It's way late to be posting these, but I hate to let these gems of bad/funny/strange writing go unshared.
From an English 204 Paper: "The impact of words such as this pierces deep into the soul and grinds up a person's insides like mashed potatoes." I actually kind of like this one because you can at least tell that the words moved the student. I do wonder how this student feels about mashed potatoes, though.
All of the rest are from English 204 Final Exams...
"Her aunt was named No Name Woman because she got prego when she shouldn't have and her village kicked her out." Where to begin? The idea that this student seems to think the woman was actually named "No Name Woman"? The use of the word "prego"? Another student, writing on the same story, put another unique twist on the aunt's predicament: "Her aunt got pregnants."
"No matter if you are dead or alive, family is always with you." That's just creepy.
"Her story, though fiction, has very accurate idealization of what it was like for slaves before the Civil War." I am not sure what "accurate idealization" of slavery is...
"A plum is simple, yet delicious, so the form he uses is short, descriptive wording that sends the reader on a taste adventure into Williams' perspective." Okay, I kind of like this one, too. Perhaps this student has a career in advertising awaiting him or her. (Yes, it's about "This is Just to Say.")
"This story shows how something as petite as the color of one's skin determines who you love." An example of how your internal thesaurus can lead you astray.
"The male domination should be counterbalanced with some stories of women smacking a few men around and see how they like it." Not that I am in favor of violence, but one must admire that a male student wrote this.
Finally, from Part I in the exam, where students identify quotations from works we've read...I thought it might be fun to share some butchered versions of the title of one of Emily Dickinson's most famous poems, "I heard a Fly buzz--when I died:"
"Before Death Comes a Buzz--Then Die"
"A Fly flew by and buzzed when I died"
"There was a fly by my death bed"
"Something about a fly buzzing"
Onto the Spring Semester, which starts on Monday!
1 comment:
Awesome. It gives you hope for the future of the world, doesn't it? (And by hope, I mean "the certainty that the world will end if these people ever get their hands on it.")
BTW--is the "No Name Woman" from Kingston's "The Woman Warrior"? It sounds familiar to me...
Post a Comment