Sheesh

I'm not even half way done with the grading and I've got to call it a night. This stuff drains your soul. I can't even think about trying to write my own stuff now.

I did read one paper that almost renewed my faith. It was actually very thoughtful, if not terribly well-written. If the student had simply put an hour into an edit it would have been just great. I guess I should be happy that I got that much.

Honestly, it's not so much that the other papers are so horrible, it's just that they're so uninspired. Most of the students just parrot what the prof said in lecture. Another clump simply briefly glosses over the same (study group?) pretty obvious conclusions. A couple will turn in a paper that's 90% quotations and a bibliography that's longer than the paper. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, the simple grammar issues are just awful. I came very close to setting up a comma clinic. Where's Schoolhouse Rock when you need it? Actually, they didn't do anything on comma usage, did they? Well, poop.

Now I've got a nice 15 minute bike ride home in the dark. All the little drunklings will be well into their parties and not yet out on the roads swerving into my bike lanes, so it will be nice and refreshing.

UPDATE:
I did see some drunklings on the way home - two guys wrestling in the grass near one of the dorms. One was saying, "no striking! no striking!" Ah, the undergraduate life...