[CFFarm]

From the horse's Equine Now Ad: "Diesel" is a clydesdale/quarter horse mare. her mom was black and white clydesdale and her daddy was blue roan qh. she is 4 or 5 years old, im not sure what her birth date is. she was born in north dakota but has lived in arizona since she was 6 months old. i bought her a little over a year ago and moved back to cali with her. she is not broke but i have had about 10 rides on her. her nature is very sweet and lazy. i bought her for $5,000 and i would like to get what i paid for her but i am also accepting offers. please call for more information

If this guy or girl paid $5000 for an untrained, lazy grade horse, they need need more education than college can provide.

[trubandloki]

From the horse's Equine Now Ad: "Diesel" is a clydesdale/quarter horse mare. her mom was black and white clydesdale and her daddy was blue roan qh. she is 4 or 5 years old, im not sure what her birth date is. she was born in north dakota but has lived in arizona since she was 6 months old. i bought her a little over a year ago and moved back to cali with her. she is not broke but i have had about 10 rides on her. her nature is very sweet and lazy. i bought her for $5,000 and i would like to get what i paid for her but i am also accepting offers. please call for more information

Does not sound like the same horse. Is there a phone number or photo that matches?

[AirForceWife]

OT but for you college professors who get papers/labs in this type of format, what do you do with them? Is it an immediate failing grade or do you actually push yourself to grade it?

[Alagirl]

OT but for you college professors who get papers/labs in this type of format, what do you do with them? Is it an immediate failing grade or do you actually push yourself to grade it?

Throw them a party because they turned in work?

[BEARCAT]

Does not sound like the same horse.

Pretty sure it's the same - lots of racing QHs around here, so "racehorse" does not necessarily mean TB.

[Frank B]

Given what's allowed to graduate from many of today's colleges, I have no trouble believing she's a student.

[BarbaricYawp]

Attempting to be charitable here... are we sure it's HER college (collage? colage?) bill and not some mom trying to support a kid?

(just trying folks. LOL)

[trubandloki]

Attempting to be charitable here... are we sure it's HER college (collage? colage?) bill and not some mom trying to support a kid?

(just trying folks. LOL)

They say they are full time student (bolding below by me).

i really dont want to sell her!!! but I am a Full time student and have a full time job, and a ful time colage bill and I dont have the time she deserves and needs to finish her.

[Skip's Rider]

OT but for you college professors who get papers/labs in this type of format, what do you do with them? Is it an immediate failing grade or do you actually push yourself to grade it?

First, let me say I have never received a paper this bad. In my classes, part of their grade on writing assignments is for grammar and readability. Not all professors have this as part of their grading scheme.

[LauraKY]

OT but for you college professors who get papers/labs in this type of format, what do you do with them? Is it an immediate failing grade or do you actually push yourself to grade it?

My daughter had to take an online class through a Kentucky University...she showed me some of the papers that were submitted. It was horrifiying. One had no punctuation...not even periods. How were they ever accepted to college?

[Kate66]

On an aside note, I was going to enroll in a community college here to do some evening classes that I was interested in. I have a masters degree and am a chartered accountant and they would not enroll me based on my transcripts without having me do a writing, reading and maths test. How on earth do people like this pass that test?

[Kate66]

Unfortunately I would struggle to see past the spelling to even consider the grammar. Spurious use of capital letters, run-on sentences...........

[Lost_at_C]

OT but for you college professors who get papers/labs in this type of format, what do you do with them? Is it an immediate failing grade or do you actually push yourself to grade it?

It varies depending on discipline and university. Generally in non-Humanities subjects the rule of thumb is that poor writing that impedes clarity can result in a lower mark; otherwise, unless particular course handbooks explicitly include writing skills in their assessment rationale, small errors are ignored even if oft-repeated. In Humanities subjects the bar is set higher and most departments consider written expression a key skill set of the degree programme.

If handed an essay as bad as the ad in the OP, most professors in ANY subject would be likely to fail it or award it a minimal passing grade if saved by seriously stellar content. As for marking, each professor handles it differently. Some refuse to waste time, others like me habitually correct the first couple of paragraphs as a guide for the student.

Perhaps most importantly though, the failing mark would be accompanied by a procedure to address the student's serious skill deficit - this varies from place to place but would generally start with the student being assessed for academic ability so that any learning difficulties could be appropriately addressed. Following this the student would typically receive extra tutoring and learning support to try to keep them on track, even if that track is a slower one.

Sorry, that was a long and boring answer to a rather special-interest query! (I have an interest in pedagogic theory vs. practice, can you tell?)

[gaitedincali]

On an aside note, I was going to enroll in a community college here to do some evening classes that I was interested in. I have a masters degree and am a chartered accountant and they would not enroll me based on my transcripts without having me do a writing, reading and maths test. How on earth do people like this pass that test?

Probably the same way I passed the math portion of that test- they don't! I got perfect scores on the reading and writing, and ended up in remedial maths learning arithmatic.

[Hippolyta]

On an aside note, I was going to enroll in a community college here to do some evening classes that I was interested in. I have a masters degree and am a chartered accountant and they would not enroll me based on my transcripts without having me do a writing, reading and maths test. How on earth do people like this pass that test?

I am a community college instructor. It is supposed to work like this:

If you don't score at college level on the entrance test, you are supposed to enroll in the remedial classes b/f you get to the "real" college classes. Within the state system here in MN, most, but not all, schools enforce this policy.

OR, students do take the remedial (word now is "developmental") classes, but some are just not going to catch up.

I teach at a school that is not good about enforcing the pre-reqs that they have on the books. If I could show you the horrors I have seen (from students coming out of well to do suburban high schools)....

It is frustrating, b/c it is setting these students up for failure. They drop out after one bad semester b/c they are not prepared. It is really just taking their $. I suppose the 400$ for one class is better than 60K that the For-Profits take them for (ending with a preposition).

As for what I do when I get a poorly written paper (and this CL ad is nothing compared to the atrocities that I have witnessed): it gets returned with a directive to go to the writing center. My syllabus says that I will only grade papers that are written at the college level. Most of the worst cases end up dropping & going back to the beginning.

Another approach: the state of CT has decided that remedial classes don't get students up to speed, so they have just decided to drop them all together.

don't even get me started....

On the other hand, as a grad student I got a gig grading papers from the weekend Exec MBA program at the UNIV OF CHICAGO (!!!!!) and those weren't so great, either.

[Sandy M]

On the other hand, as a grad student I got a gig grading papers from the weekend Exec MBA program at the UNIV OF CHICAGO (!!!!!) and those weren't so great, either.

Well, of course. Graduate MBAs have SECRETARIES (excuse me, "assistants") to take care of grammar, spelling and other editing problems.

I, on the other hand, work for attorneys, and in general - though I am sure there are exceptions - they are positively ANAL about those issues.

[caballero]

Well, of course. Graduate MBAs have SECRETARIES (excuse me, "assistants") to take care of grammar, spelling and other editing problems.

I got cheated when I did the work for mine, then.........

[laskiblue]

And mine. Try reading a lab report in that format.

Oh geez -- I bet that would be even more fun than the psych literature reviews mine write, LOL.

[Belair]

What? I'm supposed to have a secretary editing my MBA papers? Damn...guess I need to let my boss know!

[AirForceWife]

I only ask because I'm currently enrolled in an online university and some of the things I've seen just make me shake my head.