I just completed a semester of “Structure of the English
Language” ENG 321. While my professor
was incredible, inspiring, and hilarious, the material was difficult. The textbook?
Dense. Class discussion? Confusing.
Basically, my class spent four months diagramming sentences and
analyzing the possible structures inside a noun phrase. It was exhausting.
For two of our four tests, we students were asked to grade
our own papers. We were asked to compare
our answers to the correct response, and take off as many points as we saw
fit. At first, I was extremely
uncomfortable with assigning myself a grade and I erred on the side of being
too harsh on myself. Even though I felt
like I deserved an A on the test, I was afraid to give myself a score higher
than the average score in the class.
Then, I had an epiphany.
If college is really about the individual, and classes are
for the student’s benefit, why should we as students focus so much on the
grade? Why do we feel that a professor
should validate us by assigning a number beside our name on the roster? I need to know grammar structure rules so I
can teach English to high school students once I get a job, not so I can get a
gold star on my test and stick it on my fridge.
I should feel comfortable grading my own test any day, because I need to
personally see what information I know, and what I have misunderstood out of
the course. This material is important
not so students can regurgitate words onto a page; it exists to promote the
development of ideas. Grades are simply
indicators of effort expended on learning.
So relax, diagram a sentence.
