“Festooned with dashes” would (?) make a great rock band name.
Eh. Maybe not. It’s evocative enough I attempted to type out a dash garland for you but that became too fiddly after realizing aligning the hard returns would be complicated.
It pisses me off that any well-intentioned honest student should have to spend an iota of an atom of a second second-guessing their own writing for fear that someone wielding a divining rod is going to think they cheated.
My kid did too well in a class a few years ago and the prof said she was cheating. It took them many conversations and 2 weeks to convince him to not drop her from the class. They were so paranoid after that.
omg this Em Dash *War* is hilarious. FWIW: both @bcdreyer.social and @jeffsharlet.bsky.social have Legit points. Just IMHO: The infiltration of #AI “decision-making” in any Grammar considerations re Writing for the public requires Human Scrutiny— AND Judgement. #TeamEmDash
I still have scars and spite over a 5th grade teacher (that was her year but also her quality level AT BEST) accusing me of plagiarism because I accurately used the word “therefore” in an assignment. She was awful in, per Dick Deadeye, many various ways, but that’s high on my list.
Nobody's saying they're a new arrival. What some teachers are apparently saying is that since AI apparently likes to use em, they see them as evidence of cheating. This isn't my policy. I'm just saying what's happening. Like it or not--I don't--it's happening.
Why say this? At a time when giant tech corporations are attacking the humanities--and humans in general--why throw a punch at teachers trying hard to work with students?
Because I spent too much time as a middle school special ed teacher pushing into English classrooms listening to English teachers who didn't have a firm grasp of grammar and couldn't write to save their lives.
Sure. I see awful writing from colleagues all the time. All the same, I'm going to say Big Tech is more of an enemy than a teacher with 30 students who may not be the best writer themselves.
Comments
(I wouldn't even know how to secure such a thing.)
Eh. Maybe not. It’s evocative enough I attempted to type out a dash garland for you but that became too fiddly after realizing aligning the hard returns would be complicated.
Best I can do festoon-wise for now:
Any professor who thinks they can sniff out AI usage just from the text itself is actively doing harm.