Seriously.
I got my paper back from my American Cinema class. My grammer stinks and I don’t completely expound on ideas – these things I am familiar with and accept. What annoys me was the comment that my writing style was too informal or casual for an academic paper. It wasn’t a complaint about passive sentences or contractions but simply the style of writing. The style? So, basically, he could have said, “you didn’t use big words.”
Why must academia be a complete impedement to understanding? My writing style was intentional. I was writing on The Grifters, so I used terms from the movie to describe the movie. My problem? Apparantly it was too readable.
It reminds me of an article I read in the New York Times where professors complained that email was making them feel as though they were too acessible to their students. I find the enforced respect that professors demand to be disturbing. While I understand the need for there to be a definite separation in the teacher/student relationship, I feel that often professors are a bit extreme in their own arrogance. Think about it. When you are in college you had those professors that demanded that you question everyone. They became irritated when you automatically accepted the position of your parents or clergy, or whatever. Heaven forbid that you ever question them. I had one professor that would go into hissy-fits if you ever questioned the validity of a theory that he believed in. Welcome to the real world Dr. Professor, while I know you are comfortable in your little bubble away from the real world, the rest of us aren’t going to go out of our way to protect it for you.
AAAAAAAAGHHHHH!!!!!!
Sigh.
Yeah, my grammer did suck.