Academic Disappointment
I'm crushed.
Yesterday I got my results for my three criminology assignments I handed in in April. In criminological research methods, I didn't do great, but this was the hated and dreaded assignment using statistics and all that kind of stuff I don't like. Averaged with the first semester assignment, I'm quite pleased with the final result.
Likewise with criminological theory. I worked my ass off on that one because I chose to do theoretical explanations of domestic violence. The score I got on that wasn't as high as I would have liked, but I think I let my passion for the subject make me lose sight of the actual question we were supposed to be answering. Again, combined with the first semester's exam grade, I did pretty well.
But I could scream over my criminal justice systems mark. No, I take it back. It's not the mark that bothers me half as much as the comments the person who marked it scribbled on. Or should I say lack of comments. There was no constructive criticism whatsoever, only a brief sentence that it was not an "appropriate academic style". That's funny, it's the style I've used for the past 20 years in academia, through my first BA, my graduate studies, and two years of my current BA studies, and I have never had anyone tell me that my style is anything but of a high academic standard.
What gets me even more is that it was marked by someone other than my tutor, someone who lectured to us on the Probation Service with such venom and single mindedness that she left us in no doubt as to her bias. She told us she had an opinion on the matter and, as far as she was concerned, it was the only correct opinion. I have no problem with people being passionate about their opinions whatsoever, even if the opinion is the total opposite to mine. What I had a problem with was her assertion that no other opinion would be entertained.
And of all the subjects I had to chose, I researched the Probation Service.
Ahhh, well. I asked for someone else to look at it and my grade stands. I'm disappointed, but this won't stop me. I will work twice as hard next year. I'll show them!
Yesterday I got my results for my three criminology assignments I handed in in April. In criminological research methods, I didn't do great, but this was the hated and dreaded assignment using statistics and all that kind of stuff I don't like. Averaged with the first semester assignment, I'm quite pleased with the final result.
Likewise with criminological theory. I worked my ass off on that one because I chose to do theoretical explanations of domestic violence. The score I got on that wasn't as high as I would have liked, but I think I let my passion for the subject make me lose sight of the actual question we were supposed to be answering. Again, combined with the first semester's exam grade, I did pretty well.
But I could scream over my criminal justice systems mark. No, I take it back. It's not the mark that bothers me half as much as the comments the person who marked it scribbled on. Or should I say lack of comments. There was no constructive criticism whatsoever, only a brief sentence that it was not an "appropriate academic style". That's funny, it's the style I've used for the past 20 years in academia, through my first BA, my graduate studies, and two years of my current BA studies, and I have never had anyone tell me that my style is anything but of a high academic standard.
What gets me even more is that it was marked by someone other than my tutor, someone who lectured to us on the Probation Service with such venom and single mindedness that she left us in no doubt as to her bias. She told us she had an opinion on the matter and, as far as she was concerned, it was the only correct opinion. I have no problem with people being passionate about their opinions whatsoever, even if the opinion is the total opposite to mine. What I had a problem with was her assertion that no other opinion would be entertained.
And of all the subjects I had to chose, I researched the Probation Service.
Ahhh, well. I asked for someone else to look at it and my grade stands. I'm disappointed, but this won't stop me. I will work twice as hard next year. I'll show them!
posted by Melinda at 6/09/2005 07:01:00 pm
2 Comments:
I could never tell with assignments how well I'd do. In my degree they often wrote bad questions (I'm talking about rambly sentences of near on 200 words or big loose quotes with the word "discuss" at the end). A friend of mine got a draft of a masters thesis back with the comment "yuk" on it. Very informative, I don't think.
That sounds like the comments I had on this one. The only thing written on the paper itself was "source?" and "evidence?". I thought it was adequately sourced. From the way she commented, she wanted every single sentence sourced. Not only that, she didn't want me to take a stand and argue my point, which I thought was the whole idea of the assignment. Instead I should have just regurgitated everyone else's previous research (which there wasn't much, so I thought I'd done well by going into almost virgin territory!). She couldn't fault my arguments though, if that's all she could come up with to write, which only confirms my belief that her problem was with the topic, not the actual paper.
God, I hope they don't assign this woman to be my tutor for my dissertation next year ...
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