PL Essays

A decidedly mixed bag. There were some A's and B's, including an essay I consider the best I've received ever from an undergrad. Clearly, then, the assignment was doable. But about 2/3 of the class got D's and F's. A large number of people didn't turn in the essay; they obviously wanted to fail, so I obliged them. Most of the remaining low grades came from simply not following instructions. Well over half the class ignored the supplemental reading, which cost a full letter grade. A lot of people just paraphrased their passages. The great majority re-hashed class discussion; the very best that'll earn is a B, and can easily get much lower. Not having any/enough quotes was another problem. One essay had significant enough plagiarism to fail, but thankfully not significant enough to fail the semester. 

Not surprisingly, students who wrote journal entries on time and attempted to avoid paraphrase tended to fare better. In terms of your grade journals can come in late, and I don't judge for quality per se, but they are intended as a way for you to practice skills and get feedback.  By the same token, the in-class writing that only a handful of students post is intended to give directed practice. Early in the semester when I warned about not keeping up with the small easy work this is the outcome I feared.