– After underlining hundreds of mistakes in each of the essays my independent researchers handed in,
– after writing endless messages saying that, “I will not accept your work until it is written by you and not by Google Translate,”
– after being driven to tears by the disastrous writing, shoddy argumentation, and incapacity to conduct independent research,
– after explaining time and again what constitutes a reliable academic source of information only to have an IMDb review cited at me,
– after reading things like, “Of course, the Spanish conquistadors killed many indigenous people, but there was a positive side to the conquest, too, because the Spaniards brought good things like weapons and horses to the New World”, “When Columbus first arrived in Latin America. . .” and “After the people of Spain took Franco down. . .”,
– after spending 80% of my office hours this semester going over the same mistakes in the essays that I already know by heart,
– after having nightmares that I will have to correct 260 mistakes in a single essay once again. . .
. . . I have finally received very good final versions of the essays with good research, original analysis, careful bibliographies and almost no mistakes from all independent researchers but one.
I’ve been grading non-stop, 10-12 hours a day, since Monday. I now can barely lift my right arm because of all the mouse-button pressing. But it is all worth it because I have taught several people to do research and write well in Spanish.
I will now be booking multiple appointments with a massage therapist.
Clarissa's Blog 
In my opinion the kind of feedback you have been giving is irreplaceable in tertiary institutions. I really don’t see how it can be provided with the online courses being proposed to replace traditional presentation.
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What’s sad though is they really should have learned that in high school. No — junior high. (They call it “middle school” now don’t they.) As a matter of fact they started teaching us the basics of research and essay writing when I was in elementary school. That was in one of the worst school districts in the US (Dade County, Florida) in the laid-back, let’s-rap-not-learn-boring-facts 1970s. What the hell are kids doing now from age six to eighteen?
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“What the hell are kids doing now from age six to eighteen?”
– This is the question I keep asking myself. As of now, I haven’t encountered much evidence that they do anything. I think they just hibernate.
Life would be great if I didn’t have to do so much remedial teaching.
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