That kid. The one who sent me the email? He sucks even more than previously suspected.
Backstory: after not replying to my email and not showing up for class on Friday, he came by my office later that day to drop off his paper. Uh, sorry he wasn't in class--the trains were delayed, or not running, or something. He seemed rather nervous and stammering, and I felt sorrier for him than I'd expected, so I told him that I'd "think about" letting him use his extension retroactively.
And you know, I'd even made up my mind to let him do it, too, when I finally got around to reading his paper:
- the paper's format is unacceptable (too short, huge margins, no bibliography, etc.)
- he quotes from the poem he's supposedly analyzing exactly once
- that quotation appears to be from a modern prose "translation" of the poem in question--decidely not the version we're using
- he gets the NAME of the POET wrong, repeatedly
- there is no thesis
- there is no structure that I can discern
- one entire page is nothing but a long-ass plot summary
- it's not always clear that what he's writing is in fact English
I've never given a D in my life, but this is a D paper. And for writing a fucking D paper and giving me bullshit excuses about it, you get no extension. (Four days late, asshole, and you give me this??)
-
Badger commented at 10:25 AM~
Sounds like an F paper to me.
-
phd me commented at 11:23 AM~
You're being gracious with a D. Methinks the child has larger problems than previously expected.
-
Cheeky Prof commented at 1:28 PM~
I'm with Badger. And isn't this always the way? You want to allow an extension, or give the benefit of the doubt, or sign in someone to a class late, or whatever and then they do something to make you regret it. Grrr!
Keep us posted on the impending grade complaint. ;-)
-
La Lecturess commented at 3:00 PM~
Well, what with being 4 days late, he'll get a 50 on the assignment as it is. And I don't think it's quite an F otherwise--there IS an introduction and conclusion (weak though both are), there's a recognizable topic (if not a thesis), and it's not much shorter than the required length.
GWBoyfriend suggested telling him that it was unacceptable as written, informing him that he had a week to rewrite it, and would otherwise get a zero. I'm still thinking about that one, but frankly I just don't want to deal with this kid to that extent. So far he's getting an F in the class overall (his quiz grade is well below 50% and he never participates), so maybe he'll drop.
-
Terminal Degree commented at 4:45 AM~
How frustrating. Isn't it funny how the students for whom you make exceptions are the students who 1) do the least amount of work; 2) do it badly; or 3) knife you in the back later.
As one of my colleagues says to us, whenever we're tempted to give in to students who are working the system: "No good deed will go unpunished." Amen.
-
Kait W. commented at 5:34 AM~
I agree with Badger and Terminal Degree. If it's bad AND it's late, I would say F.
