robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (07/02/84)
References: > I was taking my second quarter of English the same time I was taking > a class in assembly language programming (IBM 370 assembler). The > same day a program was due, a paper was due for the English class. > Since I had little time to write a paper from scratch, I found a > paper from the previous quarter that I made a B on and retyped it to > hand in. I made a C on the paper the second time. Both English > teachers had a PhD (in English). > Two English professors could not agree on what was correct or not! It's quite satisfying to take this as proof that English is not an exact Science, but it's also very tempting to poke holes in the "proof". For example, if I handed in the same paper two terms in a row, I would expect it to receive a lower the grade the second time, unless my professors had no expectation of: - my learning anything in the course of time - people's general understanding about any topic improving in the course of time. In the same nonserious vein, it is clear to me that Dick Lincoln received lower grades than his friend who submitted the same paper, for the simple reason that Lincln's professor, familiar with his classwork, expected better of him, while his friend's professor, familiar with HIS classwork, found his expectations exceeded. - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) allegra!eosp1!robison decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison