Upserd Student Misspellings, Reeducks

[Parasaurolophus]

Looks like we didn't port this thread over from the old forum, but it's a fun one, and worth having. It differs from the words students don't know in that students know these words--they just don't know how to spell them.


I haven't had one worth reporting in a while, but I finally came across this in my most recent batch of midterms:

arrow cells (as in: a suspension of fine solid particles in gas)

[onehappyunicorn]

"The Lamination of Christ"
"The Sixteen Chapel"

I admit I gave partial credit on these answers because bless their hearts.

Another student recently asked me via email for help on their "Self Poortrait".

[Juvenal]

"The Lamination of Christ"
"The Sixteen Chapel"

I admit I gave partial credit on these answers because bless their hearts.

Another student recently asked me via email for help on their "Self Poortrait".

Priceless.  Even better if it was a religious studies class rather than an art class, but I suspect art class from the poortrait plea.  The first two sound like spell-check errors...

[apl68]

The "self-poortrait" may have simply been an honest self-assessment of current skill level. 

Keep at it, Self-Poortraitist!"  Everybody has to start somewhere.

[onehappyunicorn]

You are correct in that it was an art appreciation course. The answers were hand written though so no spell check involved. I haven't taught lecture in some time but I used to have a list of funny misspellings somewhere...

[RatGuy]

"He is the escape goat."

As in, he disguises himself as the prisoner so she can escape.

[apl68]

Our family goat-keeping experience taught me that every goat is an escape goat.  It's amazing how resourceful such otherwise dumb animals can be when it comes to getting into places where they aren't supposed to be.

[mamselle]

Or out of.

Picturing my long, lanky cousin running down the lane after "Eli," who looked professorial when he stared down his nose at you over the fence, but could jump that fence as easily as wag his head, and there you were....running down the lane after him....

M.

[Myword]

One time a student actually misspelled her own name. (It was a common word-name.)


Also, they always misspelled surely, and wrote surly.

[KiUlv]

I'm grading papers right now (for graduate students) and I just ran across this one: Processes that are hinderous to student success. Hinderous? This just a day after a different student talked about the "suffrage" of Native Americans (and he wasn't talking about voting rights).

[mamselle]

People trying to sound educamated should look up those big words they want to use....

M.

[writingprof]

"tramedisly"

The intended word was "tremendously." As the paper is otherwise not terrible, I'm at a loss.

[AvidReader]

Did we not carry over the thread for student misspellings from the old fora? Sorry if I missed it in the search, but this one was too good:

Student essay today refers to "symbolism" in the first two paragraphs and suddenly changes to "simbolizam" in the third and fourth paragraphs (including a parenthetical citation to the OED that misspells the word). Student goes back to "symbolism" for the works cited entry. The paper is uploaded in Word, which has flagged it as misspelled in every "izam" instance (there are seven).

The other half of the paper discusses irony.

AR.

[marshwiggle]

Student essay today refers to "symbolism" in the first two paragraphs and suddenly changes to "simbolizam" in the third and fourth paragraphs (including a parenthetical citation to the OED that misspells the word).

Sounds like a religious cult that's really into iconography. "Followers of Simbolizam"
(emphasis on 2nd syllable)

[Parasaurolophus]

We did port it over! But it's in teaching (I can merge the threads later): http://thefora.org/index.php?topic=1084.msg21307#msg21307