In all my finite knowledge, I decided to take Advance Placement World History my junior (this) year. The trouble comes in a series of three, two-page reports I have to do with the US presidential race, The war in Iraq and the global economy. Well, it wouldn't be much of a problem if I hadn't spent two months working in seclusion up at a boy scout camp. I was supposed to keep an eye on these things; I've gone through the internets and caught my self up, by the way. Now, I've decided to do what I've always done: do the assignment, without doing the assignment. Let my opening speak for itself. "So, you want me to talk to you about the war in Iraq, the state of (Not necessarily notarized or defined; I actually wanted to do it about the race in Zimbabwe, only to find that they wussed-out and opted for a Prime Minister instead) the US presidential race and the ups and downs of the global economy? Well, I must say, those are things that I generally don’t keep an eye on, but anything, I s’pose, for the grade. The world’s a complex place, y’know. People and even places moving around constantly, merging and separating from each other with every breath taken. Who can really keep an eye on it? It’s so intricate that no one person can possibly hope to dot the I’s and cross the t’s of it all by themselves, right? Well, maybe to you. Me, if you asked, I’d say that the world manages to stay glued together because, well, all things in it are glued. That is, I believe all things are connected. If you inquired further, I’d say that force was God, but that’s whole ‘nother tangent that I’m sure you’re not interested in. As a matter of fact, I sure you really didn’t want to read that whole opening anyway. It’s probably a good thing you did, since you now know that all things are connected and consequently, why it is I’m writing this like I am. All things are connected and so, they are in this one, singular paper hoping to explore the connections on all three. With that out of the way, let’s get into the fun stuff." So, am I pushing it too much, or do I have legitimate grounds to run with that? I do honestly beleive what I wrote, and that since she asked specifically for our opinions and thoughts, that would qualify. I just wonder what you would say if you were a teacher, expecting students serious about world history. And I'm not just messing around, I love History. It's about people, so it's infinitely more interesting than numbers or physics.
You might have a solid ground to work - the whole interconnected thing. It could work. But this opening is pushing it way to much. I think you have a much higher chance of success if your opening at least sounded like you were taking this report seriously. Right now it looks like you are trying to make an excuse to only write one paper. But that might be your style.
I'm rather puzzled about the very informal language used in the report opening--not just the language itself ("wussed out," "y'know," "whole 'nother tangent," "fun stuff"), but the tone, the author speaking to "you," for example. :/ They allow that sort of thing in class reports now? Back when I was in school and college, unless it was an informal, personal essay-type thing, they never would allow it. I would write the three reports, but that's me and I've always been a stickler for rules. Though I did get consistently good grades. ETA: The reports are only two pages each?? That should be easy! It's only six pages. Your opening here alone is probably half a page in itself. Pff.
I'd like to think I'm not too far out of high school (6 years) to believe that the standards for written reports have lowered so much that you'd be allowed to turn something like that in. Had I done so in any of my AP courses, I would've been flunked immediately and told, "If you aren't going to take this class and the material seriously, then switch to a lower level class."
I have to agree with the above comments in that I really don't think it's the right style or tone for a report. Then again I'm english, so I have no idea what the hell is going on!
Do you know this teacher? I ask because... well, I had the same teacher for all my AP Histories / Government and I've gotten away with writing something along these lines before (but this was the teacher who made our daily prompt on Valentine's Day something about proving that people are a) stupid or b) sheep, at which point I made the argument that they weren't sheep because sheep were useful to provide food and clothes, to which he responded that he had a nice pair of baby skin gloves which he loved, thank you very much). I also wrote once about how Al Gore was a frog. So yes, to all you doubters out there, it is possible to turn something rather strange in and still get A's. However. If you don't know the teacher, you're taking a tremendous risk, so then it comes down to how important you think this grade is, ie if you can handle not getting a good grade on this paper. The upside is that if you don't know the teacher, you should be able to figure him/her out pretty quick after a stunt like this. I do think you're given a bit of leeway on the whole second person thing because she asked for your opinions and thoughts, but again, it really depends. One more caveat; are you planning on making it one six-page paper then?
Possible yes, but only if, from what you've told us, you're very chummy with your teacher and his/her judgement has become clouded because of it. I've been friendly with all of my teachers, and I still maintain that I would've failed if I had turned in something like that.
Then your teachers were far more serious than mine, FlakeandFins. I'm not saying it's the greatest idea, and I'd defend myself by saying that I never wrote like that on anything which I knew to be serious, and by the time I got to that point, my teacher knew very well that I could write appropriately and did know the material. Whether or not that meant his judgment was clouded I believe is another matter entirely - I tend to think it was more of a case of his knowing when to lighten up about things and allow for a bit more creativity. Personally, if I were a teacher and presuming that Ferret went on to cover the assigned topics in a reasonable and well-researched manner, I imagine I'd find the tone and style more refreshing than anything else. I think the interconnected topic idea could be very clever, actually. However, I'm rather... progressive as far as things like that go. Naturally, going the more traditional route is safer, and of course at some point he'll have to write that way (eg I'm sure the AP graders wouldn't react very well to something like this). So it's probably best to just go with that.
I don't know, history teachers tend to care more about the information in the report than the style used to report it. If it was english class doing a report then i'd say NO WAY follow the rules given but since it's history, i'd say go for it and make one six page essay instead off three two pagers. If i was the teachere i'd give you at least a C even if i hated the style if you still had the information. Also since it is an oppionion piece you should have more slack than just writing on a subject.
