Recently I had to write a summary/response essay on “Idiot Nation”.
Before I did that, I had to read and annotate the article. Annotating before college is something I’ve never had to do before. So it’s something that I really struggle with. What’s worse too is when you have a professor who is very knit picky about how annotating is done.
When you annotate your own opinions (also known as reading and reflecting), they must be written in red ink on the left side of the page. These are things such as my thoughts, your connections which can be text to text, text to world, text to self, etc…, your likes/dislikes, your interpretations, your confusions and why you are confused, your questions and your attempt/s to answer them, your visualizations/graphic’s of the text’s meaning/main point/purpose. When highlighting, it must be accompanied by company, etc…
When you annotate the summary/facts also known as summarizing, it must be done in black and blue ink. Blue for the summary portion and black for the facts. All of this must be on the right side of the page. These are NOT opinions, not what you think, feel and believe. They are also not interpretations and does not go beyond the text. We are supposed to look at headings, subheadings, titles, LARGE/bold type, different colors/fonts, keywords, these are also known as guide questions. There’s more to this as well and I will explain if needed.
Anyways, I had to read and annotate the article mentioned above which was pretty long. Then I had to write a summary and response essay. My essay was graded today and it came back with a D grade. She goes on to say “The information in your first sentence is incorrect. Your format is not correct. Your summary should be of the most important points an author makes in a text, written in our won words. Where are your signal phrases? Where is your golden lines paragraph? This should be in bold print in your response. Your Works Cited page is incorrectly formatted”
Now with her, the essay must be in times new roman 14 point font. This article by itself was the most stressful one I’ve ever had to do. Each essay is 25 points. I scored 17.
While my professor is a nice person in general, I don’t agree with her teaching style and she’s such a tough grader. It’s bad to the point that I feel I won’t pass her class and there are only three classes left.
I’m wondering if anyone has had professors similar to what I’m experiencing? Also, what did you do about this sort of stuff?