After grading a significant portion of Lab 1 labs, I felt the need to make a public, written announcement about common errors that I am seeing and am hoping will not be repeated in future lab write-ups.
Complete Sentences
When writing out the answers to the guiding questions, please do note that you were told in class to write in complete sentences. Should you forget that, it is printed on the sheet that is stapled to the inside front cover of your lab notebook. And finally, you should be used to complete sentence writing in my class because when it comes to work that is turned in to me, I require complete sentences on all work.
For clarification, a complete sentence must have the following properties:
1. A capitalized first letter.
2. A subject and a verb/predicate.
3. A period at the end.
If you need help identifying the nature of a complete sentence, I offer the following resources: 1, 2, 3.
Naked Pronouns
I am generalizing with the title of the aforementioned mistake from the more common “naked this“. What is meant by this is that a word such as “this”, “it”, “stuff”, “material”, etc. is used in reference to some object or combination of objects, but the object in question is never defined. An example of a naked pronoun follows:
Q: What do you think caused the upward flow?
A: It heated up and caused it to rise …
Please do not assume that I am a mind reader. If I were, I would not be teaching but would instead be a recurring guest on Oprah as I shocked the world with my amazing techniques. If you know what you mean, but your PAL has to ask for clarification, then you need to go back and revisit your pronoun usage. It takes less than a minute to write out “the oil” in place of “this”, and it takes your answer from incorrect to correct if you do so. Think about it. It is in your best interest to do so.
Complete Lab Write Up
Located inside the front cover of your lab notebook is a list, stapled, of what I am looking for in your lab write up. Think of it as a check list, because that is how I treat it when I go to grade your lab write ups. The entire experience is not a buffet where you can pick and choose your dishes. For those of you who attempted this feat on the first lab report, your grade will reflect your lack of appropriate follow through.
As a reminder, the labs count 35% of your quarter grade. Tests, also, count 35%. These are the two biggest chunks of your quarter grade, and much as I’d love to provide you with a good score for doing so well in class, if it isn’t written down, then it never happened.
Slang and IM-speak
Due to the advent of text messaging, IMs, MySpace, and other fun instant communications, I am aware that it is becoming a pain, and then a habit, to shorten words and use incorrect grammar. However, when it comes to being taken seriously in formal writing for things such as school or jobs, it is still vitally important to know how to spell words such as “because” and that ellipses (…) are not generally appropriate punctuation. Knowing how to play by the rules of the game is important to your future hire-ability, and in insisting that you write for me as if you were writing for any professional audience, I am helping you learn more than science.
That said, I’m aware that some of you might not have ever learned what the correct way to write certain words or phrases might be, so I’m including a helpful “cheat sheet”, as it were, to help you through. And lest you think that I’m spending time typing about a mistake that does not exist, every example cited in this “cheat sheet” comes from someone’s lab write up. –
Incorrect = Correct
cause = because
b/c = because
2 = two
4 = four
wat = what (and the end of the sentence starring this word should have a “?”)
… = , (for the most part)
(additional thoughts) = their own sentence
b4 = before
(^_^) = DO NOT INCLUDE THIS
r = are
u = you
+ or & = and
towards = toward
upwards = upward
!! = .
