Spring Break
Did you say midterm?
Deanne St. John, The Daily Vidette
Issue date: 2/27/07 Section: Opinion
(U-WIRE) NORMAL, Ill. - Midterms are upon us, already. Sheesh. It's like time started speeding up once I came to college.
Being an English major I think has got to be the hardest when it comes to midterms and finals. Don't get me wrong I am in love with my major, but it's no picnic.
A lot of people will say how lucky I am to only have to write papers, but I say no way. While papers for an English major are like algebra problems to a math major they aren't the easiest to whip out at any old time.
Time, thought and a lot of effort go into writing even a C paper. I would know. College English courses are a lot harder than high school English classes. In high school you read a few books, do a few presentations and write maybe one paper a year.
I'm writing a paper for one of my classes every day so that's twice a week not including my other three classes. I'm not trying to get anyone to feel bad or think I'm complaining I'm just saying it's not what I expected.
While writing is a good part of the English experience I can't help but wonder about something one of my professors said to me. She said, "Reading is so much more important than writing at this point in your career."
Now if that's true then why do we have to write so much and read so little? I don't understand how professors think we can handle it all sometimes.
I get the feeling a lot of them think their class is the only one we are in and just keep piling on the homework like there's no tomorrow. I hope any of my professors out there reading this aren't offended because for once I love you all and would hate to have you not love me.
Back to the idea of thinking paper midterms and finals are a piece of cake. Let me tell you that for one, no, and two, are you crazy?
First off I don't think a week is enough time for anyone to write a paper based on what they have learned in half a semester. Second, I need a week to at least let the information simmer while I decide what I even want to write about.
Being an English major I think has got to be the hardest when it comes to midterms and finals. Don't get me wrong I am in love with my major, but it's no picnic.
A lot of people will say how lucky I am to only have to write papers, but I say no way. While papers for an English major are like algebra problems to a math major they aren't the easiest to whip out at any old time.
Time, thought and a lot of effort go into writing even a C paper. I would know. College English courses are a lot harder than high school English classes. In high school you read a few books, do a few presentations and write maybe one paper a year.
I'm writing a paper for one of my classes every day so that's twice a week not including my other three classes. I'm not trying to get anyone to feel bad or think I'm complaining I'm just saying it's not what I expected.
While writing is a good part of the English experience I can't help but wonder about something one of my professors said to me. She said, "Reading is so much more important than writing at this point in your career."
Now if that's true then why do we have to write so much and read so little? I don't understand how professors think we can handle it all sometimes.
I get the feeling a lot of them think their class is the only one we are in and just keep piling on the homework like there's no tomorrow. I hope any of my professors out there reading this aren't offended because for once I love you all and would hate to have you not love me.
Back to the idea of thinking paper midterms and finals are a piece of cake. Let me tell you that for one, no, and two, are you crazy?
First off I don't think a week is enough time for anyone to write a paper based on what they have learned in half a semester. Second, I need a week to at least let the information simmer while I decide what I even want to write about.
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