Unlike Christmas, I'm GLAD this only comes once a year!

It's time to grade the dreaded research reports. I've had them for about 3 weeks. They've survived nicely in the trunk of my car. Today, hubby (trying to be helpful) brought them in. So, I waded in. I contemplated toting them back to their cozy home in my trunk, but alas and woe is me, I retrieved my laptop (need to check sources and to check for plagiarism), tracked down a red pen, and strapped my butt into the dining room chair. Okay, so maybe the laptop wasn't such a great idea - at least not having it right here. So, I reached into the file folder and pulled out the first one. Hmmm, the cover page looked great!! Of course, I DID have all students create theirs as soon as we got into the computer lab. He had an outline - not a good one, but an outline! Flipping through the paper (if you can count turning the two pages as flipping), I reached the Works Cited page. Ummm, NO, one website does NOT count as multiple sources. Sigh...It was time to correct the actual paper. Good golly it was BAD. He changed words from the website using a thesaurus (my guess). So, many of his sentences are total gibberish. No, I didn't give him a "0" for plagiarism. This is my low class, and the fact that he actually changed some of the words impressed me! Not so much that he'd get a good grade, but I had to give him credit for ingenuity. The next paper was nearly three pages long! I'd told the low class they needed 2-5 pages. My estimation of this student's ingenuity was way too low. I mean, she got her 3 pages by using a 16 font. It was all I could do to not scream and write "Do you think I'm stupid?" Anyway the rest of her paper was okay, so she actually got a passing grade. Paper #4, well, we won't talk about that one. Paper #5. The student didn't turn in everything. Then it was on to the next one and the next and the next - all variations of the same problems as paper #1. But wait!!! I nearly wept for JOY!! A B+ paper! I eagerly reached for the next. Disappointment. And the next..you get my drift. I stopped grading after #11. Oh well, I'm 25% done with them - almost. So, in another 37 papers I'll be done for another year. Life is good. Karen