the joys of grading papers

the previous post will seem on the surface to negate this post. just keep in mind that while both posts are true, life is complicated and full of apparent contradictions. it's all part of the ineffable plan. really.

the first lesson any student ought to learn [perhaps it should be an entry-level course for all college students, regardless of major] is this: your teacher is not stupid.

neither is your teacher a dunder-head, an idiot, a computer-illiterate moron, or any other description that would cause that teacher to be unaware of the difference between 1 inch margins all around and 1.5 inch margins all around.

this difference is, in fact, especially telling when the paper *still* just scrapes by the minimum length.

just.... wow. and if it weren't enough by itself, these papers are turned in electronically, so if i were in doubt as to the margins, i could just look in page setup.

sadly, i will need to stop grading for a while after this one. my trend has been generally downward today, and this is a sign that A) i need to take a break, or B) my random selection of student papers has somehow managed to include consecutively worse papers, no matter how many times i've shuffled.

sigh.