Old Undergrad Papers as Distraction

[Rose White]

While waiting, to amuse myself, I've been reading some of my older papers I wrote while I was still in undergrad (I just graduated in May 2010 with a BA in History) and, to be honest, it's pretty freaking entertaining. My papers from freshman and sophomore year are, by far, the most entertaining as I was still learning how to not use passive voice and the like. Also, some had some interesting grammatical errors...

So, what kinds of things do you notice in your former undergrad papers you wish you could change? How do you hope to write better in graduate school, if accepted? And for those still in undergrad, do you ever look back on your first few papers as freshman and laugh uproariously?

This is proving to be a wonderful distraction.

[crayolacat]

I just looked at my papers after being out of college for 15 years and they are truly horrible. What really interested me was how much effort my professors put into trying to help me. They regularly wrote responses of a page or more, and as far as I can recall I never read them.

[communications13]

I think the older I get the more I am willing to let others help me. In undergrad I didn't understand how crucial a second (or 3rd or 4th) pair of eyes on a paper were, helping you find things that might be clear to you but are completely confusing to the rest of the world. Really listening to what my peers have to say and colaborating with out seeking any credit or reward for making the work of those around and yourself better.

[UFGator]

I have formatted my hard drive several times since freshmen/soph. year. Sad that I can't do this .

[crayolacat]

I have formatted my hard drive several times since freshmen/soph. year. Sad that I can't do this .

Since I went to school in the dark ages I don't have that problem. ;-) Everything was on paper. Most of my classmates had to go to the computer lab to type their papers... I was one of about 5 people in my dorm that had their own computer. Ah, the old days...

[wtncffts]

I have formatted my hard drive several times since freshmen/soph. year. Sad that I can't do this .

But don't you have the actual hard copies that were graded and returned? Or have you not horded every single piece of paper since eighth grade like me?

[qbtacoma]

I didn't read comments on the papers themselves my first two years, though I would read the summary comments at the end. I took every note in the margin as a shot to the heart and couldn't handle it, though of course reading them would have made me better. In my last year particularly I did read all the comments, and I wished I started doing that much earlier.

[history_PhD]

Under the guise of creating a scrapbook of my college years, I have been reading my old papers. Some, especially the first-year English papers, are horrendous. My history ones though, for the most part, are surprisingly good. While a fun distraction, making said scrapbook is also helpful in that it allows me to keep all of my old assignments and syllabi together, which could potentially be helpful at a later date (read: when/if I become a graduate instructor and later professor). I have boxes of old school-related materials, and as I am a packrat, I am generally unable to throw anything away.

[dogbert]

I took every note in the margin as a shot to the heart and couldn't handle it...

haha! i loved this line. i'm a glutton for punishment and would read every comment, even on A papers. "shot to the heart" describes it perfectly.

[wanderlust07]

Oh god. I am not this brave. I still have saved papers from HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH (these are sort of hilariously angsty. I remember one teacher telling me she'd fallen asleep reading it, so somewhere there's a hard copy covered in coffee--probably in my parents' closet. Now this "grading" process is all clear to me and I'm much less offended). As for professorial comments...although I my appreciation of the time and effort that goes into them has grown (particularly since I've started teaching), the pain even the obviously well-meant ones causes me has also grown. I still have a final paper only tangentially related to my sub-field STILL in its envelope from last quarter that I can't stand to open.

I sometimes prefer the Schroedinger's Cat approach: as long as I don't open it, the comments are simultaneously both good and bad. The minute I look at the page, the possibilities will collapse (in my brain, they inevitably collapse into being laughed out of academia, which is ridic., since all my profs are super friendly).

I come from a family of pack rats: Somewhere (also probably in a closet at my parents' house) is a little round book I "co-wrote" and "co-illustrated" in kindergarden or early elementary school with a friend about some woman who delivered pizza with her feet (wtf?). E, wherever you are, you are still amazing.

[crayolacat]

Part of the reading I've been reading mine is that I also have every paper since elementary school, and I've been scanning them (and every other scrap of paper in my house) into Evernote (Best. Thing. Ever.) and throwing them away.

[MoJingly]

Oh man. I even have boxes full of stories, projects, poems, reports from elementary school. I agree; it's so much fun to look over this stuff and reminisce!

And all this about not reading comments is disheartening on a forum where many of us will end up writing them someday!

[wtncffts]

I always read most of the comments on my papers; I hope this is what more students than not do, because I've certainly put a lot of effort into commenting on papers in the past. I was the only TA for a class with around 60 students, each writing a 30 page paper. I probably averaged a page to a page and a half of handwritten final comments, not to mention the small comments throughout. I'd hate to think that most didn't even read them.

[RestorationJunkie]

I am still in undergrad so my "old" papers aren't more than a few years old, but it is definitely interesting to look at my freshman/sophomore papers! I don't know that my actual writing has changed or improved very much, but my ideas and theses have become quite a bit more complex, which is fun to see.

And all this about not reading comments is disheartening on a forum where many of us will end up writing them someday!

Yeah, it surprises me to hear that people do not read comments. I would never NOT be able to look at a comment made on a paper. In fact, (warning: neurosis ahead) not only do I always read the comments, I generally revise the paper accordingly before I store it. It will bother me otherwise.

[qbtacoma]

Yeah, it surprises me to hear that people do not read comments. I would never NOT be able to look at a comment made on a paper. In fact, (warning: neurosis ahead) not only do I always read the comments, I generally revise the paper accordingly before I store it. It will bother me otherwise.

Somewhere, a professor's heart is warmed to the very cockles.

[gradgirlwannabe]

I've done a bit of this lately too. I read a paper I wrote only a year ago and it was TERRIBLE!!! It's great to see so much improvement in such a little time. Makes me hopeful that I won't actually suck at grad school as badly as I sometimes imagine. =D

[mscongeniality1]

Ha. I've been doing this because I'm taking all my paper from past English classes and submitting them to my school's annual literary contest. I figure what the heck, I'm graduating, English is not my major field, and you get cash prizes for winning.

On a semi-related note, over winter break I read a "where will you be in 1/5/10 years paper" that I was required to write my freshman year of HIGH SCHOOL. Back then I wanted to earn my Ph.D in clinical psychology at Stanford. I had high hopes as an adolescent...