falling into both spectrums....

meesh

alright, so diving into the last week of school, i'm getting all these final essays back.
Today, i was struck hard bright and early in morning with a C-/C on my history essay (OUCH!)...

but then i got my english one and I got an A-

and then to top it off, an A+ for my Communications final essay...

so i'm a little lost. i guess maybe i'm just not used to writing in a historical fashion? maybe i'm missing a significant factor into how to PRESENT my ideas? what is the style for writing history essays anyway?

well i guess i learned something today--i'm not majoring in history.

or maybe i just really really really sucked it up on my history essay.
anyway, i'm a little beat up about that.
cheers to you all, hope all of you are curled up with nice cup of coffee/tea in hand, in lieu of stressing out about finals! the semester is almost over!!

kt_uvic

OH gawd I can't wait for the semester to be over. This 4 day weekend thanks to the snow made me so lazy. About your essay, meesh, I'm in my second year now and in first year I used to ace all my english essays. Therefore, I assumed I was some sort of essay goddess but in second year reality hit...classes like psychology, history, and science have very very different styles of writing. So whereas you did excellent in English, it may be because you are more accustomed to that way of writing. If you really like history, try to find out what type of writing style they look for...the best way to do this is to talk to your prof and DEFINITELY by reading other history essays.

P.S. Congrats on those A's!

Malakaiii

I wouldn't write off an entire field just because you didn't do as well as expected on your essay! Like the previous post says, they often expect very different things from you on history essays than from English essays.

My best suggestion would be to tune into exactly what the prof wants on the essay and make sure that is what you are doing. The fastest way to lose marks is by missing that good advice! Basically profs just want to have you follow their directions exactly.

Check and see what you lost marks for on the essay (if it's not a detailed mark, then go see the prof or TA and ask them what happened). And then learn from your mistakes!

And wow... congrats on those A's! They are not always easy to come by. :)

imelting

its best to just go straight to the TA (if thats the person who marked it) and just go over on why u lost points

some profs instruct their ta's to look for certain things/elements to be written and even though u might have 'written' it well, u might have lost pts for missing some certain event or concept that was vital for that specific paper

meesh

thanks guys! i'll take all of your advice.

i guess it's better to find out about these kinds of things in first year, rather than later =)

time to make an appointment with the TA :)

TiNgLu_SiNgH

Don't you love TalkSFU meesh? ;)

thanks for the advice earlier

meesh

TiNgLu_SiNgH said:

Don't you love TalkSFU meesh? ;)

thanks for the advice earlier

yeah i do!!

and no sweat!! good luck!