Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Writing essays the undergraduate way

Norm and Cloud all got in before me, but you have to read some of the gems in this piece by Anders Henriksson and reprinted by Jeff Weintraub. Put together from undergraduate essays, it has some priceless gems re-writing history. I laughed ruefully at a lot of it, but this caught my eye:
Russian nobles wore clothes only to humour Peter the Great. Peter filled his government with accidental people and built a new capital near the European boarder. Orthodox priests became government antennae.
Reminds me of the classic line that appeared in one undergraduate essay I marked:
“Films became such an influence on people, and more and more women were on the street.”
To this day I have no idea what the student was intending to say...

1 comment:

Anna Lowman (annawaits) said...

You'll never find slips like that in my essays.... ahem....