ENG 121 Matthews

[ashkir]

Okay, so maybe I'm just not understanding the citation guidelines and I'm completely at fault here, which is a reasonable option, but I cannot figure out what Prof. Matthews wants. I've read posts about her and how she wants you to follow the rubric and guidelines to a T. I've read that for some she can be a real nightmare, and for others she's fine. Despite knowing that, and despite getting her as my ENG professor, I've tried my best to keep an open mind. It's going on the fourth week and she still says my first milestone has so many citation errors.

She says that I need to remove all my headers and replace these with transition statements that one, let's my paragraphs flow from one into the next (okay, fair) but then two, its an important way for her to determine originality in my writing? You need me to get rid of my headers for you to determine if the rest of my essay has originality, and not, I don't know, using the rest of my essay to determine originality?? Maybe I'm overreacting about this but it feels very nit-picky from her. 

She doesn't like my use of full-length titles, believes it to be ineffective - and I'm just whinging here - but I use titles that to meet the requirement "identify six scholarly sources within the disciplinary areas written in the topics discussed that you have found using the library’s academic databases" (Matthews para. 1) <- did I cite this in MLA-9 correctly? I guess she wants a more subtle, scholarly way of referencing the sources?

Other more specific issues are fair since I didn't understand some parts of the MLA-9 guidelines and I just winged it and it didn't work.

I also got very passive-aggressive vibes from her second feedback. She began it using my full first name, even though I have a preferred nickname (I don't know if profs can see the preferred nickname), and then said my revision was a "mild improvement". 

At this point I'm re-writing my entire essay at 2 am because she's gotten me so stressed out that I'm not going to pass her class since there are two more milestones, and that I will have better chances taking the Sophia equivalent that everyone says to stay away from.

Look, I'm not exactly looking for advice on what to do because clearly I still have a lot to do for my milestone that I've "mildly" improved upon. I'm working on it. I just needed to rant a bit - sorry if this is not the place to do it. Maybe I'm just not understanding the instructions of this milestone correctly and have spent a bunch of time (that I now know was wasted) writing the wrong thing cause I got the wrong idea. 

Ignore this if you don't think it's relevant, I'm just very frustrated right now.

I finished this course with Professor Matthews in the last session. I had the exact same issues. Her requirements for citations are unreal. She would not provide any constructive feedback, only that they were not how she wanted them. When I submitted the final, I cited her Purdue Owl recommendations as a note and said I thought they were wrong, but that's how she wanted them. I ended up with an A-, the only one I have received in 160+ college credits. She is not a competent professor and I feel like the course was detrimental rather than beneficial.

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