Displacement Activity

I'm avoiding grading more first versions of final papers for 102. So far, they're pretty awful. I know this is typical; it takes students a while to get away from unsupported social commentary and into actual analysis of the novel--and some students take a hell of a long while to understand the novel well enough to say anything that makes any kind of sense. And that doesn't even include the problem of their understanding the critical essays they've found. (Based on ideas in a critical essay, one student apparently thinks a pronoun is either an idea or a kind of person....) I've made things a trifle easier for myself by typing up comments. I had to write the comments for he first paper I marked from scratch; the rest will be made up of raided/adjusted sentences. That way I don't have to keep rewriting "You need to focus on the novel, not on unsupported social commentary." In the past, I'd wear out my hand and my red pen, writing that by hand on just about every paper. This time, I can pretty much cut, paste, print.

But even though I know this is typical, it's still painful. The despair has hit: I feel like I've been talking into a black hole for eleven weeks. Blech.

And I've gotten to the point where I feel very much like Bartleby: I prefer not to.

However, I do need to get them back to the students tomorrow, and there aren't very many of them in total, and they're short, and I don't want to be frantic in the morning. This week and next are looking more frantic than I'd like anyway: I didn't realize until this morning that the two "professional development" events I've selected to attend this year (as contractually required) meet this Friday and next--and both start early in the morning, which I fucking hate: early alarms, god dammit, even though I have no intention of showing up at either one on time. (One starts at 8 a.m., the other at 8:30. I mean, really.)

But my office mates have led me into a much longer (and more enjoyable) displacement activity, and now I really do have to get some work done, so I'll have to blog more/better tomorrow. Well, more. I can't guarantee better.