Source: Mama
Lecturers reveal the most embarrassing mistakes their students make
In some works you can tell that the students barely understood anything – or simply didn’t feel like doing it.
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Anyone studying at a university should have mastered the basics of scientific work – or at least have a minimum of education and motivation. However, none of this can be taken for granted, as lecturers have to say again and again.
Anyone who has ever corrected or even proofread a student’s term paper or thesis has probably stumbled upon formulations or formalities that actually have no place in academic papers. Lecturers in particular keep shaking their heads. On Reddit, some of them reported what the biggest blunders their students were.
Stories in which the lecturers wondered how the students even got their school leaving certificate were in demand. Obviously, many find it particularly difficult to cite sources. One lecturer reported that a student had cited her mother as a source several times. The explanation: Your mother would have researched all the information, she would have simply included it in her housework. Another student justified the witch hunt by saying that she had “seen things” herself – without further elaborating the mysterious suggestion.
Bad mistakes in term papers: Emojis do not belong in a scientific text
Other students did not adhere to the basic rules of scientific work either. One lecturer reports that he once received a term paper that was teeming with emojis. These things should actually be a matter of course after the first semester at the latest. Even more astonishing, however, are the cases in which there was obviously a lack of very simple general knowledge. For example, a lecturer relates that he had to teach a student what an even number is. Another student reportedly tried to send an email using the word processing program Microsoft Word.
Where students do not fail because of their ignorance, sloppiness and brazen behavior can quickly become a pitfall in the course of study. For example, one lecturer was dealing with identical twins who not only submitted the exact same essay, but also copied it from the Internet. A student is said to have come to his lecturer’s office hour and complained that he had failed – even though he had not passed a single examination.
Some students just write past the topic
It can be noticed from some students that they did not even begin to deal with their topic – or that their thoughts were completely different while writing. That can then fluctuate between funny and absurd. One lecturer says that while reading a paper he had to think about why the author Nelson Mandela assumed hatred of Jews until he realized that he was referring to the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Another student wrote that he liked William Golding’s book “Lord of the Flies” because the group of boys in it saved so many flies. But there is no such scene in the novel.
Source: Reddit
This article originally appeared on stern.de.