That or OP needs to work on her spelling and grammar. In fact, given that the essay got a terrible mark, I'm strongly inclined to believe that her friends are correct. Though I suppose her friends simply being assholes and the essay being graded poorly for some other reason is technically possible too, albeit just a tad far fetched.

Maybe she does need to work on all of that, but if her friend read it over she could have told the OP this instead of letting her get a bad grade.

Or the teacher chose the wrong subject to teach

Maybe op used Canadian spellings and the teacher graded for American or vice versa

Well to be fair, she did double check it. Two of her friends checked it, so her check would have been the third one.

I did. I didn't see anything wrong.

Peer Editing is something taught very often in school so OP was in the right.

If OP turned in a paper with numerous mistakes its their fault, regardless of how many people "check" it for them...the fact that they didn't see anything wrong with it means they don't understand the language enough to notice spelling mistakes... OP: get new friends to peer check for you, and study more....

to OP: did the teacher point out any specific spelling errors? no matter how you twist it, if you turn in an essay with mistakes and errors it's your fault (sorry), but if you truly believe you had no mistakes and you didn't get any evidence to the contrary, then something is certainly fishy.

Actually, you're supposed to have someone else check it over. You may read it over and over again, but still skip over your own mistake.

Are you sure you aren't tired enough to be in here?

Sorry spell check hasn't been perfected on FML yet.

You're lucky you even got a mark!

Too true

Too true

Not true. When I was a senior in high school, the teacher explicitly told the class that any spelling errors would result in an automatic F.

I do not forsee you as a programmer or having a focus on languages.

I've gotten several points taken off for spelling on essays when I was younger. maybe it really was a chronic issue.

I had a professor who would fail you on assignments if you had 2 or more grammar errors.

My friends are smart, thank you. Besides, of course I used spell check.

I don't mean to be accusative, but am simply curious; how then could both of your friends, especially considering one being an English major, not proofread so many mistakes in your work as to have your teacher surmise that you didn't even bother to use spellcheck?

Read the essay for yourself. Its in fiction press titled "Roman Essay (not fiction just didn't have another place to upload", posted by FarAwayFox. I don't see the spelling mistakes. Her comment wasn't written pointing to any specific thing, it was just to the side of the paper.

I did just read it and it is not bad but the ending sentences of the first and last paragraphs are poor and please put the references in square brackets but otherwise it nice. However you don't really say much. It more just saying what is on the references and since it is about Christianity maybe you can mention Constantinople I

I also just read it. It's not a bad essay, but you have several run-on and fragment sentences, syntax errors, and poor paragraph structure (sorry, I know some people get tetchy about strangers criticizing their writing-- but you asked). I'm an English teacher and believe me-- those are all very common problems in student writing. None of those things really impact clarity or readability, and (except for the run-on/fragment sentences), none of that would show on spell check, so I'm not sure why your teacher would criticize you for not using spell check. It's more a problem of flow than anything. Before you turn in your next paper, have a conference with your teacher to find out exactly what your teacher is looking for in an A essay. Ask for a sample outline or a sample essay. Also, if your school has a writing lab, utilize it. Rather than just correct for errors, the writing lab can help you with structure, syntax, and being reflective about your own writing. Also, I'd like to add that asking an English major to proofread your work is like asking a doctor you meet at a party to check out your weird mole. "English" is a pretty broad field and majoring in English does not mean you're good at (or specializing in) grammar/spelling or essay writing.