Friday, November 13, 2009

Barielle Misbehaving Mistress

Barielle Misbehaving Mistress

I think this is a really interesting color but it doesn't really appeal to me: charcoal brown with either silver or bronze shimmer (hard to tell). Surprisingly bright for a dark color... but also surprisingly sheer for a dark color. Three coats and I could still pick out thin spots where I could see my nail. I don't think I have anything dupish to it but I'm not sure I'll ever wear it again.

On the topic of misbehaving, I'm pretty sure that I have a handful of plagiarized papers in my latest batch of grading. Not just any plagiarism, not cheapie cut-and-paste, but purchased essays. I can't see how anyone would generate a genuine essay that's only this vaguely on topic (and refers to information that they did not learn in class nor cite their sources for). This sort of thing is almost impossible to prove as plagiarism, unless I want to shell out the money to see if papers match. And I do not. Reading some of these, I hope they didn't pay for them because they are damn wastes of money for bad, bad essays that wouldn't have netted them above a C+ anyway. Seriously, if you're gonna shell out $90 on some paper, make sure it's quality!

(One of my high school friends was an English major in college and post-graduation, she was looking for a writing-related job. She answered an ad for a "writer" at some company. Her interview was to write a paper on a random topic. We're pretty convinced that it was a paper mill company. And no, she didn't take the job.)

Here's the thing: if you don't have the time or inclination to do the work for a college degree, why are you wasting your money on a college degree at this moment? Many people want to go to college but can't (and these slacker students are taking up seats that could go to those people who want to be students). If you want a better class of job that a college degree will get you, don't you realize that those better jobs will require you to have learned something about writing and critical thinking in college? Aren't students just sort of screwing themselves over? And wasting money at the same time?

Life gets in the way of school. School is not all-important. I get it, I've lived it. But if these are the case, why not put school on hold until you can devote time to it? It's so expensive. As is buying papers.

Anyway. 75 papers down, 25 to go. This is ALL I've been doing since Tuesday afternoon. I'm onto my tenth page of typed up comments for students.