We’re all familiar with the frustration of putting a lot of work into a piece of writing that is not well-received, with the irritation of suspecting the professor had a specific expectation of your writing. in an effort to avoid this disappointment and gain a better understanding of the people who read and grade our papers, we’ve sent out a survey to various faculty and graduate students in the university, asking them for their top three pet peeves. The results are, perhaps reassuringly, consistent. Here are the top five common pet peeves of faculty and T.a.s.
1. Topping the list, with seventy percent of respondents listing it as one of their frustrations, is improper use of punctuation and grammar problems. It’s frustrating, said one respondent, how comma errors can distort meaning, especially when the problem persists from one paper to the next. who would have thought that one little comma could have such a profound effect on a reader?
2. The next common pet peeve, with sixty percent of respondents listing it as one of their pet peeves, is problems with clarity and believability. Long, nebulous introductions; dramatic, but insignificant conclusions; run-on, meandering sentences; “big” words used inappropriately — all were cited as sources of frustration for readers. It does seem, therefore, that stating what you mean as clearly, simply, and specifically as possible is the best strategy for avoiding that gut-wrenching sense of not hitting the mark.
3. The third most common pet peeve relates to argument and thesis statements. Turns out professors want to be told exactly and early what your paper will argue. they also want to make sure your paper is arguing something, not just a stating of the general topic you will explore.
4. Fourth on the list, misrepresenting the facts. this ranges from erroneous plot summary or historical inaccuracies to misspelling names. one respondent wondered, when reading the Prime Minister’s name written as Steven Harper, “does anyone really think he is a Steve?”
5. The fifth issue on this list should perhaps be linked to the first item; but the respondents were so adamant about this one issue that it deserves its own category. whether it’s the difference between its and it’s or the notion that all plural nouns need the added help of an apostrophe, the discretionary use of apostrophes is a particularly sensitive issue with many professors and graduate teaching assistants. one respondent was confused by a trend where students “vaguely know there should be an apostrophe somewhere, so they let one drift somewhere around the word and hope it will land in the right place.” Perhaps remedying this hit or miss approach to apostrophe use would lead to less frustration all around.
Other note-worthy pet peeves are: the strict adherence to the five-paragraph essay, subject-verb confusion, long quotes without context, and assumptions about what “the reader” thinks or even feels when reading a text.
University of Guelph Writing Services: What instructors are really …