Homework sucks...

[sharkythesharkdogg]

I hate how some assignments have no real connection to the class or how the work doesn't really relate to other aspects of the project.

The most recent example was a my "Non-American Author" paper. I had not done one before, but it turned out to be quite simple. Just.....also quite stupid.

We were supposed to pick an author and book (Not written by an American, Brit, Canadian, Aussie, Kiwi, etc.) and read the book. Then do a report on the book.

Only it wasn't on the book at all. We simply needed to pull certain culture references from the book, and research whether or not they were accurate, then go on to describe those cultural aspects in depth. We didn't need to discuss the character interaction or how their culture might have affected decisions they made, etc. We didn't need to relate how that country's history might have affected the story line. We simply needed to note if they ate certain foods, dressed a certain way, attended certain ceremonies, other things like that, then talk more about that thing. By the end I realized I never really needed to read the book at all, I could have just picked my country (Mexico), my time frame (Mexican Revolution), skimmed the book for different cultural references, and then used them to write a paper about Mexican culture in the 1900's (Well, 1890-1915). There was no analysis of the book. I was told point blank that I should not do that.

While writing it, I never really once saw how this was making my English any stronger. I'd written plenty of research papers in previous English classes or other classes, and this was no different. I was really look forward to analyzing the behavior of the characters and relating that to their country, but instead I basically wrote a history or a social studies paper.

Another thing is, it only needed to be a 6-8 page paper, but it was required to have at least 10 cited sources. After paragraph transitions, double spacing, and room for my own thoughts, I had citations every other sentence.

I'm rambling, but I'm old so I'm allowed. The second point was that I hate how it feels less like they want you to write from your head now. I feel all they want is for you to parrot information and cite where you found it.