Today, I received a terrible grade for an essay I worked really hard on. I had two friends, one being an English major, check it over. However, apparently I "clearly didn't use spellcheck" on this essay just like the last one I submitted to her. FML
Collection
Halloween
A failed costume, stolen candy and a very real scare: Halloween, the one night when fear is allowed.
Today, a friend of mine asked me to proofread her essay. "Don't hold back," she said. I took a look at it. It looked like it was written by a third grader, and she's in college. After spending a huge amount of time marking all of her mistakes, I gave it back. She got upset at me for being "extremely critical." FML
Today, I had my teacher look over my essay before turning it in. He said it was extremely well-written, so I handed it in. When I got it back, the feedback he left said it was one of the worst essays he'd ever read. FML
Today, I got back the essay I wrote about how my country's education system is fucked. At one point, I made a spelling mistake. My teacher wrote a note about it, basically calling me illiterate, and telling me to pay attention in school instead of whining about it. She misspelled "school". FML
Today, I'm grading final projects for a junior level college class. A student finally turned in their work, after months of encouragement and coaxing. Half of it was plain wrong, the rest had so many spelling and grammatical mistakes, it appeared to be written by a drunk autocorrect program. FML
Today, I lost a grade on an essay, because according to my teacher, I put much more detail into my analytical essay than I should have. FML
Today, after turning in a paper that I worked really hard on, I got it back with a grade of 0. In the feedback section, my professor wrote: “In all my 37 years of teaching, this is by far the worst essay I have ever read.” FML
Today, I turned in an essay after staying up late to work on it. I was away when the teacher assigned it, so I'd asked my friend what the subject was. It transpires that she'd given me the wrong one, all because she was mad at me for not returning her pencil. FML
Today, in the class I'm teaching, I assigned my students an essay to complete for homework. One student asked me if I was deducting points for bad spelling. I teach English. FML
Today, I turned in an overdue English assignment at college. My instructor accused me of plagiarism, writing that my sentence structure was "TO" good. Seriously? FML
Today, my boss yelled at me for ruining the report she was supposed to write with my "terrible spelling and grammar". I've checked it thoroughly, and all of her 'corrections' are wrong. She doesn’t believe me, and is refusing to look at a dictionary. FML
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Top comments
Steffi3 40
Either she chose the wrong major, of you need new friends
kylieh72 25
Next time, double check.
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Comments (110)
Steffi3 40
Either she chose the wrong major, of you need new friends
Dave_Davington 34
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.
meggieeeee92 27
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.
DoomSkuller 28
Or the teacher chose the wrong subject to teach
valalvax 13
Maybe op used Canadian spellings and the teacher graded for American or vice versa
kylieh72 25
Next time, double check.
MrDonSalvetti 27
Well to be fair, she did double check it. Two of her friends checked it, so her check would have been the third one.
keiNan_fml 35
It was your job, you should be the one who makes final check.
shaifox96 13
I did. I didn't see anything wrong.
Shadowblast423 3
Peer Editing is something taught very often in school so OP was in the right.
EmoKami 21
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....
NeatNit 33
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.
myanichole 22
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.
rebeccasports 4
What does this even mean have you tired Spell check on a Mac on Word
erizonkim 17
Are you sure you aren't tired enough to be in here?
sonshadsil94 15
Sorry spell check hasn't been perfected on FML yet.
Lorenzo1102 21
One time my mark got lowered because I used the wrong coloured pen. I know the pain
invadermaythe1st 35
You're lucky you even got a mark!
Lorenzo1102 21
Too true
Lorenzo1102 21
Too true
Markovski 18
You won't get a terrible grade just because of spelling. The whole thing must have been bad.
BlackIce911 17
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.
JCRouzer29 27
I do not forsee you as a programmer or having a focus on languages.
SassyLadyH 2
I've gotten several points taken off for spelling on essays when I was younger. maybe it really was a chronic issue.
fantasyworld 39
I had a professor who would fail you on assignments if you had 2 or more grammar errors.
bearstyle22 11
shit happens
scififemme 23
Was that the feedback from the teacher or the excuse your friend gave you? Next time go see a Writing tutor at your school. They will help you with higher order writing skills.
ryannmichael 17
No one else to blame but yourself.
acommonman 23
Use spellcheck next time, and have smarter people read it.
shaifox96 13
My friends are smart, thank you. Besides, of course I used spell check.
acommonman 23
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?
shaifox96 13
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.
Naith 14
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
chinaski7628 32
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.