The Throne of Thufir's Thoroughly Theoretical and Therapeutic Random Banter #116

[Sneak]

Ahh! My mind! There needs to be a seizure smilie.

Ack, seizures.

Also, MLA? As in citation?

If you need help with that, here's a very helpful resource.

@^: I meant to reduce the length. For a word limit.

Regardless:

[Fostire]

I guess you have to figure out how to say meaningful things in an insignificant space?

I always do that. I usually say what I have to say in few words which really annoyed my teachers until I learned to fill space with rubbish (which I do by saying the same thing over and over with different words).

[Recaiden]

Ack, seizures.

Also, MLA? As in citation?

If you need help with that, here's a very helpful resource.

@^: I meant to reduce the length. For a word limit.

Regardless:

I don't need help, I just dislike it. And maybe I mean more of a mind broken or "Gone mad from the revelation" smilie.

[Nychta]

Smart teacher, eh?

Whatchagondo. :/

What is this essay about, in any case? Seems pretty short.

Lord of the Flies. We have to discuss the changing relationship between Ralph and Piggy, with reference to two incidents.

3 pages, and I'm missing 3 paragraphs.

*edits down to 1.5 pages*
*edits back up*

[Sneak]

Mmm.

As far as space-filling goes, well...my Freshman Seminar (diversity class) and Ethics and Community Service class (in 8th grade), while pretty much useless, were very good for training me to BS well.

Just use lots of buzzwords.

[Nychta]

I swear my teacher two years ago would just run our essays through a program that highlighted the buzzwords, then give us a percentage based on the ratio of buzzwords to the total number of words.

[Recaiden]

I swear my teacher two years ago would just run our essays through a program that highlighted the buzzwords, then give us a percentage based on the ratio of buzzwords to the total number of words.

We've got the same thing. Just to make essays we don't like more time-consuming. But really, what's with the secrets?

EDIT: I feel like the end of Throne of Bhaal, after she loses the power and the top of the throne is collapsing, green lightning shooting everywhere, then crushing on top of me and the dimension exploding. Maybe my avatar is affecting me?

EDIT2: Good night xNadia, playground.

[Nychta]

Secretswhatsecrets

I need a new avatar idea. This one is aaaall the way back from the Sidekick itP competition.

[Sneak]

That doesn't sound good, Reco. Why is that, exactly?

@xNadia: Dunno. Standard closeup, maybe?

Also, how are people feeling about my new avatar? I'm pretty sure it's just temporary until I find the time to draw myself a new avatar...probably another self-portrait. Maybe my profile a la Bob Dylan/Milton Glaser. Maybe the ole simu-ninja. Not sure.

Just wondering if people like the Myriad Harbor in the meantime.

In any case, I'ma go-a to bedda. G'night, playground.

Don't let the spacebugs bite.

Pff, spacebugs...

[Phase]

Hey Sneak, nice new Avatar.

Anyway, even though this years curriculum is already planned out, I want to suggest some books to be analyzed next year. I have a teacher who actually gives deeper meaning to stories, rather than just ruining them.

EDIT: Huh, didn't even see your post, Sneak.

[Kneenibble]

I would love to write an essay on Lord of the Flies. That was a fun, fun book.

There was this one class... I wanted to write an essay about the works of an author that meant a lot to me personally, and so I felt morally obliged not to just churn out another bunch of words. The deadline came around, I had piles of research, but nothing had congealed. The professor had very mild late penalties and said I could get it to him before his marks were due after Christmas break. No dice... I sat with it for two weeks after classes ended, working nocturnally for hours and hours and hours. Nothing. I wound up applying for an 'Incomplete,' no inconsiderable amount of paperwork, to work on it for another month.

Now I've written a fair number of very successful papers in my academic career. For whatever reason I never did finish the paper. I cared about the author and his work too damn much and it always seemed like constructing any academically sound reading around the material was desacralizing the deeper meaning for me. I still passed the course though: my lowest grade ever, but possibly my most honest one. Or stupidest.

[randman22222]

I just got back from Kayaking.

I had no idea that Abu Dhabi has mangroves in it, but we kayaked through them. Nor did I realise that there were flamingoes here, but we saw them. My dad got a couple cool pictures of me. I'm debating...

[Dallas-Dakota]

Secretswhatsecrets

I need a new avatar idea. This one is aaaall the way back from the Sidekick itP competition.

Hmm, maybe a evil Nadia for the good/evil week?

[Nychta]

Essay status: complete with strange paragraphing and almost every space possible used.

Neebly, I love your avatar to bits.

Also, on evil: perhaps, perhaps.

[Phaedra]

Ooo, Sneak. Nice avatar. Muchly eyecatching.

I always struggled to fill word-limits. I have a naturally concise style, I guess. Happily, I don't really have to deal with word-limits at the mo. I'll leave that problem for three years time when I have to condense everything I've written for my thesis into 100 000 words.

On a vaguely related note, I'll take bets on whether I can actually finish my current piece by the end of today, given I'm finding it the most confusing and tedious work I've done in a long time. The winners get... something. Suggestions on a postcard.

[dish]

Why do you all have to be talking about essays and assignments now? Gah!
[mutter] Two thousand five hundred words. [/mutter]

[Phase]

Ow ow ow ow ow ow!

My leg hurts like it's on gorramn fire!

Charlie horse!!!!

[dish]

Ow ow ow ow ow ow!

My leg hurts like it's on gorramn fire!

Charlie horse!!!!

Stretching usually helps?

[Phase]

I'm supposed to walk it out. It SHOULD help, but bending hurts.

Maybe it's nerves? My Mom's having stomach surgery today.

[Griever]

I've always had the greatest dislike for how the majority of English teachers handle papers.

It was... senior year of high school, writing a paper over The Inferno, I don't quite remember the prompt, but I said everything I wanted to say, provided the most prominent examples and summed it all up in 2 pages... and my teacher wanted 4...

I attempted to argue the point with her, saying that adding more analyzing or examples would merely bog down the paper and make it all the harder for someone to actually, you know read the whole thing. Naturally, I lose the argument, filled the paper with 2 pages of crap, and shred the copy when I got it back; it did not deserve that high of a grade, spending two sentences to impart a single thought... what a waste.

[dish]

I'm supposed to walk it out. It SHOULD help, but bending hurts.

Maybe it's nerves? My Mom's having stomach surgery today.

Oh, yes, that does sound nerve-wracking. Best wishes for your Mom.

I've always had the greatest dislike for how the majority of English teachers handle papers.

...(snip)... it did not deserve that high of a grade, spending two sentences to impart a single thought... what a waste.

It does seem silly, but it is possible that the English teacher was trying to teach you to write in an academic style, in which case excess verbiage does frequently take over from conciseness. Can't really blame the teacher for trying to teach different styles of English. Can you?

[Phaedra]

It does seem silly, but it is possible that the English teacher was trying to teach you to write in an academic style, in which case excess verbiage does frequently take over from conciseness.

It doesn't have to, though. It really doesn't. I've read enough academic writing to know that most people seem to think the point of writing an article is to put in as many obscure terms as possible, but the best articles and books I read are those written in plain language and which are designed to be accessible to everyone. The point of academic writing is to get your idea across to people, and excess verbiage prevents this.

Gah. Sorry, pet hate.

[Quincunx]

. . .It does seem silly, but it is possible that the English teacher was trying to teach you to write in an academic style, in which case excess verbiage does frequently take over from conciseness. Can't really blame the teacher for trying to teach different styles of English. Can you?

Absolutely. We don't go into classes to learn how to do things worse.

Asking the short essayist to dissect another, only marginally related question and tack it into the same essay to make the word count is fine. Demanding filler is not.

[dish]

It doesn't have to, though. It really doesn't. I've read enough academic writing to know that most people seem to think the point of writing an article is to put in as many obscure terms as possible, but the best articles and books I read are those written in plain language and which are designed to be accessible to everyone. The point of academic writing is to get your idea across to people, and excess verbiage prevents this.

Gah. Sorry, pet hate.

I totally agree. The best academic writing is plain and clear. But, when teaching academic English we still have to focus on things such as nominalisation, more complex sentence structures (such as passives), and technical terms. We might want them to write the 'best' types of academic English, but the students still have to be able to understand the 'worst' types.

[Thufir]

Yeah, but a musical able tune for RB? Or for Play by post?

Choosing songs to represent threads? How boring. Write them yourself!
Take the work of Joss Whedon as inspiration and come up with something really random!

[Recaiden]

Choosing songs to represent threads? How boring. Write them yourself!
Take the work of Joss Whedon as inspiration and come up with something really random!

There are subforums I've never posted in. I wouldn't know what to write. I could write or find one for most or all of the RB and gaming threads.

[Thufir]

Then get other people to write them for those subforums. Musicals tend to be better with music written for them than with songs picked from elsewhere just shoved in.

[Phaedra]

I totally agree. The best academic writing is plain and clear. But, when teaching academic English we still have to focus on things such as nominalisation, more complex sentence structures (such as passives), and technical terms. We might want them to write the 'best' types of academic English, but the students still have to be able to understand the 'worst' types.

True - it's not complex language that I object to. It has its uses and, as you say, everyone should know how to use it. What annoys me is the belief that using complex sentence structures and terminology automatically makes your work more "academic". I appreciate that that's not what you're suggesting, but it's something I come across a lot and it really irritates me.

Edited because my rant about language use will have more weight if I use correct grammar myself.

[Kneenibble]

Whaddya say we rent a warehouse and pile it full with all the undergraduate papers written for a University in a year? - leaving aisles clear for marvellers to wander and wonder at the stacked quintessence of dust.

[Fredthefighter]

Whaddya say we rent a warehouse and pile it full with all the undergraduate papers written for a University in a year? - leaving aisles clear for marvellers to wander and wonder at the stacked quintessence of dust.

Sounds like a good idea.
I'll get the flamethrowers, because everything is better with fire.