Stumbling Toward June

Apparently some of my students have recently discovered this blog. That is surprising, since I don't advertise and the "stats" Google shows me do not suggest that this is a well trafficked site. Anyway, a note to any of my current students who may be reading this: "Hi, kids! Get back to work! How am I supposed to keep this thing going if you don't hand in your papers?"

There are some more classic examples this week from the Department of Stating the Obvious. As always, these are from student papers, names have been withheld to protect the illiterate guilty, and my comments are in (   ).

- Poems are often difficult for some to understand because they always have "deeper meanings."
- Every writer uses different elements in their writing to develop their theme.
- This line conveys extreme imagery. (Totally. It's like the X-games of imagery up in here.)
- Themes of poems have always been the messages that the author tries to get across to the audience. (I'll take note of that.)
- ...killing him on the stop.
- Often times, poems are ways for authors to get a point across about something. (Could you be more vague?)
- The sea allows as star to be navigation while a large ship steers and it is a beautiful sight with mystery. (Is this haiku?)
- Lady Bracknell also bases Cecily on her look.
- The structure of this poem is surely in iambic meter and is a quatrain.
- Mr. Tregennis is a self-contained man.
- Mr. Lestrade brought the attention of the crime upon Holmes.

Finally, a student writing about the poem "Sea Fever," by John Masefield, purposely used the words "pacifically," and "unshellfishly" in his paper, noting that he "couldn't resist." It needed mentioning.

J