this OMG

1.  Anonymous Says:
   October 2, 2012 at 8:31 PM  

   You asked for it:
   
   Damn ELPE markers. I went to a session with an ELPE marker to find out what's wrong with my essay. This lady just marked my entire page wrong. My best advice is to write stuff that is politically correct and do not give your own opinion. Give the best opinion that sounds good. She re-worded my essay and said "This is how you write it." Biggest "WTF" ever! So instead of "My name is Bob," write "I am Bob," because it sounds more fluent.
   
   I know my revision isn't perfect either but HOLY SHIT MAN YOUR ENGLISH SUCKS AND THAT IS WHY YOU FAILED OR WHATEVER. "A" ELPE marker? Seriously?
   
   Learn how to use commas and periods properly too. Don't act like it's her fault you didn't do well.

2.  Anonymous Says:
   October 2, 2012 at 10:33 PM  

   I'm going to pretend you take online writing a lot less seriously than academic writing and totally excuse your post here (since #1 already ripped into it well enough, I'd say).
   
   Did you ask the marker why she did everything she did? If you didn't like an answer, make her explain it well so you know in the future exactly where you went wrong and how it can be fixed. I don't really remember the ELPE that well but I didn't have a problem with it at all and I wrote an opinion-based essay too (with my own opinion). You can't treat it like a rant so you should have gotten a decent mark so long as you actually gave evidence and reasoning to back up your opinions.
   
   There's also nothing wrong with rewording essays. It's writing. If you chose the wrong words or have awkward sentences all over the place, of course you're going to get a lesser mark. Passive voice ("my name is Bob") is really frowned upon compared to the active voice ("I am Bob") in writing. I don't know if I'd necessarily agree with marking it wrong but chances are the marker was going through everything that stood out to her and might have been harsher than the actual markers just because it was a one-on-one session and you might be able to ask more questions and improve more from it.
   
   Please take her advice to heart and go ask for more if you don't understand why things were marked wrong. If you just sit there fuming over what was marked you aren't going to improve at all and you'll probably make the same mistakes over.

3.  Simon Magnus Says:
   October 2, 2012 at 10:46 PM  

   I would disagree that "I am Bob" is better than "My name is Bob". In the context of an essay, I can't imagine the former ever being preferable to the latter.
   
   It's not really the passive voice, either. It's a description of what your name is.

4.  Anonymous Says:
   October 2, 2012 at 10:49 PM  

   If you wrote your ELPE similarly to the way you wrote this post...

5.  Anonymous Says:
   October 2, 2012 at 10:59 PM  

   Is this a joke? Did you think writing that you'd find sympathy? Your writing is fucking horrendous.

6.  Anonymous Says:
   October 2, 2012 at 11:18 PM  

   OP stupidity aside, the markers do do stupid stuff.

7.  Anonymous Says:
   October 2, 2012 at 11:44 PM  

   The fact you failed the ELPE actually gives me more faith in the system.

8.  Anonymous Says:
   October 3, 2012 at 12:08 AM  

   Because the ELPE is something that you need the utmost integrity for and anything less than something Walter Cronkite would use is unworthy of the institution that is the ELPE. It's an essay to show you are competent in the English language. Do exactly what it says to do, don't deviate, and don't take tangents. Half of the ELPE is whether or not you can understand the instructions given for the test. You have obviously failed at that part. You could write an entire original Shakespearean play and an entire modern era adaptation like West Side story in the test period, but if the topic is what do you hope to achieve with your degree, you are going to fail....

9.  Anonymous Says:
   October 3, 2012 at 8:40 AM  

   MOD's note: hilarious.

10.  Anonymous Says:
    October 3, 2012 at 12:16 PM  

    @3: 2 here. Well, no, writing that sentence in either form would probably be pretty dumb but the sentence was an EXAMPLE of voices, not literal sentence ideas. Passive is almost always frowned upon as opposed to direct sentences. Replace the name sentence with almost any other example and the sentence will be received better in the active voice for an assignment like this.

11.  RL Says:
    October 3, 2012 at 3:26 PM  

    @1: You win, sir, you win.
    
    @Simon: Quote?
    
    "I AM BOB!!!", he screamed as he buried a rusty hatchet in the old man's head.

12.  Anonymous Says:
    October 3, 2012 at 5:54 PM  

    1 here. I am a girl, but thank you nonetheless RL