Why, thank you!

I have been in school for almost three years now. Most of my classes were filled with paper after paper and so on. Week end and week out, I would be spending most of my weeks working on finding the appropriate research material, outlining all the information correctly, writing, editing, writing again, running it through the many “required” engines the school offers, writing again, having one more look, and then finally turning it in.

I don’t have much time after the completion of a paper to marvel on my good, hard, dedicated work. This is normally because I have yet another paper that I have to begin work on (not to mention the 3 or 4 chapters I have to read throughout the week as well) and it is just easier to continue on rather than take a moment to give myself some self recognition (as a psychology student I do realize that I should take the time to marvel, but, sometimes, it is better to just keep going and then take the much needed break after all the papers have been turned in).

The day I do wait for, however, is the day my professor posts the grade and feedback for the paper that I labored away at for hours (well alright, more like an hour or two, my blog, I can put a greater emphasis on what work I did). This is the time where I can see what it was that my paper lacked or had too much of. This is when I expect my professor to give me some constructive criticism, you know “this part was good, but I think you could have said it better this way…” or “good transition between paragraphs. Next time try and do this…” Anything, no matter how small, would have been greatly appreciated. Sadly, this was not the case. All I would normally get was “need to work on your grammar” or “be sure to follow APA guidelines”. That, to me, is rather vague. I mean its one thing to tell me that I have an issue with my grammar, but, along what lines? Why is my grammar an issue? Explain it to me. That way, I will know, exactly what my mistake was and how to fix it so, on the next paper, I won’t be told anything about my grammar. No, that’s all that I get, that it’s wrong. So, the next paper comes and, again, I am told that I have a problem with grammar. With no way to fix it.

That all changed with this professor. He actually gave me something that I could work with. He also surprised me. He told me that I was a great writer (no, really, that’s exactly what he said) and, here’s the best part, he gave me some good tips on how to improve my grammar! It was as easy as him taking the time to really look at my paper and then he just typed it out for me, in black and white.
After reading all the things he had to say, I was rather proud of myself. I have written a lot of papers in my time (shit, high school was actually right about something, you DO write nothing but papers in college) but I have never received any feedback like this. Well, I did, once, when I was in elementary school. But that didn’t count… I stole the story from some book or something (hey, I was a kid, I didn’t know what plagiarism was, give me a break). Either way, I had never received feedback that hit me as this one did.

There had been a point, rather recently too, in my life where I felt that I really wasn’t getting the full advantage that I should be getting from school. I began to question my chosen career field and started to feel like all I was doing was wasting everyone’s (my husband’s and mine mostly) time, money and frustration. Knowing that I am actually getting the material and putting it to use (in my own life as well) and writing good papers, is just the reassurance that I needed. I now have a pride in myself that wasn’t there before and I feel like the next paper I work on (it’s due tomorrow) will provide the same feeling for me.

Now, I do realize how silly getting feedback from a professor would make me have a renewed pride in myself sounds, but I have had a rough three years in school and in life during this journey, that I didn’t want everything to be in vain.
I now know that I am a good writer and that I really am starting to grasp the material. I just can’t wait until I can put all of this information to good use. One day...