{"id":33075,"date":"2016-03-31T05:42:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T09:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=33075"},"modified":"2016-03-31T05:42:09","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T09:42:09","slug":"a-generic-college-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/03\/a-generic-college-paper.html","title":{"rendered":"A Generic College Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Ever since I came across the McSweeney\u2019s piece \u201cA Generic College Paper,\u201d<\/a> I have wondered whether showing it to students and talking about it would not help them.<\/p>\n

It starts, like so many\u00a0truly awful student papers, with \u201cSince the beginning of time\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an excerpt:<\/p>\n

Utterly contrived topic sentence revealing pretty much every flaw of structured essay writing. Therefore, supporting sentence invoking source that exists only in the bibliographies of other cited material (pp. arbitrary to arbitrary + 5). Contemplative question? Definitive refutation paraphrased from a blog found at 2AM:<\/p>\n

\u201cMassive block text to lend legitimacy to this sorry endeavor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Legitimate-sounding Anglo Saxon name (year between 1859 and 1967)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Obviously, non-sequitur segue. Utter misinterpretation of the only other author researched for this paper. Blind search for evidence reflecting increasing desperation (authors 4, 5, and 6).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For those who care, a warning before clicking through<\/a>: the text includes\u00a0a mild expletive.\u00a0But it is worth it not just for the laugh, but for the discussion we might be able to have about whether it\u00a0could be not just entertaining, but pedagogically useful.<\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since I came across the McSweeney\u2019s piece \u201cA Generic College Paper,\u201d I have wondered whether showing it to students and talking about it would not help them. It starts, like so many\u00a0truly awful student papers, with \u201cSince the beginning of time\u2026\u201d Here\u2019s an excerpt: Utterly contrived topic sentence revealing pretty much every flaw of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":34171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,42],"tags":[2014,3837,4871,8682,13175],"class_list":["post-33075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-humor","tag-college","tag-generic","tag-humor","tag-paper","tag-university"],"yoast_head":"\nA Generic College Paper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ever since I came across the McSweeney's piece "A Generic College Paper," I have wondered whether showing it to students and talking about it would not\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/03\/a-generic-college-paper.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Generic College Paper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ever since I came across the McSweeney's piece "A Generic College Paper," I have wondered whether showing it to students and talking about it would not\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/03\/a-generic-college-paper.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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