who thought Argentina was in Europe - she studies Economics at uni, and got an A in A-Level geography.

Another girl I know is at Durham - she thought it was in Spain :facepalm: ...also got an A in A-Level geography


My economics teacher at college was got her econ' degree from Aberrystwyth, she was USELESS, it got to the point where sometimes we had to TEACH HER.
"What's Abu Dhabi?"
"What book are you reading" Student: "Capitalism and Freedom" "Oh... who's that by?"

She couldn't draw a graph to save her life, got the 'mathematicians' to do BASIC NUMERACY for her.

And her 'teaching method' seemed to consist of photocopying everything under the sun and just handing it out.
Reply 37
Correct me if I'm wrong but the OP hasn't said what their degree is.

"It was a huge report worth 5000 words"

5000 words doesn't sound "huge", that's only about 5 sides of A4. Are you sure you didn't mean 50,000 words or something.

Original post by Blueflare
I think it is because there was no tuition about grammar in high school, so people have genuinely just forgot everything they were taught about grammar in primary school.


Well, no, grammar, spelling and punctuation isn't something you're taught in primary school and then is never checked again, don't teachers in secondary school (which is what I presume you mean by "high school") always correct spelling/grammar/punctuation errors with red pen in pupils' work?

Although the OP said they were at a "low-ranked uni" it must be a terrible sign of the times that someone can get as far as university without mastering the basic rules of English. Yes, some people just aren't that good at spelling but it doesn't mean they're stupid and all that but the kind of writing you see some people produce (especially on the internet) is just inexcusable.

Although what the government is doing at the moment probably isn't the best thing, I actually believe it would be better if less people went to university, because at times it really seems like there's a number of "students" who just aren't worthy of a degree, as the OP's story in this thread shows.
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by Gwasgray
Correct me if I'm wrong but the OP hasn't said what their degree is.

"It was a huge report worth 5000 words"

5000 words doesn't sound "huge", that's only about 5 sides of A4. Are you sure you didn't mean 50,000 words or something.



Well, no, grammar, spelling and punctuation isn't something you're taught in primary school and then is never checked again, don't teachers in secondary school (which is what I presume you mean by "high school") always correct spelling/grammar/punctuation errors with red pen in pupils' work?

Although the OP said they were at a "low-ranked uni" it must be a terrible sign of the times that someone can get as far as university without mastering the basic rules of English. Yes, some people just aren't that good at spelling but it doesn't mean they're stupid and all that but the kind of writing you see some people produce (especially on the internet) is just inexcusable.

Although what the government is doing at the moment probably isn't the best thing, I actually believe it would be better if less people went to university, because at times it really seems like there's a number of "students" who just aren't worthy of a degree, as the OP's story in this thread shows.


I think they did, but students didn't care a great deal. There were no actual classes about grammar. I swear I only know it because my dad taught me and is incredibly pedantic about it.

What's up with this "correction" of my use of the term "high school"? :confused: It's a perfectly valid alternative to "secondary school". The name of my school was Xxxx High School.

And by the way, 5,000 words is 15 pages at least, assuming it's double spaced. Unless you use 6 point font or something ridiculous.
Reply 39
I know some British schools have "High School" in their name but in this country we call it secondary school. The phrase High School usually refers to the American school system which begins and ends at different ages to secondary school.

"And by the way, 5,000 words is 15 pages at least, assuming it's double spaced. Unless you use 6 point font or something ridiculous."

And surely this isn't split between a group of 6 people? Obviously it depends what you're writing about and what you have to do but 5000 words on it's own isn't really a lot. I reckon I could write 5000 words about something by teatime if I wanted to.

5000 words of text (no spacing) in about 12pt with regular paragraphing would be a bit more than 5 pages yes, but nowhere near as many as 15. It would be between 5 and 10.
(edited 13 years ago)

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