Apparently professors are real people after all!
In Uptaught by Ken
Macrorie, specifically the article Publicize
Their Errors, the writer admits that professors take joy in publicizing
their students’ weak attempts at the masterful art of writing. I found this
hilarious, it seems every profession does this to some extent; the fact the “boring”
academic world has a true sense of humor, in some way, familiarizes me more
with the inner workings of the “college world”:
“Engfish teachers pass around to each other what they call
‘bloopers’ made by students in their papers. They post them on bulletin boards…three
of the commonest slips printed are:
1. His parents were having martial trouble.
1. His parents were having martial trouble.
2. He took it for granite.
3. The boys were studying in the lounge of the girls’
dormitory.” (72)
These witty bloopers, to most, would not hold interest, but
professors find them posting worthy purely based of their relative comical
value. Additionally, the professors refrain from including the students’ names
along with the quoted blooper. This allows the student to save some form of
dignity, whether they know it or not, while allowing the professors the space
to share comical work in their work place. Otherwise, according to the book Uptaught, the professors’ job is full of
dull/lifeless writing with no hope in sight.
The majority of the rest of the book seems to be full of
professors complaining about the dryness of their students’ writing. This is a
fair claim when considering the students’ level of interest in what the professors
are assigning. Many articles suggested students’ writing became more
interesting once they wrote more comfortably, I would agree when the prompt or
professor aren’t intimidating the students prior to them writing their text. When
the professor allows the student the freedom any writer deserves, the student
is automatically enabled to produce creative/interesting writing.
This constant battle between student and professor, when it
comes to producing text, produces great works across every academic institution.
Regardless if the professor uses students’ “bloopers” for comedic relief or if
the professor feels his students need more “freedom” in their prompt, it all
works together in its’ academic way to produce, hopefully, creative writing.
This is a fascinating process showcased in Uptaught,
one that is replicated many times in the “real” world workforce. Hopefully
as we dive into this writing capstone class we can look deeper into these academic
elements, I also suspect the second half of Uptaught
will partially quench this thirst.
