12-14-2003, 07:21 AM
I teach a lab preschool class at a university, and I have received papers that include internet terms such as "LOL" and :) (usually that little smiley that Word auto-inserts). I haven't seen worse than that, but I've only been in this position for about a year. How I respond depends upon the purpose of the assignment. Several of the papers are "journals" of the students' experience in the class. For the journals, I'm not too particular about language use. I want the students to be reflecting upon their experience, and that's what I'm looking for there. I wouldn't personally use "internet speak" in a paper I was handing in, but I don't penalize it in this case.
The other assignments are supposed to be more polished. In the short time that I've been teaching, I've never seen "internet speak" in these papers. But, that doesn't mean that they're in "proper English" either. Misspellings and run-on sentences are very common. Most of the time, these are minor errors. Occasionally, the mistakes are frequent enough that I have a difficult time understanding what the writer is trying to say.
Oddly enough, the language of the internet has affected the way that I handle this. At first, I was uncomfortable with the idea of correcting students for spelling and grammatical errors. While I'm fairly comfortable teaching children, this is the first time I've taught adults, and it takes a bit of time to get used to correcting adults! Now, I'm not saying that I ignored the errors, just that I felt uncomfortable correcting them. Anyway, one night I was agonizing over how to respond to a particular paper. I realized that if the paragraph I was reading had been a post on the Lurker Lounge, the poster would have been flamed (or at least very sternly corrected, depending upon who got there first). Clearly, I couldn't let something slide as university work if it would be considered unacceptable on an internet message board! So, I now apply my "LL test" to papers that I'm grading. If the paper's language would be well received here but contains a few errors, I won't mark it down, but I will point out the mistake. If it seems like the paper would get a hostile reception here, then clearly it is an issue that I need to address with my student. I just don't tell them that I used the "LL test" as criteria! :lol:
-Griselda
The other assignments are supposed to be more polished. In the short time that I've been teaching, I've never seen "internet speak" in these papers. But, that doesn't mean that they're in "proper English" either. Misspellings and run-on sentences are very common. Most of the time, these are minor errors. Occasionally, the mistakes are frequent enough that I have a difficult time understanding what the writer is trying to say.
Oddly enough, the language of the internet has affected the way that I handle this. At first, I was uncomfortable with the idea of correcting students for spelling and grammatical errors. While I'm fairly comfortable teaching children, this is the first time I've taught adults, and it takes a bit of time to get used to correcting adults! Now, I'm not saying that I ignored the errors, just that I felt uncomfortable correcting them. Anyway, one night I was agonizing over how to respond to a particular paper. I realized that if the paragraph I was reading had been a post on the Lurker Lounge, the poster would have been flamed (or at least very sternly corrected, depending upon who got there first). Clearly, I couldn't let something slide as university work if it would be considered unacceptable on an internet message board! So, I now apply my "LL test" to papers that I'm grading. If the paper's language would be well received here but contains a few errors, I won't mark it down, but I will point out the mistake. If it seems like the paper would get a hostile reception here, then clearly it is an issue that I need to address with my student. I just don't tell them that I used the "LL test" as criteria! :lol:
-Griselda
Why can't we all just get along
--Pete
--Pete