For the first time in an English class I’m just having trouble caring about the work. It started at the beginning of the semester, when my original class got too big it was split up into two different classes, and I moved to the other class. I really enjoyed that class, and tried to stay in it, but for some reason they wouldn’t let me (by the way this is a college class). So now, I’m in a college english class that I don’t care about, and trying to write a essay that I don’t care about.
So, my question is, what would, or have you done in this situation?
Most of the time I create horribly and mind-numbingly disgusting work in my opinion. I plather about spewing crap that I know other people will hardly find interesting and somehow it all works out.
It’s like answering boredom with spite makes it all happen. I don’t know why this works, but it seems to for me.
You’re lucky to have cared about it thus far. Just don’t change courses hoping you will care more about the next one (like I have done and regretted previously!)
I disagree: change courses and fully hope and expect to like the next one more. You’ll be let down but you’ll learn so much more in the process. Will mentions ‘regret’ but he knows full well that he wouldn’t be the wise chap that he is without having made such mistakes in the past…
Most of my problem was that I was in a class that I loved, I was moved to the new one, and it’s one that I don’t like. So, to me it was like giving me the class I wanted, then ripping me away from it for a class that I don’t like, or care about.
Is this a problem with the material, itself? As in you no longer care about English Literature? Is it a problem with the class? As in you don’t care about Old English Literature? Is it a problem with the essay? As in you don’t care to discuss the Biblical allusions found in the Faerie Queen?
If it’s the first option, don’t major in English. Find something else that interests you. If it’s the second, slog through it and specialize in something else. If it’s the third, squeeze out a POS essay, and forget about it.
There is no reason why you shouldn’t be interested in every class you take. If you are, examine yourself and make sure you are in the right field.
Ok, my problem is this exact class, not english itself. To give you example, we had a quiz on run on sentences, and fragments, the stuff I did before high school. In the first one, we actually wrote everyday, and discussed the reading assignments. The one I’m in now we just go over how to write essays, all the stuff I’ve done before. Also, I really like the teacher in the first class, she was just really cool. She has a lot of passion for English, while my current teacher teaches more of the tecnical part of writing.
Read ILP posts. Read any post on the internet – we need technical english to be stressed, as a culture. I’ll agree, it is terrible. It’s a nasty lesson to learn but oh-so-vital. This definately falls under the umbrella of slog through it. Unpleasant? Very much so. But oh, oh is it ever needed in the modern world.
A friend of mine was going to major in business when she entered college. However, her father, a businessman (I forget the rank and title) recommended that she become an English major. Why? Because in the modern world of e-mail memos get forwarded on and on up the chain of command. If you cannot write, people will take notice and you will not be promoted. It’s all in the details.
I don’t really have a problem with writing, it’s just this assignment, the teacher is more of the tec side of writing, and I don’t need it. My problem is that before I cared about my English assignments, but this one, I don’t care. The reason I ask this question is because it’s new to me, and I’ve been having a difficult time dealing with it.
I love philosophy but I like doing it at my own pace, the institutionalized version, in my opinion, sucks. Like I said, you trying to do essays on existentialism and stuff like that just seems paradoxical. The classroom atmosphere is a positive, I’m not disputing that… I guess what I’m trying to say is that it just gets worse. You have to constantly parade your intelligence to represent the most bullshit things you don’t care about.
But, such is life. The tradeoff for living like we do is that we must give it back to the system, we must assimilate no matter how hard we try.
Man… I know what you mean. I’ve lost points for not turning in a rough draft or not doing a prewriting. I hate it when they baby you and follow your every little step.
Good description I must say. As you know, I gave up academic philosophy some time ago because I just couldn’t stand the rigidity of my tutors’ thought patterns.
You can always improve your written English. I’ve spent literally years working purely on writing technique because I care about being understood. If you don’t care about the essay itself then treat it as practise for when you’re doing something that does interest you.
What is the essay actually on? (i.e. what text, what question)
Self motivation is vital, you’ll have to develop the ability to force yourself to do things that seem pointless and menial at some point in your life, I spent my last 2 years of English Literature reading crap like The Handmaid’s Tale and UA Fanthorpe (awful, awful poetry).
Oh, and the assignment, is narrative essay, about a remembered person, but I’m find out that it’s not the assignment itself that I’ve been having problems with, it’s just that I don’t care for the class, so I just don’t care if I hand it in. But, I’ve gotten through it, and I’m handing it in today.
The evilest thing I ever had to do for school was read/write an essay on The Last of The Mohicans (8th grade). It was a crappy book and an uncreative story. There was an eighty word sentence on the third page, so it’s not even a good technical example. It was so bad, that Sam Clemens wrote an article on how its author, James Fenimoore Cooper, sucked. That was comforting to read afterward.
I remember a similar experience pxc. In 9th I had to write a 3 page essay about the Scarlet Letter.
Problem one: I hated this book. Made it about 100 pages before I croaked and couldn’t go a step further.
Problem two: The essay required quotes linking proposed ideas of text relevancy to actual discussions in the book.
Problem three: I hate doing essays with strict requirements on rough drafts, notecards, and paper lengths with very narrow minimum to maximum window.
Needless to say, it was total crap in my eyes. I skimmed the book looking for relevant sections of “story” to pull meager, stretched quotes from to link to my propositions, that I had mostly made up using knwledge of story and my own ideas, rather than actual linked reading to thought provoked by reading. I finished it the night before, in about 4 hours, and turned it in the next day. I got a B. I was shocked. I had figured C- at best. I had hated every moment. But, either teachers appreciate work done despite hatred or just don’t notice the difference. Depends on the teacher is my guess.
I’m currently writing an essay on the Freudian slips in early to mid 20th century literary criticism that reveal their latent agendas and deconstruct the aestheticist/instrumentalist opposition. I write some very cool essays.
It was interesting, I got this essay back after turning it in on Monday, and I got a B on it, even though I thought I deserved less. Apparently, I got a B only because of so many grammer mistakes, otherwise I would have gotten an A. I probably shouldn’t have written it at like two in the morning and not prof read it very well.
Just don’t change courses hoping you will care more about the next one (like I have done and regretted previously!)