I would like input from other parents/students please. My S is attending large public university as a National Merit Scholar. He is passionate about history;winning numerous awards, accolades, and honors throughout high school. He is currently in 2nd semester of his freshman year; 1st semester was great; made the Dean’s list; loved his dorm and his new roommate is awesome. He was recommended during 1st semester (by the Dean of the History department) to take senior level history class taught by Pulitzer prize winning author. He took the class, loved it, got an A on his final essay with very nice comments. He was so proud and happy and all is right in his world. He also took the absolute hardest writing course the Univ. offered and made an A on the all important essay in that class as well. Fast forward to this semester and he is taking a History course, an honors course that is presented by the Dean of the History department; but the TA is really teaching. He writes his first essay and the TA gives him a C with comments like: “you used far too complicated words.” and “you don’t even have a main point.” What does he do now? Am I, because I’m his parent, thinking this TA; who just graduated from a small college last May and this is her very first TA position, doesn’t know jack totally in the wrong? How do you go from getting a Pulitzer prize winning professor writing wonderful things on your history paper to a wet behind the ears TA telling you your paper sucks? Any thoughts, advice??
He could make an appointment with the professor and ask for a second opinion.
That said, essay grading can be subjective. I took a course once where the TA put copies of the A papers on file in the library. After perusing a few of those jargon filled monstrosities I knew I was never going to get an A in that course. The game then was how little I could do for a B. Luckily I had many, many other professors who specifically said they liked the way I wrote.
I would start with the TA and try to ask nicely about how I could improve the paper. Then based on that discussion, I would consider discussing it with the professor. Why? What would your reaction be if someone who works for you disagreed with your decision and went to your boss without discussing their point of view with you? The TA will be grading the next paper. Your son needs to find out what his/her expectations are since the TA is the one grading the papers not the professor.
My daughter is an excellent writer, she is taking a law course and is finding that her professor/TAs want simpler, less complicated sentence structure. Apparently law papers are written in a different style than research and literary analysis papers. Maybe history papers are written in a different style than what your son is use to. The TA might explain this before he goes directly to the professor.
It could also be a inexperienced TA.
I don’t think putting these thoughts in your son’s head is in his best interests at this moment, given that the semester still has a ways to go.
Different courses, profs, etc want different things. That is OK and that is to be expected. You have to learn how to write for your audience. If the TA wants a clear, concise, and accessible paper then that is what your S should write.
He can go to the prof and see what (s)he says but they’ll often back the TA. Your son can also run a draft by the TA first next time (if (s)he allows it) and see what comments he gets.
It was quite a while ago, but I remember grading many hundreds of papers when I was a TA for a variety of undergraduate courses. While I would likely have the same thoughts as the original poster, I would not share these thoughts with my son because, as @sylvan8798 observes, they will not be helpful to him. I agree with the advice offered here, especially encouraging your son to talk with the TA about how he can do better next time. He might even ask if he can revise the paper based on this feedback and re-submit it. Your son’s demonstrating that he can incorporate the TA’s feedback and is willing to put in the effort to succeed may also influence the TA’s opinion.
I would strongly discourage going directly to the professor to complain about the TA without talking to the TA first. Unless your son feels the the TA’s response to him is off-the-wall or he’s really at a loss as to what the TA is looking for, it will likely not benefit your son to go over the TA’s head to the professor.
This is a frustrating situation for both of you, but your son will likely work through it on his own and be the better for it.
Good luck to you both.
Different professors (or TAs) grade differently. This isn’t really much different than if a professor from a different class gave him a C on a paper when he got As on essays in other classes. I have given students lower grades on papers who said they have “only ever got As!” and I wondered how closely their prior teachers and professors were grading their papers, because their writing was not good. Your son implying that the TA doesn’t know what she’s doing is only going to annoy her and make her less inclined to help him out.
I agree with the above advice - the thing to do is have your son talk to the TA and simply say that he doesn’t understand her feedback and he’d like to know how he could improve his paper, because he wants to be a better writer. Have him make an appointment or visit her office hours. The point of this is not to be confrontational; it’s simply to get a better handle on how she is grading the papers and where she is taking points off or downgrading for quality issues. Ask her what an A paper would do. She needs to be able to explain her grading rubric to students who ask politely. (This is one of the reasons I use a rubric when grading papers.)
I’ve noticed before that some professors grade on content only and not on mechanics or fluidity, so that’s where the source of a lot of my discrepancies and disappointments come in. Although I don’t teach English, I believe that mechanics, structure, and style are big parts of learning to write well in any field, so I do grade on those (although they get less weight than ideas, focus, and organization). So I do sometimes get students who are dismayed because they have pretty good ideas but they can’t articulate them well, or they are organized terribly, or their mechanics and sentence structure are so bad that they distract from the paper - and then they get a B or a C. (I’m not saying that’s your son’s problem.)
Thanks for the advice everyone; he made an appointment with the TA. I do want to say that I did not “put thoughts into my son’s head” as he was venting to me some of the points I mentioned. As a parent I try to walk a tightrope between commiserating and being subjective; hard to do sometimes.
@wilderzengirl, nice tightrope work 
Hope the meeting with the TA goes well. Your son clearly has a strong record of achievement so I’m betting he’ll make a success of this class too.
The bar was upped significantly at his U. Finally with his peer group I’ll bet. No more being head and shoulders above the rest. Public flagships attract the best from their states.
I was a NMS majoring in Chemistry who placed into the Honors version of the required Lit class (no AP’s then to get out of it). I hated to write, got B’s while the other NMS from my HS presumably got A’s (yes, one semester we ended up in the same discussion led by someone with only a masters- very few placed into the Honors course even at big state U) since he became a major U English Lit professor eventually.
My point is that no matter how amazing a student is in HS once they go to the state flagship they are likely to find others so much above their level and many with equal HS credentials of some sort. Can’t compare credentials of my day with current generation because opportunities were vastly different.
Good for him to discuss with his TA as there is also that factor.
I’m going with the idea that the TA doesn’t know what’s going on. Too bad, really. I don’t have a suggestion about getting around it. I’ll add: If the comment that he used “far too complicated words” is written on the paper, I don’t see a problem with going to the prof, without consulting the TA. There is a difference between using just the right word which happens to be a bit uncommon, and using uncommon words for decoration. I’m betting your son is using just the right word. The TA may not be able to tell the difference.
I had a chemistry class as a junior where the TA thought that the pH of 10^(-7) M HCl was 7, and graded accordingly. It’s not 7. I went to the prof directly. Of course, science classes operate a bit differently from history classes, because it’s possible to establish the pH completely unambiguously.
The comments here have been great. Appreciate the help. Wis75 u r so spot on about the competition at the big U. Definitely not high school anymore! I thought my S was prepared for it. He told me going in his goal was “simply keep my GPA safe” meaning keep the NMS. Making the Dean’s list last semester was definitely a bonus! My S said “if Professor so and so(Pulitzer winner) had given me a C I would think well deserved”. A little harder to readily accept the low grade from a TA that just graduated last May and this is her first TA position. But that’s the way life goes sometimes. Good preparation for the future I suppose.
All the evidence points to a TA who is clueless and out of her depth.
This is why I spent 60K a year for 4 years - to pay for assessment and feedback ONLY from professors!
Many private schools, including Ivies, use TA’s (Harvard calls them TF’s).
Are those actual quotes of the TA comments? “Far too complicated words” should be “Far too many complicated words.” But then again, I have a problem with the term “complicated” in this context. Does the TA mean “too many log words?” Even Strunk and White advocated for more difficult language if it is needed for meaning (but only when needed, and not gratuitously- have your son read their book).
I also think it would be better to pose this issue constructively as in "sometimes the simplest language is better if it serves your purpose.) It is a good thing for a student to learn this early, though academia is certainly full of jargon and arcane language. Maybe the TA is reacting to this effort to join the club prematurely!!
I also have a problem with the “even” in “you don’t even have a main point.” That sounds subjective and even emotional. Why not “try to have a clear main point.”
This TA sounds very unprofessional and almost resentful or angry.
However, a meeting with the TA before the professor is definitely the way to go. It is possible there is more than one TA for this class if the meeting does not go well.
Try not to talk to our son about how the TA is “wet behind the ears” and just graduated from a “small college.” It is true that teh TA is just learning to teach, however, and may bring baggage to the task.
One other thing. I personally never really knew my kids’ grades on papers in college. Try to help you son focus on the learning and a little less on grades. One of the best classes I ever took was an English class in which the teacher started off with C’s for most of us (and we were all used to getting A’s). By the end of the term we were doing well but we learned a lot in the interim.
I also
I’m glad I was a Calculus and Physics TA. If I were this “clueless” TA and OP’s son came in and told me I was too clueless to recognize his obvious literary genius, I would smile sweetly and say “Oh my, you are so right. From now on you can submit your papers to Professor So. I’m sure you will find him more to your liking. Bye now.”
Personally, I much prefer TAs sometimes. They were more up-to-date on best practices and were FAR more accessible than profs.
Last semester I was a GSI (what we call TAs) for an upper-level writing class. I graded harshly on the first drafts (they all had to do rewrites as part of the ULWR requirements) because I wanted to challenge them to improve their writing. I know a few of them got Cs, etc for the first time in their lives- and they came to me and told me so. But I’ll be damned if their 2nd drafts weren’t way better than their first drafts and their final papers were spectacular.
I had some great TAs. TAs are only a few years (or less!) away from being professors themselves and I think most really do try to be fair. I certainly don’t think it would hurt to go to the TA first - after all they are likely to be grading the next paper too - but if the OP’s son thinks he did have a thesis and that his word choice was appropriate, (plethora instead of many is one that I just loathe!) I don’t think it would hurt to also speak to the professor.
@sylvan8798 I don’t think my son is a literary genius by any means. His 800 verbal SAT score along with a 700 in Math and a 760 in Writing makes him at least not an idiot. My son did give me a call this morning to tell me on his way to dinner last night he was surprised by two fellow students from the same history class waiting in the lobby of his dorm. They knew his first name and had been tracking him down. They are both NMS, which I know means nothing to Calculus and Physics TAs who most likely all know more than Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein combined, and they were shocked with their C’s as well. They both have appts with TA tomorrow as well. Looks like an interesting start to the week for the TA. I am very curious to see how this turns out.
A “C” doesn’t mean someone is an idiot. It means you provide a decent but not great paper.
A student’s first C can be shocking. It is an adjustment to college and different writing expectations. I had some students who were very confrontational about their lower-than-expected grades. I have a thick skin and by the time they left my office, all was well.
Just tell him not to be that student that goes in and is demanding. Be humble, ask what the problems were, and how he can improve next time.
It’s not his first C; it is his first C in history, however; that is what makes it shocking. If it matters; an A from this TA wouldn’t mean much either; maybe she is trying to get everyone’s attention. Like I said, he took an honors writing course last semester; taught by an esteemed professor. Your ACT score had to be at least a 32 to get into the class. He was told up front; do not expect an A. My son got an A. One of two given last semester. You have to think to yourself, if you are the student, what the heck is wrong that I can’t get an A from a TA?