Smartass.

I’ve noticed a recurring theme to the essays that I write for my various classes here at Virginia Tech: I write too much. Not too much in terms of the number of words, but too much in terms of the level of knowledge demonstrated. As a consequence, baffled teachers and TAs assume that I just don’t know the right answer, and grade me down.

For example, I just got back the in-class essay that I wrote for a 100-level political science course that I have been compelled to take. The assignment entailed describing the barriers to democracy faced by Russia and Iran. I wrote, in part:

Some Russians, to paraphrase George Orwell, are more free than other Russians. Capitalist robber-barons have been given free reign, and are, in effect, above the law. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the sacrificial lamb, now finds the legal system being manipulated against him, as it was previously manipulated against those who would oppose him. And in October, President Putin told a Columbia University lecture hall that Russia does not have freedom of expression, no matter what the constitution says.

Now, this is fairly reasonable, if veritable chicken scrawl, thanks to its hurried authorship in an early-morning exam hall. The problem is that neither Orwell nor Khodorkovsky have come up in class or in our reading, and no mention of any such statement on the part of Putin has been relayed to the class.

The moral of the story — which I’ve learned before, but keep forgetting — is that I just need to play stupid and write out all of the keywords that the teacher expects to see. Now the trick will be retaining this information until finals next month.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »