Research? For a research paper???

The sun had come up, the sky was blue with a few light fluffy clouds floating across that open sea.  The temperature was close to 60 degrees and rising.  In other-words, it was a good morning so to correct that I opened my University e-mail account and found this message:

Mr. Jacks,
I have a few questions about the way that my paper was graded. 
-I lost X points for having no citations, but no citations were required so how can I lose points for something that I was not required to have?
-I lost X points for not having a reference page, again not a requirement?
-I lost X points for my intro and conclusion.  I am wrong that this is a computer/technology course should my paper be graded more on content than it is on style, grammar, and punctuation?  
 
I am not saying that I deserve a 100 for this paper but does it really only deserve a XX?


I sat there looking at the e-mail wondering, “This student submitted a paper that had a one sentence introduction, no conclusion, and no references.”  It had been up to this point that I had assumed that assigning a “Research Paper” would let the students know they were suppose to do research to complete the paper and provide citations and a resource page to these sources.

Maybe it is just me, but every paper I turned in during my college years required that I quote my sources.  It was just common sense, you use someone else’s data then you cite that source.  

So, I was wrong.  Students apparently do not just assume that the paper should have sources and cite them and even worse, some students do not believe they have to write a correctly formed paper.  Maybe I am just a bit of a stickler for a paper that reads like a paper and not something that reads like randomly pulling words out of a bag.

This student’s paper would have been scored much high had he simply included an introduction and a conclusion and had spent the time to include his sources.  But the good news for him is I am planning to make sure that future students fully understand exactly what is expected…  His legacy will live on!

Way to go big guy!

I know I'm glad this has been decided...

According to many medical professionals drinking alcohol increases the risk of alcoholism. The same doctors have decided that there are no klingons around Uranus, but they will not make any official statement about Your anus.

Naughty America - Let's get ready to screw!

I am the happiest man in the world today since discovering “Naughty America: The Game” at http://www.naughtyamericathegame.com/.

This game allows you to meet people in a virtual world and have sex (either in an apartment or in a public sex zone such as the “cowboy room.”

You can watch the person’s web cam while your cartoons are having intercourse and as an added bonus you are able to smack the girl’s ass.

Soon to a be a classic around the world, although I see the players as not being the married men and women that populate today’s gaming world because it has divorce proceedings written all over it!

But the trailer had me rolling!

Go over there and make your own!