Straighterline English Comp

[clep4gainut]

I cannot finish this course. I have over 800 points in this class, and only the research draft and final left to complete. Based on a thread I read here, I thought I could write a fluff paper and finish the class. Nope. I wrote a really lengthy essay on special education, but they flagged it as a personal narrative and did not grade the paper. So, I spent a bazillion hours <slight exaggeration> trying to come up with something I could cite 4 sources on. I struggled for over a week just to come up with a topic. I finally came up with something, wrote it out and used citations. I submitted the paper on the 24th and it has taken them forever to grade. So, now it's been flagged again. This time due to low word count. If it takes a long as it did last time, I will not have this course finished by the time my account needs to renew. This is a DRAFT! Why can't they grade it low and suggest more content or something???

I could not recommend this class, or the english comp II class to anyone, based on this experience. For me, they refuse to grade a paper and give a low score - they just refuse to grade it. Getting a student advisor to allow me to resubmit, and then wait for grading again effectively drags out the course to the point they make another $99 on it. I'm so frustrated!

[BearEDU]

Yea I was going to do English comp ii with SL but i saw the cost was going to be higher than study.com for two courses + seems like alot more work on SL.. So I decided to do it at study.com for my communications+ English comp ii. Really good experience with study.com and the grading has definitely sped up to about 1-2 days.

I cant believe they refuse to grade the paper and give it a low score that's crazy lol

[RANSOMSOUL]

I never submitted a draft and it allowed me to race through the course. The labor was still needed in the overall writing but the grading process came back pretty fast.

There may be new restrictions applied once you submit a 'draft' that I am unaware of. The only other concern is the writing may have been flagged at a level there is no way to approve it as a qualified submission that would keep the integrity of the course intact. As frustrating as the experience sounds, I don't see this as a negative for StraighterLine.

Grading can run over your monthly deadline and there is no additional charge to your account.

Study.com is definitely less labor and both the TECEP Comp 1 & 2 are considerably easier. My daughter just received her TECEP Comp 2 pass form back over the weekend and she felt it was a very a passable 'just book and take kind of exam' for someone with a baseline understanding of writing.

[armstrongsubero]

Hmmmph... sorry to hear about your experience, but I did the SL English comp and din't have any problem. Finished in about a week with 84%. And I really dint put much work into it at all.

[docmarvin]

I'm working on all of the 8 essays for the English Comp 2. Not planning to submit a draft. Is it advisable to submit all at once. I don't want to stretch to keep waiting for the grade for each essay before I submit the next.

Anyway, I have my first proctored exam tomorrow. Intro to Sociology and World Religion on Thursday. I might finish another course before my essays.

[clep4gainut]

Hmmmph... sorry to hear about your experience, but I did the SL English comp and din't have any problem. Finished in about a week with 84%. And I really dint put much work into it at all.

Nice! I really struggled to come up with an essay topic that would be quick and easy to write and allow me to find and cite 4 sources. I wrote about 3 different topics before I finally settled on the one I submitted.

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I'm working on all of the 8 essays for the English Comp 2. Not planning to submit a draft. Is it advisable to submit all at once. I don't want to stretch to keep waiting for the grade for each essay before I submit the next.

Anyway, I have my first proctored exam tomorrow. Intro to Sociology and World Religion on Thursday. I might finish another course before my essays.

I started English Comp II as well. I've completed 3 of the essays already, but I think I'm going to stop working on this course. It's just too much writing, and I get very little uninterrupted time to work on stuff like that at home. I was not planning on submitting drafts for that course, but they're not required. The English Comp I research paper (final) *requires* a draft.

[Joeman200]

Since you've already accumulated 800 points, maybe you could start the essay with something that says, "Please don't flag this paper, I understand that [issue here] but I don't have the time to correct it and would just like to have it graded as is"

I don't know if it would fly, but it would be a shame not to get your credits since you've passed the 70% mark.

[clep4gainut]

I never submitted a draft and it allowed me to race through the course. The labor was still needed in the overall writing but the grading process came back pretty fast.

There may be new restrictions applied once you submit a 'draft' that I am unaware of. The only other concern is the writing may have been flagged at a level there is no way to approve it as a qualified submission that would keep the integrity of the course intact. As frustrating as the experience sounds, I don't see this as a negative for StraighterLine.

Grading can run over your monthly deadline and there is no additional charge to your account.

Study.com is definitely less labor and both the TECEP Comp 1 & 2 are considerably easier. My daughter just received her TECEP Comp 2 pass form back over the weekend and she felt it was a very a passable 'just book and take kind of exam' for someone with a baseline understanding of writing.

The research paper (final) *requires* a draft. Otherwise, I wouldn't have submitted one either. The grading process has been taking at least 4 days every time I have to submit. I can't complete the final until the draft is graded. There's nothing else for me to work on while I'm waiting. If I hadn't read about how they've passed off papers that were garbage, didn't have enough citations, or a high enough word count, I probably would have put more effort in and wouldn't be in this predicament. That's on me. I hope others that search on this particular class at this particular school find the posts that talk about how they're buckling down and not grading papers that don't meet the minimum requirements (whether you have enough points, 700+ to pass, or not), instead of the posts that suggest otherwise.

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Since you've already accumulated 800 points, maybe you could start the essay with something that says,  "Please don't flag this paper, I understand that [issue here] but I don't have the time to correct it and would just like to have it graded as is"

I don't know if it would fly, but it would be a shame not to get your credits since you've passed the 70% mark.

I resubmitted yesterday and made sure I met all of the requirements. If it gets flagged again, first I will go out of my mind, and then I will do just what you suggested.

[cookderosa]

I cannot finish this course. I have over 800 points in this class, and only the research draft and final left to complete. Based on a thread I read here, I thought I could write a fluff paper and finish the class. Nope. I wrote a really lengthy essay on special education, but they flagged it as a personal narrative and did not grade the paper. So, I spent a bazillion hours <slight exaggeration> trying to come up with something I could cite 4 sources on. I struggled for over a week just to come up with a topic. I finally came up with something, wrote it out and used citations. I submitted the paper on the 24th and it has taken them forever to grade. So, now it's been flagged again. This time due to low word count. If it takes a long as it did last time, I will not have this course finished by the time my account needs to renew. This is a DRAFT! Why can't they grade it low and suggest more content or something???

I could not recommend this class, or the english comp II class to anyone, based on this experience. For me, they refuse to grade a paper and give a low score - they just refuse to grade it. Getting a student advisor to allow me to resubmit, and then wait for grading again effectively drags out the course to the point they make another $99 on it. I'm so frustrated!

I feel your pain- I had 2 sons play this game when they did this course. Word count is one sticking point for them- I am sure they have software that counts it, so be sure to hit that number. Also, there is no sequence required for turning in papers, meaning you don't have to wait for your draft to be approved or graded- revise your current paper to meet wordcount and submit for BOTH draft and final at the same time. I would suggest finishing this today and calling it done. (you've obviously already passed, so you just need to check the box)

Low word count tips:
- add more references. Seriously. Like, a lot more. Not sure where to get more? Use the Wikipedia sources at the bottom of the page- there are tons. You can't use Wikipedia as a source, but you can use their sources. Also, just because it is a source/reference, that doesn't mean you need to include any content from it in your paper.

-take out all contractions and write out the words. "Won't" needs to be written out to say "will not" etc.

-everywhere you can think of, put the source after a statement- even if it is a paraphrase. (Smith) This will add a full word and you can do about ten of these in minutes. (Miller)

-take out all the numbers and use words- these sometimes aren't otherwise counted. Obviously, it doesn't work with years/dates, but instead of saying 3, write out "three."

Finally, you can add word phrases like "according to the textbook _____" instead of just saying what it is. You can also use "in my opinion____" as well as "In conclusion" at the closing paragraph.

These little changes will all add up. Also, one last thing, double space your paper if you're not already - and be sure you have a manually written header for EACH page. If you use a template header, it will be in the background and not counted as word count. If you physically type it at the top of EACH page (and "page 1" followed by "page 2" etc. too), it will be in the word count.

All the best!!

EDIT to add: I'm happy to help you with this if you email it to me cookderosa@aol.com

[Nixi]

Haha! Follow what cookderosa says and you shouldn't get anymore flags