Two of my friends are going thru two types of stress right now. Mrs. Chako has quantity stress while the good doctor Chako tangles with quality stress. Anyone would gladly take quantity over quality in this case as we're not talking about football or sex.
Being a busy person myself quantity stress is a part of my life now and will be until March of 2013 when I fly down to Florida to don a cap and gown, with probalities of trekking to Key West as a self-release from three years of work-schoo-familyl-work-school-me time-school type schedule and work myself into a rum-induced coma along Duval Street.
Unforunately, one of my professors continues to press quantity stress into quality stress with needling that irks my personality. I am a firm believer in quality work, that if the product's quality outweighs a structured outline then it should be graded as such. Not Mr. APA-jackhole. Oh, the citations are super-neato spiffy now thanks to Lightning and his wife's suggestion (the citation creator on Microsoft Word worked like a charm THANKS!).
The assignment "Describe a personal situation in which YOU had to overcome cultural differences in communication". Not a problem since my company merged some of its duties overseas and I have daily emails/calls/IMs from the crew across the Atlantic. This interview-styled paper would be a snap. Of course when I receive such papers back there's no mention of the quality, only the quantity has it has been for this quarter.
"You cannot use first person verse" was the only comment.
This is poo.
Thankfully Otis gave me a sample of writing from personal experience without using first person verse which I will be attempting to use for future assignments, but outside of Bobby Bracelet's third person mastery I was a bit stumped as to how to go about this. It's a PERSONAL experience, not writing from someone else's experience and breaking down their prose. Also, not one mention of the content. It's almost as if the professor skims the paper (entirely possible) for APA-related errors and moves on.
I don't half-ass assignments, I write them as if someone is paying me to do so but if this is how the education system works (for this guy at least) and this professor is forcing me to play his game, so be it. You will receive what you ask for: robotic, monotone scribble BUT in perfect APA formatting. Sir.
This is killing half the reason I returned to school. Yes, pretty paper with official seals and Dean of Whatsamatta U's signature on it is the end-game, but feeling good about the work produced, writing for a purpose much like I do on the weekends, is what I really wanted. I gave up on floating thru the remainder of my breaths four years ago after hitting rock bottom for myself, my kids, and most of all my wife. Sure days filled with a bland 9 to 5 job, Call of Duty, porn, alcohol, bars, and take out pints orange chicken with cream cheese wontons sounds great, but I wanted more and my friends and family deserve more.
And despite the professor's will to blacken my return to school, I'll play his game for now and prevent the quantity stress from becoming quality stress.
3 comments:
Try to remember that this is just one guy, Drizz. Unfortunately, one guy in higher ed can make life suck for months at a time. Envision him in your rearview mirror ...
Think about it as if you were trying to create art within a structured format, like a haiku. Or, whatever.
As for stress - in the choice between quantity an quality, I'm almost envious of the Mrs. That said, as least mine is finite. So is yours.
-DrC
A toast to both of you, and to seeing stress in the rear view mirror ASAP.
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