Gawd...I don't think I can do this English class anymore. It's not that I think I'm right and the teacher is wrong. I just feel like she is poor instructor and a closed-minded person and I'm having a lot of difficulty finding any sort of drive to please her. I don't mind adjusting my learning/out-put styles to please a teacher. Hell, I'll be the first one to say that rule number one of any class is DON'T PISS OFF THE TEACHER (notice how I put that in all caps? that's how I see it in my mind.), but this is the first time when it really feels as if there is no point in even bothering with pleasing her.

It's not that she critiqued my writing. I've got no problem with that. In fact, please, I beg of anyone anywhere who reads anything that I write, regardless of context or even your level of authority on the matter, to please tell me what I have done wrong. Rip me to pieces if you must. I just ask that you be intelligent about it and only pick on things of actual importance. Don't fuss and moan over petty things. I am completely fine if a teacher marks my paper and takes off points for bad writing, god-awful grammar, stupid mistakes...things of that nature. However, this instructor felt the need to mark on my paper that the word "represents" should be replaced with "is symbolic of." I'm sorry, but I was taught that, when writing a FORMAL PAPER, one should choose the SHORTEST and MOST CONCISE wording possible. And, I'm sorry--this is just a personal problem I have with this--but what is the point of replacing a WORD with a DEFINITION of that word, especially when it is a commonly (at least, I would hope so at the level that this class is at) known word and the definition is longer than the actual word itself? And furthermore, how petty does an individual have to be to count off points for such a simple word choice "error"? I would understand if the difference in wording changed the meaning of the sentence, but how does changing "represents" to "is symbolic of" alter the point I am arguing?

Ugh... It's petty things like this that DE-motivate me and STRESS me out and convince me that a class and instructor are NOT WORTH MY TIME. Please, give me a hard teacher. I'm okay with that sort of person taking points off of my assignments--he or she could fail me and I would still probably come out grinning! But when a teacher feels that such a trivial matter should be the deciding difference between letter grades, I get quite aggravated. Please, make it something more substantial--using the incorrect format, not doing something the class was expressly directed to do, poor word choice that affected the meaning of the paper--but not simply using one word instead of another when it HAD NO DIFFERENCE in how the sentence came across.

Seriously:

Miss Brill’s donning of her beloved fur in the beginning of the story, and her subsequent casting off of it at the end of the tale, represents her superior attitude and her punishment for possessing such a view of her fellow park-goers.

versus:

Miss Brill’s donning of her beloved fur in the beginning of the story, and her subsequent casting off of it at the end of the tale, is symbolic of her superior attitude and her punishment for possessing such a view of her fellow park-goers.

I don't get it. Please, enlighten me here. Or, am I just wrong in trying to shorten an already lengthy sentence?


Now I'm off to practice repeatedly perform or systematically exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency with my wicked air guitar skills to the sound of The Darkness' "I Believe in a Thing Called Love."