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Thread ID: 120054	2011-08-23 08:41:00	Is this what university level english classes are like?	Question (15792)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1225337	2011-08-23 08:41:00	I took an english course that was described as teaching you critical analysis and essay writing skills. Weekly activities consist of sitting at a table and talking about "What does author X mean?" after reading terribly bad texts written by authors whom write as if they are ranting on their blog. I cant believe theres an actual university course doing this. Imagine if someone told you he teaches a university course where a bunch of people sit around a table and talk about why their favourite football team lost the match last saturday. It just sounds so ridiculous.	Question (15792)
1225338	2011-08-23 08:47:00	There are alot of uni courses that seem to be about absolutely nothing at all. I'm doing computer science and I am not enjoying ANY of my paper's this time semester. A couple I've done in the past I didn't really study for, because they were basically farting on a page and signing your id to it. Sure it's nice to do some analysis but when you're pulling at straws that small, you're probably missing what the author implied in the first place.	8ftmetalhaed (14526)
1225339	2011-08-23 09:18:00	The most ironic thing is that one of the texts we read for this week has a teacher fool his students into thinking a text has deeper meaning when it was just some names he wrote on the board. The students proceeded to start bullshitting about all kinds of interpretations. In the end the correct interpretation was "I wrote some names on the board to troll you. The end." Sounds a lot like the course itself.	Question (15792)
1225340	2011-08-23 09:41:00	The most ironic thing is that one of the texts we read for this week has a teacher fool his students into thinking a text has deeper meaning when it was just some names he wrote on the board. The students proceeded to start bullshitting about all kinds of interpretations. In the end the correct interpretation was "I wrote some names on the board to troll you. The end." Sounds a lot like the course itself. Sounds like English classes in general :lol:	pcuser42 (130)
1225341	2011-08-23 09:59:00	And our taxes support this sort of toss.	Paul.Cov (425)
1225342	2011-08-23 10:45:00	I took an english course that was described as teaching you critical analysis and essay writing skills. Weekly activities consist of sitting at a table and talking about "What does author X mean?" after reading terribly bad texts written by authors whom write as if they are ranting on their blog. I cant believe theres an actual university course doing this. Imagine if someone told you he teaches a university course where a bunch of people sit around a table and talk about why their favourite football team lost the match last saturday. It just sounds so ridiculous. I'm confused by your post. Are you describing an English course that you took at university?	martynz (5445)
1225343	2011-08-23 11:12:00	Yes. The first sentence is saying that the course was described as "teaching critical analysis and essay writing skills".	Question (15792)
1225344	2011-08-23 11:42:00	Yes. The first sentence is saying that the course was described as "teaching critical analysis and essay writing skills". I'm not sure about the relevance of the football discussion, as there was no reference to it in your prior comments. Were you trying to tell us that the discussion on the authors' intentions diverted off onto the weekly football results? If so, there is a severe lack of self-discipline and focus among your fellow students. If you have an open mind you can learn as much from bad writing as you can from good, From the bad, you learn what and how not to write, from the good you learn how you should write, and from experience and discussion you learn to differentiate betweeen the two. Then, and only then, if you have talent and/or ability, you can develop your own individual style. Sound like you haven't learned much yet. Interesting use of 'whom' as well. I learned much more about science from a teacher who was mad as a hatter (or pretended to be) and made it fun, than I did from previous teachers who were terribly precise and boring. We all wanted to learn because he led from the front and made it all extraordinarily quirky and interesting. From him I learned how to make delayed action ignition sources for my home made fireworks. He didn't actually teach that, but I absorbed the essentials and worked out the rest for myself. Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
1225345	2011-08-23 12:00:00	University English is no longer what it was. To quote a former colleague Professor Terry Sturm, we get students hoping to enroll for Stage 1 English who can't write a sentence without a grammatical error, let alone having read one significant work of English Literature. Simply, the study of English as it used to be, and still should be is no longer taught in most NZ secondary schools. Mastery of one's mother tongue should be the mark of an educated person, irrespective of what direction their higher education takes. Far too many young people are not exposed, let alone come to appreciate the rich heritage that is English Literature. Elementary spelling and grammatical errors should be marked down in all university exam papers, because a University Degree should give the recipient the accolade of being an educated person.	KenESmith (6287)
1225346	2011-08-23 12:52:00	I took an english course that was described as teaching you critical analysis and essay writing skills. Weekly activities consist of sitting at a table and talking about "What does author X mean?" after reading terribly bad texts written by authors whom write as if they are ranting on their blog. I cant believe theres an actual university course doing this. Imagine if someone told you he teaches a university course where a bunch of people sit around a table and talk about why their favourite football team lost the match last saturday. It just sounds so ridiculous. By the many grammatical errors in your post, it seems like you need some basic English skills before you embark on a course like this. Personally I would stay away from doing English courses and stick with Sociology or similar.	LiquidSolidity (1589)
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