When college instructors are wrong

[Ravin]

DH submitted his first essay for his CIS class today (he just started college last week, yay!). He got it back and was marked off for grammar/spelling. According to his instructor, "cannot" is improper English.

 

Oy, poor DH. I told him to send her an email with a dictionary citation. He's ready to file a complaint about her. It's bad enough that she's requiring 5-paragraph essays for what should be 1-paragraph short answer questions, but she's grading like it's a composition class, not a computer class. He's fretting over citation, too, because she said to do it one way, then gave examples that didn't follow the specified model.

 

When I was in college, I would call professors out in front of the class when I caught them in errors. But this is an internet class, so he can't even have that pleasure.

[Jane in NC]

Humbly...since I am not an English major.

 

I have heard that "cannot" is improper English because the general rule is that auxiliary verbs are written as two words when composed with not. (You do not write "couldnot" for example.) One of my friends, an English major, told me that she once corrected one of her children's CC English instructors who eliminated the space in "can not". Frankly, I cannot (nor can not) understand the fuss, but some English majors get their knickers in a twist over this one. A single dictionary citation will not be an argument against this since dictionaries often reflect common usage. Academics may not be convinced that common usage equates proper usage.

 

"Calling out" also sounds a bit severe. Why not a friendly conversation in the office?

[Ravin]

Ironically, DH is the one who's an English major (albeit a freshman). This is a CIS class. (Computer Information Systems).

 

I, of course, come at things from an anthropological perspective: common usage in Standard Written English = proper usage, or the closest thing English has to it. Mostly, I think the CIS instructor is making an unneccesary amount of work for herself and her students.

[cathmom]

When I was in college, I would call professors out in front of the class when I caught them in errors. But this is an internet class, so he can't even have that pleasure.

 

did your professors enjoy this LOL? and how were your subsequent grades? :lol:

 

Personally, I'd let it go. Professors vary in how good they are. Get through the class, never take something with that instructor again.

[Ravin]

did your professors enjoy this LOL? and how were your subsequent grades? :lol:

 

Personally, I'd let it go. Professors vary in how good they are. Get through the class, never take something with that instructor again.

 

If done politely, they generally didn't mind. And I had A's in nearly every class, including Environmental Impact on Ancient Environments, a class taught by a palynologist who was out of her depth any time we were discussing anything besides pollen analysis. How that woman got a PhD is beyond me, except it must have been from somewhere that let her specialize early and thoroughly. Or she just brain dumped anything not directly related to her specialization. Too bad she then was expected to teach beyond those boundaries!

 

But I digress. DH certainly won't have to take another class with this instructor; he's only doing the one semester at the CC before starting at the Uni in the fall, and it's his only CIS class; he's taking it for general requirements.