danieleWrites

So, everything is done. All work completed and turned in, all student papers graded, grades calculated, and grades reported to the university as required. Office is cleaned out as requested. Library books returned.

I am still 100% absolutely certain that I forgot to write a 30 page paper that was due sometime last week and now I'm going to fail, and I'm going to get the disappointed face from my favorite profs, and my adviser is going to call me into his office and tell me that he had such high hopes for me, but he's gonna have to recommend that I see Starbucks for that barista job, even though I can't really see over the counter that well. I had the most horrific nightmare that I'd forgotten to give my students the final exam and they had to call me to find out why my students were asking where I was. And since the grades were already turned in.... Argh!

I hate detoxing from the semester; I feel like a walking, talking anxiety disorder.

My plan is to hide under a blanket near the air-conditioner and read bad fanfiction until I don't feel guilty about reading fanfiction instead of textbooks or journal articles.

In composition courses? It's not about teaching the student how to do something the right way. It's about teaching the student how to consider their own draft and fix it. By the time they get to college, any grammar problems they have can't be fixed in a composition course, or other writing course. They have to learn to essayist literacy the same way they learned to speak. It takes years of daily practice, not a few essays. A composition course is about teaching process, rhetoric, textual analysis, self-analysis, genre, and working with secondary sources. It's about teaching a student to figure out the grammar on their own.

NEVER EVER EVER assess a grade on a rough draft. The student isn't asking for helpful feedback; the student is asking how much effort they need to put into the essay to make the teacher happy. The student is asking for "correct answer." In writing, there is not such thing as the correct answer; the correct answer is the one that best fits the rhetorical situation (writer's purpose, reader's expectations, genre, medium). In comp, genre isn't like sci-fi or rom-com. It's essay, lab report, memo, research paper, and so on. Juliet, I think, has it right. Instead of giving the grade, ask them what grade they think they should have and why. They will fight because they don't want to figure it out themselves. It does them a horrific disservice to hand them these answers because they don't learn from it. They just make a paper that makes the comp teacher happy, then go on to other courses and write junk. Only 35% of businesses survey in 2006 thought college graduates were prepared to write in the workplace.

It is waaaaay too much to ask for a composition teacher to explain how every part of an essay should be put together. The comp teacher's job is not to teach the student how to turn the professor into a crutch, but to teach the student how to use logic and rhetorical principles to communicate, and to figure out the writing process that works best for the student. It is also way too much to ask for the comp teacher to give individual grammar lessons. First, because correct grammar isn't always the right answer (not even most of the time), and second, because the student's future feedback will be in the "I don't get it" or "this doesn't make sense" variety, not in the clear specifics that comp teachers will use. Instead, students should be referred to the writing center (if there is one) because they won't have a comp teacher for every essay they write. It's about teaching the man to fish, not giving him the fish.

In case your wondering, commenting on a rough draft of approximately 4 pages takes about 20 to 30 minutes. Of those comments, students will ignore 2/3. Students will ignore the textbook assigned (which explains in detail that a 14 year old can understand---I tested it) because it's easier to ask the teacher what they teacher wants to see than to figure it out themselves.

I give my students with snarly sentences this essay: http://wac.colostate.edu/jbw/v1n1/krishna.pdf
As far as fixing grammar, Joseph Williams "The Phenomenology of Error" explains it far better than I can.

Here's the thing about writing. It's all rhetorical. The "best" essay isn't the correct essay, but the essay that feels correct. The "best" grammar isn't the correct grammar, but the grammar that feels correct. We have words like irregardless in our vocabulary. Language is messy and gets messier.

Writing courses are not about teaching the "correct" way to write. They're about teaching students to think about the best way to present their ideas in writing and, since the best way to do that in the university is through essayist literacy, it's about assigning essayist literacy homework. There's the idea that this is "correct," but it's not.

I'm going to go rant at a tree now.

I took my last final last Wednesday, and all my final grades were in by Sunday, and it still doesn't show that I graduated on my transcript. I'm waiting to send my final transcripts to my grad program, and I'd like to maybe get a new job now that I have a degree. How long does this crap take?

A friend of mine started a startup at the same time as working on his PhD. He also participated in several big entrepreneurial competitions at our school (which is one of the schools mentioned in the OP), got some excellent mentorship, and did quite well. That was 3 years ago. Last week, he sold his company to, lets say, a company we've all heard of, for a nice sum of money. I haven't spoken to him in person since it's been announced but judging from his facebook posts, he seems quite happy with how things have turned out. That said, I can tell you that his advisors were always very unhappy with the amount of time he was spending on extracurricular activities and were worried about the implications for his research. And they probably had a point -- instead of graduating 2-3 years ago, his PhD is has been on hold for a while. I don't know if/when he will graduate. On the other hand, I'm not entirely sure if he still wants to, since he has other things happening. 

I have an excellent advisor.

-He makes time to meet with me, and encourages a regular schedule of meeting.  We meet formally every two weeks but also communicate via email.

-He's flexible - we've met over Skype when I was away at conferences or visiting family, or when he had to be away.

-He's managed to balance allowing my independence while giving good guidance, and at different parts of my career.  He guided me much more in the beginning, but now that I am finishing up I do much more of the guiding of our relationship and he functions more like a support system.

-When I got burned out and discussed leaving the program, he remained calm and tried his best to help me deal psychologically.  He was a big factor in actually getting me to stay.

-He gives me really good feedback on my papers and drafts...although not always...prompt.  (However, I have adjusted for this and just try to leave some flexibility/extra time for him to look at my stuff.  Honestly, every advisor has flaws, and this is a tiny one in the large scheme of things.)

-He looks out for my career; he recommends experiences and postdocs and programs; he introduces me to people.  On the flip side, he allows me a lot of independence, and I have largely been able to choose what I want to work on, how much, and how intensely.

-He's just a genuinely nice person.  He encourages me to take time off, asks about my husband, and we chat for a little while about our personal frustrations.  He's had the lab over to his apartment for a party and comes out for drinks and dinner every now and then.  He even brought ice cream bars to lab meeting for my birthday once

Before I chose him to be my advisor we had a conversation that I used to gauge our working styles.  Part of what a good advisor is is consistent from student to student.  You need someone who will give you good feedback - both positive and critical when necessary.  You need someone who will read your drafts in more or less a timely manner.  You need someone who uses positive reinforcement more than any other technique of teaching.  Someone who knows how to strike a good balance between independence and guidance, and someone who is genuinely interested in your career and helping you become better.  You don't want someone who just needs an RA to be a grunt worker, who doesn't seem interested in you or your career, or who's going to micromanage your every move.  You don't need anyone who's never going to look at your work.  But you also don't want anyone who's always going be positive and never criticize you or push you to get better.  You need someone to tell you the hard stuff.

But some things are very personal.  I am highly independent; I like to manage my own time, and I don't want anyone else wanting me to account for hours or anything like that.  I think I would resent working for a professor who wanted that.  However, some people like being a little more managed.  I also don't want anyone telling me what projects to pick up; I can select my own projects, and mostly need someone to bounce ideas off or help me shape them a bit.  But some people prefer that their professors guide them to projects (at least in the beginning) or assign them something to work on.

You can find these things out - some of them - in a conversation.  I went to lunch with my advisor when I was admitted and we basically talked about working styles and his expectations and all that stuff, and it seemed that we were quite compatible both research-interest-wise and personality-wise.
 
*
 
I agree, though that there's nothing inherently terrible about telling someone they are not well-suited for graduate school.  Some people simply are not, and a GOOD advisor tells you when you aren't well-suited for a pursuit rather than let you do it and flounder/flail.  And although an advisor should be overall supportive, I also agree with the above that they are not supposed to be unconditionally supportive.  If you do bad work, or they think that you are going into a research area that will not get you a job, a GOOD mentor will tell you that so you can fix the problem.
 
You may want to check out this book: Getting Mentored in Graduate School.  It's geared towards helping grad students select good advisors/mentors.

Not to jump to conclusions because I clearly wasn't privy to the experiences you've had with your current advisor, but the one example you give ("such as the fact that I am not suited to go to grad school") is not necessarily the mark of a bad advisor. Some people aren't suited for grad school and it's a good advisor who is honest with his/her advisees about their chances. It's not necessarily a slight either; grad school is a hard slog with bad job prospects at the end of it.
 
All I mean is that it might be worth a bit of introspection or seeking a second opinion where you ask somebody to honestly evaluate your credentials and prospects.
 
Another thing I'm sensing is the search for an advisor who "truly cares" and "truly supports" you. A good advisor is someone with whom you can have a mutually beneficial and productive relationship, not someone who will just support you. There's an element of that, of course, but it's a two-way street.  
 
More so, a pre-graduate-school RA job isn't necessarily one where you should expect your research interests to be supported. Your advisor might be thinking that he/she hired you to help do research. A good boss here will give you a good reference letter, not necessarily encourage whatever (possibly) idiosyncratic research interests you might have.
 
So, suggestion #2 is that it might not hurt to re-evaluate your expectations of what to get from an RA job or from an advisor.

In composition courses? It's not about teaching the student how to do something the right way. It's about teaching the student how to consider their own draft and fix it. By the time they get to college, any grammar problems they have can't be fixed in a composition course, or other writing course. They have to learn to essayist literacy the same way they learned to speak. It takes years of daily practice, not a few essays. A composition course is about teaching process, rhetoric, textual analysis, self-analysis, genre, and working with secondary sources. It's about teaching a student to figure out the grammar on their own.

NEVER EVER EVER assess a grade on a rough draft. The student isn't asking for helpful feedback; the student is asking how much effort they need to put into the essay to make the teacher happy. The student is asking for "correct answer." In writing, there is not such thing as the correct answer; the correct answer is the one that best fits the rhetorical situation (writer's purpose, reader's expectations, genre, medium). In comp, genre isn't like sci-fi or rom-com. It's essay, lab report, memo, research paper, and so on. Juliet, I think, has it right. Instead of giving the grade, ask them what grade they think they should have and why. They will fight because they don't want to figure it out themselves. It does them a horrific disservice to hand them these answers because they don't learn from it. They just make a paper that makes the comp teacher happy, then go on to other courses and write junk. Only 35% of businesses survey in 2006 thought college graduates were prepared to write in the workplace.

It is waaaaay too much to ask for a composition teacher to explain how every part of an essay should be put together. The comp teacher's job is not to teach the student how to turn the professor into a crutch, but to teach the student how to use logic and rhetorical principles to communicate, and to figure out the writing process that works best for the student. It is also way too much to ask for the comp teacher to give individual grammar lessons. First, because correct grammar isn't always the right answer (not even most of the time), and second, because the student's future feedback will be in the "I don't get it" or "this doesn't make sense" variety, not in the clear specifics that comp teachers will use. Instead, students should be referred to the writing center (if there is one) because they won't have a comp teacher for every essay they write. It's about teaching the man to fish, not giving him the fish.

In case your wondering, commenting on a rough draft of approximately 4 pages takes about 20 to 30 minutes. Of those comments, students will ignore 2/3. Students will ignore the textbook assigned (which explains in detail that a 14 year old can understand---I tested it) because it's easier to ask the teacher what they teacher wants to see than to figure it out themselves.

I give my students with snarly sentences this essay: http://wac.colostate.edu/jbw/v1n1/krishna.pdf
As far as fixing grammar, Joseph Williams "The Phenomenology of Error" explains it far better than I can.

Here's the thing about writing. It's all rhetorical. The "best" essay isn't the correct essay, but the essay that feels correct. The "best" grammar isn't the correct grammar, but the grammar that feels correct. We have words like irregardless in our vocabulary. Language is messy and gets messier.

Writing courses are not about teaching the "correct" way to write. They're about teaching students to think about the best way to present their ideas in writing and, since the best way to do that in the university is through essayist literacy, it's about assigning essayist literacy homework. There's the idea that this is "correct," but it's not.

I'm going to go rant at a tree now.

In composition courses? It's not about teaching the student how to do something the right way. It's about teaching the student how to consider their own draft and fix it. By the time they get to college, any grammar problems they have can't be fixed in a composition course, or other writing course. They have to learn to essayist literacy the same way they learned to speak. It takes years of daily practice, not a few essays. A composition course is about teaching process, rhetoric, textual analysis, self-analysis, genre, and working with secondary sources. It's about teaching a student to figure out the grammar on their own.

NEVER EVER EVER assess a grade on a rough draft. The student isn't asking for helpful feedback; the student is asking how much effort they need to put into the essay to make the teacher happy. The student is asking for "correct answer." In writing, there is not such thing as the correct answer; the correct answer is the one that best fits the rhetorical situation (writer's purpose, reader's expectations, genre, medium). In comp, genre isn't like sci-fi or rom-com. It's essay, lab report, memo, research paper, and so on. Juliet, I think, has it right. Instead of giving the grade, ask them what grade they think they should have and why. They will fight because they don't want to figure it out themselves. It does them a horrific disservice to hand them these answers because they don't learn from it. They just make a paper that makes the comp teacher happy, then go on to other courses and write junk. Only 35% of businesses survey in 2006 thought college graduates were prepared to write in the workplace.

It is waaaaay too much to ask for a composition teacher to explain how every part of an essay should be put together. The comp teacher's job is not to teach the student how to turn the professor into a crutch, but to teach the student how to use logic and rhetorical principles to communicate, and to figure out the writing process that works best for the student. It is also way too much to ask for the comp teacher to give individual grammar lessons. First, because correct grammar isn't always the right answer (not even most of the time), and second, because the student's future feedback will be in the "I don't get it" or "this doesn't make sense" variety, not in the clear specifics that comp teachers will use. Instead, students should be referred to the writing center (if there is one) because they won't have a comp teacher for every essay they write. It's about teaching the man to fish, not giving him the fish.

In case your wondering, commenting on a rough draft of approximately 4 pages takes about 20 to 30 minutes. Of those comments, students will ignore 2/3. Students will ignore the textbook assigned (which explains in detail that a 14 year old can understand---I tested it) because it's easier to ask the teacher what they teacher wants to see than to figure it out themselves.

I give my students with snarly sentences this essay: http://wac.colostate.edu/jbw/v1n1/krishna.pdf
As far as fixing grammar, Joseph Williams "The Phenomenology of Error" explains it far better than I can.

Here's the thing about writing. It's all rhetorical. The "best" essay isn't the correct essay, but the essay that feels correct. The "best" grammar isn't the correct grammar, but the grammar that feels correct. We have words like irregardless in our vocabulary. Language is messy and gets messier.

Writing courses are not about teaching the "correct" way to write. They're about teaching students to think about the best way to present their ideas in writing and, since the best way to do that in the university is through essayist literacy, it's about assigning essayist literacy homework. There's the idea that this is "correct," but it's not.

I'm going to go rant at a tree now.

Handling argumentative students over grading is actually very simple, for the most part. Instead of defending your grading, teach them how to advocate for themselves. The first step is to reassure yourself that you're human and you make mistakes and, more importantly, if you change a grade after careful consideration and acknowledging your error in a mature fashion that you can support with your course, you will get more respect from the students in general.

To teach them how to advocate for their grade (because profs do make mistakes, or they grade when grumpy, or something), don't answer their question(s), ask them a question. For example, why did Joe get 20 points on this and I only got 19? Stop and look at it thoughtfully for a period of time. In composition, I spend about 1 minute of time considering a paragraph, no less than 30 seconds considering a sentence. In other fields, an appropriate amount of time. This has two purposes. One, it gives them the impression that you are taking their concerns seriously and they appreciate that. Two, it allows you to stop and really think about why you did what you did and how that relates to the assessment criteria you applied--not why they got the points the got, but how their work relates to the grading rubric/assessment criteria. The next step is to shift their work so you can both examine it, but mostly so they have a stronger view of it. Then ask them what grade they should have gotten and why. If you have a copy of your assessment criteria that they can view, get it out. Lead them into making a persuasive case for their grade. If they have a different grade for the exact same work, obviously you've got to fix your mistake. However, most grading isn't like a set of basic addition problems in base ten, where it's either a mis-mark or it's not. A lot of grading is subjective because no two answers will be the same. Even multiple guess problems aren't pick the correct answer, but pick the best answer. Teach them how to present an argument with supporting evidence. It should never be a case of Joe got a 20 and I got a 19, my answer isn't that different, it's not fair, you should give me a 20, too. It should always be: I think I should have gotten this particular grade/this particular problem right because of X, Y, and X (all taken from lecture notes, the text, other credible sources, and/or your assessment criteria.)

Usually the first time you do this to them, they're completely unprepared. Smile. Tell the student that you'd like to give them the opportunity to prepare a bit with the text/lecture notes/whatever, so you'll see them in the next few days (name a day and time that would be convenient) to discuss the grade further. By giving them a specific appointment time, you focus their attention on when it would be good for them to come see you rather than on trying to argue fair instead of arguing the material.

The key here isn't that you stop them from arguing with you, it's that you stop them from arguing stupid. You can't defend against a student's conception of fair because they've already made up their mind what the fair grade should be based on, usually, personal feelings. Instead, you teach them to argue with you based on course material, which you can defend because it's not about feelings, it's about the course material.

I hand my rubric out at the beginning of the course, along with a four paragraph essay my then 14 year old kid wrote, and I teach them how I (and most people in composition) grade essays. I explain why I don't really care if they end sentences with a preposition, but their next professor might react any one of the more disgusting scenes from the Exorcist for the same offense. Then I tell them that if they believe the grade they get isn't what they earn, then they should come to my office hours with the rubric and their paper and make a case for the grade they should have. Of course, the first day of class, right after I pass out the syllabus, I sit on a table (if possible) and ask them how they know I'm qualified to teach the course.

There are some students that this does not work for. They argue because they don't believe you have the right to "give" them any grade other than what they think they "earned." Be firm, but pleasant (as possible). This is the grade this work earned; see chapter two in the textbook. If they don't drop it, refer them to your supervisor. ALWAYS maintain a log. Date, time, potential witnesses, and the gist of what of you said without editorializing.

The key words I'm reading here are "independent study course". I have no real idea what that means, but it's not a master's thesis. It's a course project. Even PhD students don't get hours upon hours of professor time to "work with them" on a course project. If you're having difficulties with this project for a single course, you should take part of the project or a similar project for the independent study course and reserve your current research goals for your thesis.

So, no, it has nothing to do with your MA status. It has everything to do with the fact that you want more effort than your project has value (in terms of the overall scheme of a program). Every semester, I write two or three papers (sometimes four) that have the potential to be published in a journal or presented at a conference in some fashion, providing I can kick out some quality work. With that kind of professional pressure on me, I would want to spend an hour or so a week with relevant professors trying to get my best work, but that's not going to happen. Not to me, not to anyone. I can get help, but the help will be of the set me on the right track and offer a suggestion or two here and there variety, not the kind of guidance that I would have for my dissertation (or had for my master's thesis).

Your first step should be to put away the sense of discrimination. Your second step would be to visit your professor during office hours to find out if he thought you were collaborating with him, or if you were doing an independent project with his oversight. You seem to think that you're working with your professor and he seems to think that you should be working on your own. This clash of understanding is causing your problems, not your status as a master's student. Without really knowing much about the situation, I'm assuming that you want far more from him than someone in an independent study course should want.

While this is an academic board and this is a serious academic problem, it's not a uniquely academic problem. We've come a long way from George Eliot, but not all the way. I've been a victim of race and gender bias in the past, but not with academics. Also of height bias (shorty here). And, oddly enough, sexuality bias. Apparently, aggressive women are all man-hating lesbians. I resent that for all women. OWGs (Old White Guys). Go figure. Being of typical Hispanic shape, I've fielded my share of inappropriate, ah, appreciation. The nice thing about being old (women are "old" after the mid to late 20s) is this quits happening. Then it's ageism. OWGs want "fresh" ideas (code for you're old and we want a hot coed to decorate our Token Woman position).

There's not much women can do directly to deal with OWG harassment and bias, especially those in the sciences and technology areas. I'm in the humanities, where I'm far less likely to get hit with OWGism. I feel for the women in computers of some sort. However, I was in the military. Knowledge is power. Before meeting with anyone who may have the ability to use OWGism in deciding your future, find out the regulations that govern that person and find out the names of the people they are accountable to in terms of OWGism. Know Title IX. The department chair is not the person to speak to about sexual harassment; it's often the provost. Additionally, find out the most likely news outlet to which you would take your story and learn the names of one or two reporters that you could immediately speak with. The high school paper isn't such a good idea, but there are news outlets that these people would fear having their names dragged through. Be prepared to back it up. Lastly, know the names of the Board of Regents, particularly the one most interested in Title IX complaints. Um, yeah, this is a USA perspective, but other places have rules, too.

I also suggest krav maga lessons, or, if that's unavailable, kung fu, (the real) tai chi (not the exercise crap they do at the fitness center), or one of the Japanese soft-styles, like judo. Hard styles are fine, but they teach students to meet force with force. Soft style teach students to meet force by deflecting it. Nothing wrong with hard styles, but soft styles work better for women.

1. Start reading the journals. Read whatever is in your research interests and whatever is related to your research interests.
2. Make lists of people who are publishing things that you find exciting and useful for your research interests. Make the list long and somewhat sorted (really want to work with, want to work with, would be interesting to work with, don't want to work with unless there's no choice). Take notes on these people and what they've written, save these notes.
3. Locate the programs that employ these people as faculty.
4. Look through the programs (website, ASA publishes a book on graduate programs in the US, and so on) to see what they offer in terms of emphases, variety of faculty, funding, and so on. Take notes on these programs, save these notes. Use some form of calendar to track deadlines, costs, etc. so you know when you have to do whatever it is you have to do.
5. Pick the programs that fit you and start reading everything the faculty has published in the past two or so years. Read the dissertations graduate students have published in the the last couple of years. Use this data to weed out programs. Take notes on the faculty, save these notes.
6. Rank the programs in order of interest. Contact the professors you're interested in. Arrange to visit your top picks.
7. Forget the concept of safety school (no such thing exits; you are never, ever going to find a school that has so few applicants that you're practically guaranteed to get into it). Forget rankings. Forget tier.
8. Assess yourself: what research do you plan to pursue? What kinds of theoretical and methodological things do you need to accomplish this? what professors are you most interested in? What do you want to do with your degree? What options, other than academia, can you pursue with your degree ('cuz crosstraining is helpful!)? What are your deal-breakers? Are the locations that you can't live in? Do you need courses in other disciplines?
9. Use the notes you've taken on the programs and what you've read and on yourself to develop your application materials. Create a dossier of yourself for your reference letter writers to refer to. Generate SOPs for each program. Shore up your weaknesses (never got around to reading the symbolic interactionists? weak in statistics? need foreign language proficiency and it's been years since you took Spanish?).

That was my process. It's all about methodology.

While the stigma thing is important to consider, it still comes down to a cost-benefit.

If your problem is interfering with your academics, or you have a strong indication that it will likely interfere with your academics in the future, then you should bring it to the attention of relevant people and only relevant people. If you're having problems and need an incomplete, for example, your professor is more likely to think well of you if they know that you're having problems, are doing something to fix the problem, and have a specific plan in mind when asking for accommodation. Kind of a Hey, Dr. X, I've been having some problems with depression and I'm seeing a counselor about it, but it has interfered with my ability to turn in quality work. I'd like to revise my essay/project/report because I can do better, and will be doing better work in the future.

Otherwise, don't bring it up. It's not about stigma, so much as it's about the answer to one simple question: what do you want them to do with the information? If you don't have anything specific (such as help me find a way to solve the problem or adjust my academic plan), then they don't need to know. If you do have something in mind (other than keeping them informed), then tell them.

However, the best person to ask would be your therapist. S/he may not know the answer, but s/he can help you figure it out.

While the stigma thing is important to consider, it still comes down to a cost-benefit.

If your problem is interfering with your academics, or you have a strong indication that it will likely interfere with your academics in the future, then you should bring it to the attention of relevant people and only relevant people. If you're having problems and need an incomplete, for example, your professor is more likely to think well of you if they know that you're having problems, are doing something to fix the problem, and have a specific plan in mind when asking for accommodation. Kind of a Hey, Dr. X, I've been having some problems with depression and I'm seeing a counselor about it, but it has interfered with my ability to turn in quality work. I'd like to revise my essay/project/report because I can do better, and will be doing better work in the future.

Otherwise, don't bring it up. It's not about stigma, so much as it's about the answer to one simple question: what do you want them to do with the information? If you don't have anything specific (such as help me find a way to solve the problem or adjust my academic plan), then they don't need to know. If you do have something in mind (other than keeping them informed), then tell them.

However, the best person to ask would be your therapist. S/he may not know the answer, but s/he can help you figure it out.

While the stigma thing is important to consider, it still comes down to a cost-benefit.

If your problem is interfering with your academics, or you have a strong indication that it will likely interfere with your academics in the future, then you should bring it to the attention of relevant people and only relevant people. If you're having problems and need an incomplete, for example, your professor is more likely to think well of you if they know that you're having problems, are doing something to fix the problem, and have a specific plan in mind when asking for accommodation. Kind of a Hey, Dr. X, I've been having some problems with depression and I'm seeing a counselor about it, but it has interfered with my ability to turn in quality work. I'd like to revise my essay/project/report because I can do better, and will be doing better work in the future.

Otherwise, don't bring it up. It's not about stigma, so much as it's about the answer to one simple question: what do you want them to do with the information? If you don't have anything specific (such as help me find a way to solve the problem or adjust my academic plan), then they don't need to know. If you do have something in mind (other than keeping them informed), then tell them.

However, the best person to ask would be your therapist. S/he may not know the answer, but s/he can help you figure it out.

While the stigma thing is important to consider, it still comes down to a cost-benefit.

If your problem is interfering with your academics, or you have a strong indication that it will likely interfere with your academics in the future, then you should bring it to the attention of relevant people and only relevant people. If you're having problems and need an incomplete, for example, your professor is more likely to think well of you if they know that you're having problems, are doing something to fix the problem, and have a specific plan in mind when asking for accommodation. Kind of a Hey, Dr. X, I've been having some problems with depression and I'm seeing a counselor about it, but it has interfered with my ability to turn in quality work. I'd like to revise my essay/project/report because I can do better, and will be doing better work in the future.

Otherwise, don't bring it up. It's not about stigma, so much as it's about the answer to one simple question: what do you want them to do with the information? If you don't have anything specific (such as help me find a way to solve the problem or adjust my academic plan), then they don't need to know. If you do have something in mind (other than keeping them informed), then tell them.

However, the best person to ask would be your therapist. S/he may not know the answer, but s/he can help you figure it out.

Citing sources incorrectly is not plagiarism, even if the writer intentionally cites sources incorrectly. It's misattribution. Plagiarism is claiming the words or ideas of others as one's own. The OP did not do that.

It's academic dishonesty, which is not interchangeable with plagiarism. I cannot tell you how much trouble I've had teaching students about plagiarism, only to find out that some people in academia are using academic dishonesty and plagiarism interchangeably. They're not. Undergrads can easily think that the only thing they have to worry about in terms of academic honesty/integrity is plagiarism, so if they aren't plagiarizing, then they can do it. Writing courses are where students are directly taught, in class, what plagiarism is. That's the textbook they read that explains what plagiarism is. However we in grad school use the word, that doesn't change how the word is taught.

The OP can whangle some fake notes to get her/himself out of the situation, and out of plagiarism trouble. However, that will not change the simple fact that s/he committed academic dishonesty. The integrity of research is paramount, and that means honesty about the data. Andrew Wakefield of the vax/autism research did not plagiarize, he flat out lied about his results.

It might seem like a trivial quibble, but it's not. Teachers that misrepresent plagiarism because for whatever reason can have some serious problems should some enterprising loop-hole looker snoop through the university's academic honesty/integrity policy. It has happened, not often, but it has happened.

Frankly, as disgusting as I find plagiarism, I find other forms of academic dishonesty far more disgusting. Plagiarism just passes someone else's work off. Academic dishonesty has far more profound effects, even when it's not discovered.

While the stigma thing is important to consider, it still comes down to a cost-benefit.

If your problem is interfering with your academics, or you have a strong indication that it will likely interfere with your academics in the future, then you should bring it to the attention of relevant people and only relevant people. If you're having problems and need an incomplete, for example, your professor is more likely to think well of you if they know that you're having problems, are doing something to fix the problem, and have a specific plan in mind when asking for accommodation. Kind of a Hey, Dr. X, I've been having some problems with depression and I'm seeing a counselor about it, but it has interfered with my ability to turn in quality work. I'd like to revise my essay/project/report because I can do better, and will be doing better work in the future.

Otherwise, don't bring it up. It's not about stigma, so much as it's about the answer to one simple question: what do you want them to do with the information? If you don't have anything specific (such as help me find a way to solve the problem or adjust my academic plan), then they don't need to know. If you do have something in mind (other than keeping them informed), then tell them.

However, the best person to ask would be your therapist. S/he may not know the answer, but s/he can help you figure it out.

While the stigma thing is important to consider, it still comes down to a cost-benefit.

If your problem is interfering with your academics, or you have a strong indication that it will likely interfere with your academics in the future, then you should bring it to the attention of relevant people and only relevant people. If you're having problems and need an incomplete, for example, your professor is more likely to think well of you if they know that you're having problems, are doing something to fix the problem, and have a specific plan in mind when asking for accommodation. Kind of a Hey, Dr. X, I've been having some problems with depression and I'm seeing a counselor about it, but it has interfered with my ability to turn in quality work. I'd like to revise my essay/project/report because I can do better, and will be doing better work in the future.

Otherwise, don't bring it up. It's not about stigma, so much as it's about the answer to one simple question: what do you want them to do with the information? If you don't have anything specific (such as help me find a way to solve the problem or adjust my academic plan), then they don't need to know. If you do have something in mind (other than keeping them informed), then tell them.

However, the best person to ask would be your therapist. S/he may not know the answer, but s/he can help you figure it out.

1. if you are being asked by a professional in your field, answer with the school at which you did your last degree
 
2. if you are being asked by Aunt Myrtle, answer with your most prestigious school
 
3. if you are being asked with reference to an athletic contest, your first allegiance is always with your undergraduate institution (unless you used your NCAA eligibility in postgrad)

First world problems.

You will find this singularly unhelpful: your question is one that the composition and rhetoric field has been wrestling with for decades.

Are undergrads prepared for writing once they graduate? How can a comp program prepare them? And on. And on.

Writing is such a broad thing to discuss that your question can't be answered simply. What do you mean by writing? What part of writing?

I find that the average undergraduate in a comp class doesn't learn much about writing that they don't already know from high school. They know how to put together an essay. They know about as much about spelling and grammar as they're going to know without a concerted effort on their part. This has less to do with teaching writing than the way written language is learned. Students that do not read and write regularly do not progress as well as students that do. You learn to write the way you learn to speak; not in a course, but by doing it and absorbing language patterns.

Even when you get your bachelor's degree, the vast, vast majority of the academic writing you will have done will have been in subjects other than psychology. Half of your credits are gen ed, few high schools offer more than on psychology course. Most of your reading in psychology will have been textbooks, not journal articles. So, how can you absorb the language of psychology academics when you don't participate in it as much?

The point is that your courses have prepared you for graduate writing, but they've also not prepared you for it. For example, your English class has (most likely) told you to write a paper about writing in the psychology field, but the paper is to be done in MLA. It is also going to be commented on and evaluated by a person who doesn't know very much about writing in the psychology field. As a person that writes sociological papers for English classes, this is not a recipe for writing success. Not because "writing" is taught wrong in composition courses, but because "writing" is no different than "speaking." Put an Australian, a Texan, and a Brit in a room and ask them to evaluate the quality of the spoken language in a dubbed Jackie Chan film and you're not going to get terribly consistent results.

Add into this whole thing the simple fact that faculty outside of the composition department don't consider the teaching of writing part of their job description. It's why we have composition classes, right? So why should they do it. Send students to the writing center and writing nasty emails to the head of the composition program when a particularly clueless batch of students rolls through. Composition teaches important things, but it can't really teach field-specific things, and writing isn't a class that you take once and you've either learned it or not. Writing is one of those things that requires continual maintenance. Most of us had to take a foreign language course in high school. How much of it do people remember a couple of years later? Even the ones that got As? Unless it's in daily use, it's lost.

So the key here isn't to worry so much about how much your classes are teaching you about writing in psychology as an undergrad or as a grad student, or as a graduate with a job. The key is to figure out how you expand your ability to learn how the field uses written language. There's only two ways to do that: read current publications where people in the field discuss the things in their field (your textbook does not qualify), and two, write the way people in the field write. Use APA, for example, in any gen ed classes that don't specify a style. Most of them expect students to use MLA because comp teachers usually require it. Write your essays psychology style, even when you're not in psychology classes. Get creative when you're assigned a research paper. If your US Politics class asks for a paper on the 2008 election, write about the psychology theory that informed the advertising choices the candidates made and use the politics to support yourself.

You are prepared to write for psychology. You know the basics about using written language. You've been taught how to develop a paper. You've learned how to incorporate research into your papers. You aren't prepared because you don't write many psychology papers. Most likely, however, you don't feel prepare because you haven't learned the language yet. Undergrad psychology students tend to use "emotion" rather than "affect," for example. Papers written by people named doctor talking to other people named doctor are intimidating. The key is to push that aside and learn what you can from those readings, instead.

It's a good idea to read and write a little every day. It's also a good idea to read a journal article every week or so. You will find them easier to read the more you read them.

I love my spine. It's the only spine I will have and it cannot ever be replaced.
 
I have backpacks. If I'm carrying a light load (tablet, keyboard, no more than 2 trade paperback sized books, one legal pad, and assorted daily life accoutrement, then I'll use my backpack purse (no support in it). For daily use, I use a backpack that has a rigid "frame" built into the back and has straps that help me support the load with my hips, though it doesn't have a waist strap like a hiking backpack. It's not an actual frame, internal or external, but there is some rigidity there. On days when I have to tote a lot, I dork-out and use a pull-behind bag/carrier.
 
I'm old (for the average person here) and many women my age are starting to have to cover up things like hammer toes and varicose veins. If you wonder why older women wear pants and closed toed sandals to the beach, look at their daily wear. I may not be rocking the fashion scene, but unlike too many of my peer group, my feet still look fabulous naked.
 
If it's about looking professional, buy an understated bag.

I wasn't going to reply because your point is important and me sniping is counterproductive to the purpose of the thread. But I've been thinking about this for a few months and I'm at the tail end of a paper, which I am procrastinating hard on. My judgment isn't what it ought to be. Still, I think I do have something productive to add, rather than just being snotty for the sake of being snotty. I also feel that what I'm going to say is likely going to come across snotty, anyway. It is not at all my intention to start an argument, or continue an old argument, or whatever. It is my intention to draw attention (if anyone has any interest in this) to the rhetorical implications of the way the discussion played out.


It's not what you said; it's how you said it. It's not what I said; it's the way I said it.


Tone matters. I wasn't as invested in paying attention to your point as I was in reacting to your tone. I don't know why you chose to phrase yourself the way you did in your initial post, nor what you intended to have people do with your post. I do know what happened. Reaction, not deliberation. And this is why I think it's important enough to address, instead of letting sleeping dogs lie. With most of the writing we do, we have no idea who is on the other end and how they will take it. I'm not concerned with the rights, the wrongs, or the indifferents of the discussion itself. It is what it is. (That fact that all of the snotty barbs essentially expressed agreement on the basic claim is cake.) I am about the whole what can I learn from this cliche. And since this is a thread ostensibly about how to write something important, of a persuasive nature, I think the whole what can I learn from this cliche might be of use.

The general point of this, and why I thought it important enough to risk stirring the pot all over again, is: a key part of the rhetorical art is phrasing oneself for a desired result on the part of the reader. Rhetoric is inherently manipulative (which is why politicians use it as a dirty word). Sometimes people make rhetorical choices deliberately and sometimes they don't. And, intentional or not, rhetorical choices exercise limited, um, control (for lack of a better word) over a reader's response. It's the reader's choice to think, react, be offended, laugh, or whatever. However, it's the writer's choice to consider probable reader responses when making writing choices.

Writing is a social relationship, which means it's all about choices made by the writer and, if there are any, the reader.

Hm. That'll cover it.

If you haven't already, get your free credit report and see what's on it. (I always go through the ftc.gov website to find the annual credit report website so I don't accidentally try to get it from one of those fake free credit report websites.)

Anyway. Landlords check your credit report because they want to know if you're stable, have a history of paying your bills, and can afford the rent. They credit score itself isn't as important to them as having a history at living in one place, paying your bills, and so on.

You can get reference letters from your current landlord, if you have one that isn't your parent, or other creditors. People with bad credit do get into apartments (homelessness tends to be about not having money rather than not having good enough credit), but you may find yourself paying more for security deposits and whatnot. You can get around that by having someone with good credit sign the lease with you (if you can find someone willing to stick their neck out for you).

Since you live close by (relatively), you should spend as much time as you can looking for un-advertised rentals. These are often well priced and away from the party-central that is a college, apartment complex. You should check into roommate situations, as well. This can involve driving around and looking through the local newspaper. You can do some double duty here by renting a storage space and bringing stuff down with you every trip.

Landlords in the area know college students. They've been renting to people like us for a long, long time. Show up like you're ready for a game of golf with your boss (khakis and a polo shirt), in a clean vehicle, without music playing. Shut the ringer off on your phone. The image to project is mature adult; the image to avoid is college student.