# Anybody care to predict the grade this paper will receive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 16, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-care-to-predict-the-grade-this-paper-will-receive/496668 "2009-05-16T18:36:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-care-to-predict-the-grade-this-paper-will-receive/496668/101 "2009-06-02T17:58:10Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > I don’t get it. What exactly was she saying you did wrong? Research papers are supposed to contain library research, along with some analysis of the findings. One’s personal opinion of Vonnegut does not pertain, and certainly should not compose the bulk of the paper. Usually, when a paper does contain a lot of personal opinion, it indicates that the student didn’t do any research, and wrote the entire thing at the last minute. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-care-to-predict-the-grade-this-paper-will-receive/496668/102 "2009-06-02T18:14:55Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > Research papers are supposed to contain library research, along with some analysis of the findings. One’s personal opinion of Vonnegut does not pertain, and certainly should not compose the bulk of the paper. Usually, when a paper does contain a lot of personal opinion, it indicates that the student didn’t do any research, and wrote the entire thing at the last minute. Thanks, I just didn’t notice the assignment was characterized as a “research paper”. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-care-to-predict-the-grade-this-paper-will-receive/496668/103 "2009-06-03T07:03:55Z")
Since this thread is full of Beowulf fans, does that make it a Beowulf cluster? ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-care-to-predict-the-grade-this-paper-will-receive/496668/104 "2009-06-03T19:02:17Z")
\*\*Skald the Rhymer \*\* said: > [@](#): > > She ultimately got a C on the assignment, which dropped her grade for the class down to a B. I suppose there’s some justice in that. Her overall class grade dropped a letter grade. For high school, that’s significant. So what did her mother make in the class? Or did she not get an independent grade? 😉 Given that I don’t know what a kenning is, I would have a hard time with that assignment. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-care-to-predict-the-grade-this-paper-will-receive/496668/105 "2009-06-03T19:10:26Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > I suppose there’s some justice in that. Her overall class grade dropped a letter grade. For high school, that’s significant. > > So what did her mother make in the class? Or did she not get an independent grade? 😉 > > Given that I don’t know what a kenning is, I would have a hard time with that assignment. Not if you can read. A kenning is a metaphorical compound word or phrase used in Old English & Old Norse poetry, often to keep the meter of a line correct. If you’re talking about the sea in a poem but the scansion of your line requires an extra syllable, you can say whale road instead. ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-care-to-predict-the-grade-this-paper-will-receive/496668/106 "2009-06-05T15:37:42Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > The teacher is calling us up, one by one, in alphabetical order and my name is, naturally, my name will be soon. Didn’t you play outfield for Bud Abbott’s team? Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-care-to-predict-the-grade-this-paper-will-receive/496668/107 "2009-06-05T20:05:37Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Not if you can read. A kenning is a metaphorical compound word or phrase used in Old English & Old Norse poetry, often to keep the meter of a line correct. If you’re talking about the sea in a poem but the scansion of your line requires an extra syllable, you can say whale road instead. I’m going to start calling the sea the “whale road” all the time now. Only I’m sure people will think I mean the “rail road” and look at me funny. ---
**Author:** ![MickNickMaggies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@MickNickMaggies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MickNickMaggies)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-care-to-predict-the-grade-this-paper-will-receive/496668/108 "2009-06-06T17:15:05Z")
While attending Delaware I encountered a lovely man by the name of Mike Cotsell. I mention him by name because he deserves to be legend. He teaches / taught American Lit up to the Civil War and has one of those lovely English accents that is good for nothing but curing insomia. He began his lecture on Scarlet Letter, only to quickly realise that not only was no one listening, but few students had bothered to read the book. The lecture began to take a turn for the strange, with him saying he would summarize the plot; It was, he said, an English novel of manners in which a housemaid is suspected of having fallen pregnant by the vicar. But everyone knows that vicars are impotent… He continued for nearly ten minutes in that vein, most of the class scribbling furiously and oblivious to the fact he was making it up as he was going along. High school? I failed an essay on Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in which we were support to interivew the main character and write the essay in the style of the author. I used stream of consciousness for man of Stephen D’s answers. Teacher’s reply was that she’d never been able to get through the book anyway and that made my essay baffling. F minus. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-care-to-predict-the-grade-this-paper-will-receive/496668.md?page=5)