Look at assignment n. 4 (due Sept 23).
In general do you find the guidelines helpful or overbearing? Do they help or hinder your spontaneity?
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Can I say that the guidelines are overbearing and helpful at the same time? I feel like the specific guidelines help me understand what exactly the professor wants from our assignments but then again, because they are so specific, I don't want to misinterpret what he may mean by, "write little"; Well what does he consider "little".
ReplyDeleteIf i had to choose one or the other though, I'd say it's overbearing. I just feel too pressured to do exactly as he wants and therefore I second guess myself when writing up my assignments.
i agree, couldn't of said it better !
DeleteOn point. I agree I feel the same way when doing these assignments.
DeleteI agree, Diana. I believe they are slightly more overbearing than helpful.
DeleteThis is too true!
DeleteI agree, the assignments could definitely be worded differently to prevent mass confusion across the class.
DeleteI don't want to repeat what Diana said but I can honestly agree and relate. For myself I like organization, so yes, the guidelines are helpful and organized when I am doing my assignment. But then again are overbearing. I also don't work well under pressure or when there is alot going on. Therefore when doing the assignments it causes me to struggle a bit. I don't want to write too little, then not respond to the assignment enough. But I don't want to write too much, where I don't know what to say by just dragging on with irrelevant information. I fear of not getting the credit or meeting the requirements needed for the assignment given.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I worry about not getting credit. I didn’t get credit for my first assignment because my “very brief” answers were too brief.
DeleteI agree, I tend to misunderstand how much to write, its a guessing game to me.
DeleteSyeda Jafri
DeleteI would have to agree with this. I also feel that the guidelines are beneficial in guiding us to what were suppose to be writing about.
When getting these assignments I feel overwhelmed but I can also say that so far I have learned how to question myself before I Do the assignments. I read it over and over just to understand what the professor is asking.
ReplyDeleteI agree and I feel overwhelmed as well when seeing these assignments.
DeleteI agree with Diana.The guidelines occasionally get to be too specific or hard to understand. When I read the assignment, I find myself reading the guidelines a couple of times over because I'm not quite sure how to answer the question. It's more frustrating to me when this happens because I begin to over think the entire assignment and I end up sitting, staring at my computer screen for a while. I'd prefer it to be slightly less specific so that it's not hindering my spontaneous thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI know I feel the same way. For this week assignment essay write
Delete"a little" has me reading the guidelines over and over because am not sure how to answer it correctly to get credit.
Yes Olivia! I've learned to just read them, and try not to over think everything so much. Also, i've realized that he mainly wants to learn more about us or better yet, have us learn about ourselves so I try to incorporate my reflection in each assignment when appropriate.
DeleteWhen first seeing the assignments it is overwhelming and knowing the specific guidelines we have to follow makes it a little extra overwhelming but I realized once I start the task and then complete it, it makes me feel much better like a weight is lifted off my shoulders. I feel as if maybe at the moment I find the specific and at times confusing guidelines to be frustrating but hopefully helpful and much easier to understand as time goes on.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Diana also, however I think the guidelines are more overbearing than helpful. It usually has me second guessing myself most of the times, pondering whether I have written too much or not enough, whether I am specific enough for the Professor.
ReplyDeleteAs everyone else has been saying, Diana summed it up pretty well. However, I personally enjoy and encourage the guidance that the guidelines provide. It helps me make my thoughts more concise and prevents me from wandering too far off topic with my writing.
ReplyDeleteI find guidelines helpful. I think in order for me to feel secure in my answer I like to follow guidelines. I am an indecisive person and I find myself having a hard time writing freely about anything. I think there should be more guidelines on what constitutes “a little” or “brief”, for example if he were to say roughly one page or roughly three sentences it would be more helpful. If there are not more specific directions then I do not think there should be a penalty for it.
ReplyDeleteIt might be difficult to determine exactly how many sentences we should write. Some people may need to write more than others. If we are to write only a little, then it's a matter of how many things we need to think about. "Think a lot, write a little" is kind of difficult.
DeleteI find the guidelines somewhat helpful but mostly overbearing. The guidelines are misleading as they are often stated in such a way that confuses the student. I agree with Karissa, I spend too much time second guessing whether if I followed the guidelines correctly and wonder if I'll get penalized for assuming which way the assignment should be written."Think a lot but write a little" When it comes to essays, there is no way you can limit yourself with writing less, especially when there is great detail to be covered.
ReplyDeleteI don't find the guidelines helpful at all, in fact I find myself reading them many times before even understanding what to do. They are very vague in many ways and what does "write a little" actually mean when you're asking for an essay?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Diana.
ReplyDeleteBut, I think they are more overwhelming than anything else.
I still don't know what writing a little means because to me that's like two sentences but to the professor that might be two paragraphs.
I find the guidelines relatively helpful but overbearing as well. It can be somewhat confusing as times. They can also be very vague and you can find yourself not knowing what to do next. It can get very frustrating.
ReplyDeleteSyeda Jafri
ReplyDeleteI think the guidelines are helpful to me. If i write a paper and im not sure of what exactly im suppose to write, the guidelines help me get a better understanding of the requirements for the paper.
The guidelines on the assignments are overbearing it confuses me more. Before I submit my work am worried of not meeting the requirements needed for the assignment.
ReplyDeleteI agree
DeleteI agree with Marlene. "Write a little" is subjective. To one person "writing a little " can mean writing 2 sentences, and to another person it can mean writing 2 pages. There would be less ambiguity if we knew the minimum and maximum word count. So, I'd have to say the guidelines are overbearing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the guidelines I get a feeling that I am somewhere in a middle of the Amazon forest with a five pages instructions "How to set up a fire". Eventually I would come out of this college remembering only two sentences: "Como estas? - Muy buena!" I am not sure if it is spelled right, but who cares, it's only has to sound right! I should have applied to " Five minutes college degree" instead.
ReplyDeleteAnastasia you always make me laugh lol
DeleteThis was hands down my favorite comment because it expressed what everyone mentioned above in a creative and different way. I wish had 20 dollars to join you.
DeleteThis is the best comment on here, hands down!
DeleteI agree!
DeleteThe guidelines just straight up don't help me the slightest bit. I'm usually just very confused as to what "write a little, not a lot" is asking for. Its just way too misleading and mis-informative for my taste. Heck I write too much as it is I dont need to be any more confused as to what to write. Also when you ask us to , or rather say "Your essay will have to be a distillation of many arguments and ideas, all weaved into one coherent statement. Avoid developing too many strands separately and individually." As someone reading that, that makes me confused as all hell. How can we form a coherent statement with "many" arguments and ideas worthy of our understanding of the text/cartoons if we are asked to only write a little? I do understand the idea of clear and concise answers to things, but then you put a handicap on our ability to express our arguements by saying only write a little, Oh and an essay generally comes off as something that analyzes and proves the writers points in many well thought out lines, stanzas, and can be expressed with multiple pages. We are unable to get our points across when we are hampered by a misleading writing guideline and a misused and misplaced word "essay"
ReplyDeleteI've always known essays to have a beginning a middle and an end. Minimum three paragraphs, six sentences each. But when I saw to only write a little but the assignment was an "essay" i figured the term essay, was loose and didn't follow classic essay structure. Essay, and short are contradicting. Also, it said to make one statement? a little confusing to me
ReplyDeleteI think confusing is an understatement.
Deletewhen I read the guild lines for this assignment I found them very confusing. In the past assignments they were more clear to me than this one.
ReplyDeleteThe guidelines provide good questions for me to think about when writing, but I find it hard to write only "a little" when there are so many things to think about. I feel the same way Samantha feels about following guidelines; they help me structure my answers better. But I think the guidelines should be thought of more as suggestions than as the rubric for assignment, since we're supposed to be writing "freely."
ReplyDelete