Uggghhhhhhhhh, and complaining about students.

I've been really feeling quite rotten the past couple days. I think I might be slightly better just now . . . so let's hope that when I get up tomorrow, I'll be well enough to go to school without it causing me too much trouble, health-wise.

Other than being sick and feeling weak and feverish, I have papers to grade. But I'm on a bit of a roll now, and have only 6 left to do. I am really unimpressed with the quality of most of them. Geez. A few students have honestly tried and, whatever their success rate, at least they tried. But so many others I feel just rushed the thing off and this annoys me. And, although I realize I should chill out, I can't help but take sloppiness personally. If a student sometimes spells it "Mao" (correct) and sometimes "Moa" (INCORRECT), I am annoyed. And etc. The biggest problem, though, is just that students don't know how to make good, evidence-based, reasonable arguments in written form. And it really boggles my mind. I know when I was an undergrad my writing wasn't as good as it is now. But I learned how to write an essay in high school. So even if I misplaced a comma and messed up possessives and plurals, I still---for the most part---understood the function of paragraphs and proper essay flow. Most of these students do not. Since this is a third-year course, I don't have abundant sympathy for them. They have to start taking responsibility for themselves.