Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Student Howler of the Week
My favorite howler-writing student (this is the same one who identified Hitler as the "Nazi leader in the Civil War") quoted the phrase "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" from the Deceleration of Independence in her final paper for me this quarter. You might have to re-read that sentence a few times. "Wait, George! We've got to slow this freedom thing down a little!"
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Haha I like the "Spoonerisms" you post of your slightly dyslexic student! Hope he knows of his fame in the blogosphere!
ReplyDeleteI will reply to your comment on Devonshire Day in my blog back below your post comment.
I have a great book on punctuation - "Eats, Shoots and Leaves", by Lynn Truss. have you heard of it? I should blog about the English language and its mangling sometime!
I really do love student mangling of the English language. It provides such fodder for chuckles and good laughs.
ReplyDelete*Catherine -- In fact, I OWN "Eats, Shoots & Leaves." It's one of the funnier books on earth. Have you ever read "Anguished English"? It's along the same lines, only it doesn't include the teaching that Truss's book does -- just a whole bunch of hilarious mess-ups. They're both among my favorites. My student does not know about this vicarious fame ... I'm not sure I should ever say anything! ;)
ReplyDelete*Benita -- wouldn't it be boring if I worked for the Math Department? (Besides the fact that the students would have to be teaching ME, I mean.)
That's a good one that you own the book - she has another few books - one is about rudeness and I forget what the other newer one is, but she is very witty and gets her irateness across really well. I get my kids' hair up when I go on about grammar and the greengrocer's apostrophe (= apple's for sale) and they say "there she goes, going all eats shoots and leaves again". So it has become a sort of compound verb! I had an eats shoots and leaves moment this week when I posted a Facebook status update with a comment on the Simpsons' St. Patrick's Day special premiering here and added a redundant apostrophe - Simpson's - to my horror! Thankfully no-one noticed or the punctuation police would have had a ball!
ReplyDeleteNow,now,now...let's not be disparaging of the math department :) (says the former math teacher)--math students make funny mistakes too...however, perhaps not as obvious to the most casual observer. In all seriousness, I do find your student quotes really funny.
ReplyDelete* Catherine -- I, too, am an apostrophe ... um ... Nazi (if you really want to know what people call me). I actually give my students a handout called "Do Not Annoy Me ..." with a list of my biggest pet peeves, like its/it's, their/there/they're, etc. And I obsessively copy-edit signs by the road and in shop windows, etc. I can't stop! I don't *think* I'm quite as annoying as all this actually makes me sound!
ReplyDelete* Becky -- I would certainly not wish to denigrate the math department, you know! :) I am extremely sure that my own math homework contained answers that made Tim Tiffin, for one, absolutely scream with laughter (patient, patient man that he was). You'll be glad to know I have a class of 14 next quarter again, so I shan't be running out of quotes anytime soon ...
kristin
kristin - so you are teaching next quarter? last i heard you were getting a quarter off. you are a brave woman!! especially after the end of winter quarter! as for bloopers - my favourite is still 'Thomas Steams Eliot' - which actually makes a sentence. not that the person who made that error was smart enough to realize it!! rmw
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