Valium for the Soul

I think they're trying to say your overuse of quotes indicates you don't clearly understand the subject so you're substituting the thinking of others for your own, which is total BS. Overuse of quotes is an indicator that your paper is short and you have to pad it out. Assuming that was a typed note, they obviously relied on the spell checker instead of re-reading what they wrote. I hated group projects in college simply because the dumbest members always bring the group down, and i was never fortunate enough to be the dumbest member.

 

Has this person completed the 4th grade yet??

 

When you don't understand something obfuscate. However, you should at least spell the words correctly in your comments.

Group work can be worthwhile, but not necessarily when a paper must be written. It only gives the lazy among us refuge.

I hope you had the opportunity to write a minority report. That is one way the instructor/prof to get an idea of individual work.

 

wikipedia is great. But for a quick background reference before you start the real research...

It is not a reference source!!!

 

Ok I have read the paper that this relates to. Let me tell you people that it was coherent, well researched & well referenced (worthy of peer review). Just b/c someone is doing the same class as you doesn't make them a 'peer'. Those people are such retards & I'm going to puke on the next person I meet who's in their final year of uni who thinks wikipedia is an academic ref & that having a well referenced paper means that you're 'quoting too much' ;)

 

sigh. don't know what you're studying blue, but as a college-level reading and writing instructor - here's my take on peer review:

the purpose of peer review is twofold: 1) to provide students with the opportunty to develop critical-reading skills and transform those reading skills into writing skills (what the reviewer gains from the exercise) and 2) to provide a writer with a reader's perspective of the work(what the writer gains from the exercise). often in peer reviewer, it's the reviewer that gains more than the writer from the activity.

you have to separate the wheat from the chaff in peer review - on a variety of levels. and though this reviewer's feedback isn't well-shaped - it's a simple thing of asking him what he meant and asking hm to SHOW you in the text what he is talking about.

i always advise students to consider all feedback - even the feedback that sets them back on their heels or makes no sense. i have often found in my own work, that considering such feedback sometimes leads me to a new way of looking at my work (and sometimes not).

in the end, the writer has to make a decision about which feedback is valid, which feedback they can work with. rule of thumb - if more than one reviewer provides similar feedback - that's a clear indicator of a problem with the text.

do you know what the purpose of the group writing assignment was? and do you know what the prof's rationale for that assignment was? what did the prof want students to get out of the assigment (besides the torture)?

i agree with fatty - although wikipedia is not a valid source, it's a jumping off point - but not a source to be cited. it can provide some direction for research though and should lead to hunt for verifiable and credible sources.

about the quoting too much - argh. this goes on and on. quotes and paraphrases support the writer's point - one of the main goals of academic writing is to enter the conversation, so to speak, and utilize the texts of others to support your own text. rule of thumb for entry-level writers - no more than 20% of an essay should be "quotes." grad students shouldn't need that kind of rule - it's graduate work for crying out loud - no need for such prescriptive guidelines. (i teach undergrads and remedial writing - they need the guidelines!)

geesh - sorry for the pedantic lecture!

 

Thank you all for your comments. This course is an elective and a buge (general education) so I have to get it done,but there are no pre-req's.... enter the great unwashed.

The purpose of the group paper is to stimulate discussion, this only works if each member of the group has the same goals. I don't share their goals - I don't think a p1 is an acceptable grade.

So for your amusement, this has been my standard response to the comments of those in the course (who in the main have referenced less than 5% of their papers & even then with non-academic websites):

My understanding of an academic paper is that references are used to support statements made. The answer to each question is comprised of information gathered through research of current journal articles in the appropriate fields. Where this information has been used, the use of academic references is applied. The research conducted enabled the paper to provide a broad range of information supported by experts who have had their research reviewed by their peers. As undergraduates, we do not have the expertise or the benefit of having ‘discovered’ these dimensions. Accordingly, references have been provided to correctly demonstrate the expertise and research of others. Failure to do so is plagiarism.

The response from the class so far has been to ask where i 'copied' this from, which indicates to me that they couldn't tell what I had written from what I had referenced.