# Yet another goofy student email **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 11, 2008, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-goofy-student-email/472140 "2008-11-11T02:15:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-goofy-student-email/472140/21 "2008-11-12T14:48:49Z")
**capybara** - I think I would have written back requesting the student translate his/her previous emails into English if he/she expected a response. In law school I was dating a girl who was a straight-A student (I was not). She asked me to proofread a term paper in which she had used the phrase “minus well”, as in “If the Supreme Court expects their rulings to… then they minus well…” She laughed it off as a typo but I suspect she didn’t know how to really say it. ---
**Author:** ![FarmerChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@FarmerChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FarmerChick)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-goofy-student-email/472140/22 "2008-11-12T15:04:50Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > I live not terribly far from Amish country and a well-known store that sells non-electric goods. > > One of our English faculty members still laughs about a student who used the phrase “[Lehman’s](http://www.lehmans.com) terms” in a paper. [Lehman’s](http://www.lehmans.com) ummmm pie! I love Lehman’s ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-goofy-student-email/472140/23 "2008-11-12T17:53:56Z")
> [@PopeJewish](#): > > but it shows a basic lack of understanding of what the term really means, like when someone says they’re at so-and-so’s “beck and call” as opposed to beckon call, or a hundred other examples I know. Oh it definitely shows a basic lack of understanding all right. I just think it’s neat when you can follow somebody’s thought process with ease and see how they came to the wrong conclusion due to their basic lack of understanding. So often I have absolutely no idea where people are coming from. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-goofy-student-email/472140/24 "2008-11-12T18:46:44Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > …he/she knows a word like ‘layman’s’ and can’t spell it properly? 😕 > > I love how the student spells ‘write’ correctly–and then incorrectly, five words later. And by love, I mean weep softly in the corner as another shred of faith in humanity vanishes. I used to do this on handwritten essays! For example, if I couldn’t remember if it was restraunt or restaurant, I’d spell it both ways so that at least one of them would be write. ---
**Author:** ![spockerel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@spockerel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spockerel)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-goofy-student-email/472140/25 "2008-11-12T19:23:32Z")
At least it’s not in textspeak like many of the student emails I get. And you guys know that student who wrote that poem that made me wonder about my “ass personality”? Major offender who writes this way even in her critical papers (!!) and emails, down to the use of “ummmmm” and “well” every other line. The poem I’m talking about had air quotes, for instance. :smack: I didn’t even know you could air quote in writing. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-goofy-student-email/472140/26 "2008-11-12T23:08:33Z")
Don’t leave us hanging! How does one air quote in writing? ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-goofy-student-email/472140/27 "2008-11-12T23:47:07Z")
> [@Eureka](#): > > I’m reading Barbara Kingsolver’s _The Poisonwood Bible_ right now, and that sort of misused word is high on my list of reasons why I don’t plan on reading more of her works. I get that the people misusing words are mostly teens (and I’m assuming it’s all authorial choice) but the “convenience” of all the wrong words being real words with different meanings and only slightly different spellings pisses me off. Care to tell more? I don’t recall Kingsolver misusing laments etc in that book, but I’d like to know what words or phrases she did misuse. I read it years ago and such details are gone from my mind. ---
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-goofy-student-email/472140/28 "2008-11-13T01:20:37Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > Care to tell more? I don’t recall Kingsolver misusing laments etc in that book, but I’d like to know what words or phrases she did misuse. I read it years ago and such details are gone from my mind. If I had to guess, I’d say that **Eureka** is referring to Rachel’s segments in the book. Rachel, the oldest daughter, routinely misuses words. For example, in her first segment she laments “and here my brand-new tulip-tailored linen suit in Poison Green with square mother-of-pearl buttons was fixing to give up the goat.” A few sentences later she comments that “a roar of voices and weird birds lombarded my ears and filled my head to the brink.” I don’t think this was an error on the author’s part. Rather, it’s Kingsolver’s way of showing that Rachel’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. ---
**Author:** ![spockerel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@spockerel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spockerel)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-goofy-student-email/472140/29 "2008-11-13T13:42:32Z")
> [@Santo\_Rugger](#): > > Don’t leave us hanging! How does one air quote in writing? One simply “quotes” everything one “thinks is questionable” or that “might not be true” or that one could “attribute to someone else” or that one is “paraphrasing”. And then, in workshop, one reads the poem with hand gestures! The physical air quotes matching the written ones, you see. I’d love to see this girl do interpretive dance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-goofy-student-email/472140.md?page=1)