#DarnYouAutocorrect: Grading Gaffs 2018
Every so often I get some really quality student typos in essays. Enjoy some gaffs from this past quarter!
Unfortunately since I didn't have any freshman classes this year and my AP kids tend to be better proof readers, the mistakes aren't quite as crazy this year as they were last year...it's generally a case of writing too fast and not going back to reread before they hit "print" and turn in, but I appreciate them as ways to make sure I'm not reading too fast either!
On a rhetorical analysis paper over the Lenten hymn "When I survey the wondrous cross":
Little-known translation of verse 2: "all the vain things that charm me most, I Scarface them trough his blood"
Also from our Lenten hymn analysis - you didn't know hymns could be contagious!
There was some confusion on when (Novermber) and what (Baskeyball!) exactly this student did on their resume:
Sometimes I get typos that I actually have no idea what they meant to say. On this college application essay of their portfolio a student describes: "One of these obstacles weaned on my heart" -- weighed, I think, is what the student meant, but I'm really not sure!
I'm not sure if this student was over-thesaurusing (it happens) or this was in fact a typo and they meant "occurred"?
Did you know Purdue's engineering program is ranted second in the nation? This is why I have the students do this assignment - so at least one other set of eyes can catch misses like this before they send them off to the colleges!
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This isn't precisely a typo, but on a Greek roots vocab test I showed a picture of the Acropolis in Athens, and asked how the word "acrophobia" can relate to the Acropolis.
We had used this example in class, that acro = heights; acrophobia is the fear of heights, and the Acropolis is high above the city (-polis = city). Correct answers included something about the height, or that someone with acrophobia would not want to visit the Acropolis.
However, one of my students creatively mistook the definition of acrophobia:
Or this basically correct answer:
I too can make typos - as any regular reading of my blog can attest. I work hard to complete all the work I assign my students as a way to check for timing and typos, including exams, but this still slipped through on my sociology final this spring:
This one I kept from the fall and don't believe I've shared it yet; it is from an essay about Arthur Dimmesdale's character in The Scarlet Letter:
When you mean "erratic" behavior but instead write "erotic," it totally changes the reading of the book!
Ah well - cheers to the end of essay grading for a few short weeks :)
I will end with an English teacher joke one of our awesome custodians shared with me:
At a funeral, one of the attendees asked the widow if he could say a word during the service, and she agreed.
At the appropriate time, he stood and said, "Plethora."
After the service, the widow approached him in tears and, clasping his hand, said, "Thank you. That means a lot."
Unfortunately since I didn't have any freshman classes this year and my AP kids tend to be better proof readers, the mistakes aren't quite as crazy this year as they were last year...it's generally a case of writing too fast and not going back to reread before they hit "print" and turn in, but I appreciate them as ways to make sure I'm not reading too fast either!
On a rhetorical analysis paper over the Lenten hymn "When I survey the wondrous cross":
Also from our Lenten hymn analysis - you didn't know hymns could be contagious!
There was some confusion on when (Novermber) and what (Baskeyball!) exactly this student did on their resume:
This isn't precisely a typo, but on a Greek roots vocab test I showed a picture of the Acropolis in Athens, and asked how the word "acrophobia" can relate to the Acropolis.
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| Source: Mark Cartwright/Ancient History |
However, one of my students creatively mistook the definition of acrophobia:
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| "Acrophobia is the fear of change. In the picture the acropolis is being changed and remodeled." |
Or this one:
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| "Acrophobia is the fear of pillars." |
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| No bueno! |
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| There is no question 59. This is a problem for a Scantron test! |
Ah well - cheers to the end of essay grading for a few short weeks :)
I will end with an English teacher joke one of our awesome custodians shared with me:
At a funeral, one of the attendees asked the widow if he could say a word during the service, and she agreed.
At the appropriate time, he stood and said, "Plethora."
After the service, the widow approached him in tears and, clasping his hand, said, "Thank you. That means a lot."
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