Friday, April 22, 2011

Stating the Obvious

It is very difficult to get students to stop peppering their essays with all kinds of trivial observations. No matter how many times I ask them to stop stating the obvious, I still get essays that start with "In this course, we have read many different works of literature." Since I taught the course, it is self-evident that I'm very aware of this Earth-shattering piece of news.

"Cervantes is a writer from Spain" is an equally obnoxious piece of wisdom that students try to share with me on a regular basis. Really? No shit. And here I was, thinking he is a German painter. Thanks a lot for clearing that up.

Another annoying kind of statement (and the one that students absolutely love to regale me with) is "Don Quijote and "Vino, primero, pura" have many differences." Given that one is a novel from the XVIIth century and another one a poem from the XXth, I'd say it's a safe bet they have differences.

There are also platitudes that make me cringe because of their sheer inanity. "Everybody wants to be happy" and "People often make mistakes" are good examples of such vapid generalizations. I asked the students specifically to go over the essay and delete all sentences that mention everybody, people, and humanity at large.

And then there are offensive commonplaces of the "Spanish culture is very romantic" variety which make me question if students have heard anything I've been saying in class.

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of my favorites is "The sixteenth century was a time of change." (I'm a history teacher.)

Pagan Topologist said...

I don't really mind if students appear to be consciously writing for a wider audience than just me. That is what some of these sound like. If the essay begins with who Cervantes was, for example, it might be interesting to the student's friends who had never heard of him.

Spanish prof said...

"The future of Latin American youth is really sinister because of lack of support for educational policies in Latin America" Ahhhh!!!

Clarissa said...

"Argentinean people are kind of weird. First, they have that freaky Sarmiento dude, and then they invent the tango, which they first despise, then love. Just make up your minds already."

At least, this guy always made me laugh.

Spanish prof said...

What's so freaky about Sarmiento? I mean, if you consider him in the context of XIXth century intellectual history.

Clarissa said...

Who knows? The students hear whatever it is they want to hear. One of them argued that Borges's "El sur" is about how much Latin Americans dislike the US.

Spanish prof said...

Wow...he/she should forward that argument to Daniel Balderston. He might be interested in it.

Clarissa said...

I'm not a Latin Americanist, so I confess that my readings are often quite basic.