Is there a draft in here?
There’s just something wrong with the way my European Politics course is structured.
The course content is great. The lecturer is interesting (if a little bit too far to the left for my liking).
But the assignments are horrendously structured.
Like most courses of this level, a major chunk of the course mark lies in a large Research Essay we must present at the end of the year.
That’s fine. I enjoy research essays, thankfully. When they go well.
And, really, the demand for a research proposal is fair enough, making it worth 5% is good too, as it means people will put thought into them.
But here’s the weird part: He wants a draft introduction and outline. Four weeks before the final is due. And worth 10%.
For a draft introduction.
To request one is fine. Make it obligatory, no problem.
But how can ten percent of my mark for the year rest in a draft?! It doesn’t make sense. The point of a draft is to clear the ideas, get things moving, so that it can be heavily edited and presented in a refined form.
But this one is worth something.
So, does that mean it should really be basically as good as my final introduction?
But how could it be? I haven’t written the entire essay yet. Haven’t even finished the research. What do I do? How do you mark a draft?
To make things worse, it’s due tomorrow. I’ve been doing quite a bit of research. Know roughly how I want to present things and which angle I’m going to take. But I’m not really ready to write a brilliant introduction.
Even worse, he hasn’t returned our proposals yet. He’s had 5 weeks. From the course outline - “I will use your proposals as a control to ensure you are on a productive track of research.” Good. Wish you had. Will absolutely love finding out that I’ve been barking up the wrong tree once I’ve handed in my draft introduction.
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4 Responses to “Is there a draft in here?”
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Adey Ben, 2 months without a post is terrible. Get moving!!!!!
yojoe What about Missile Pops?
Shannon OMG. Check it out… http://mudhead.uottawa.ca/~pet e/beard.html
Ben A singular beer won’t quite cut it. But you’re on the right track…
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That’s pretty freakin’ stupid, why not just make your research essay worth 10% more?
The introduction is usually the last thing that I tinker with when I’m writing an essay, and to make to not push the deadline back after the professor hasn’t kept up to his duties is really unfair.
Yeah, exactly. The introduction needs to be written after the paper. Way I’ve always done it.
Guess I can say goodby to this 10%….
Overall, the paper is worth 50%. But apparently the Uni is cracking down on such assesments as it puts too much strain on students - so a certain amount has to be done by certain dates etc.
To get around it, he made 5% for the Proposal, 10% for the Intro, and 35% for the essay.
Which is rediculous, cos seriously.. Proposal took an hour or two to come up with a good idea and find some good sources. Essay will take many an hour, I’m probably looking at a couple weeks solid work.
The intro? I only have so much I can do with it at the moment. So an hour, max.
Not really a fair distribution.
I am also an “intro last” type gal; how the eff am I suppose to introduce what I’m writing about, when I haven’t even really written it yet?
A mad mad world..
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