Thank you for taking the time out to grade our group's paper. I just wanted to say that I was a little offended when you commented on us having "Poor writing skills". I know that by no means are we perfect in writing. And it's probably a good thing neither of us are looking to become journalist. However, I personally, feel insulted to hear that in my senior year I confused words that would potentially be an embarrassment in business writing.
I would like to give you a little bit of a background on me:
I was once a high school drop-out and did not attain my GED until ...
I respond:
I’m very sorry you feel insulted as that was not my purpose. My
purpose is to help you advance by pointing out a deficiency that you are
capable of correcting. One of the very serious mistakes the educational system
makes is emphasizing self-esteem at the expense of hard skills. I don’t
recall which paper is yours, but if I said that the writing needs work, that is
my true belief. It has nothing to do with insulting you. It is a way to
help you achieve your goals. I am on your side. I could do what
most others do and what I did for years: ignore the writing issue and pretend
that all is well. But that is not going to help you.
If you look at your pique from my standpoint, you might consider
that I pay a price for what I do with the grading. I could give everyone an A
or B+ and say everyone’s paper’s great. Instead, I spend a week of my time
thoroughly reviewing your work and giving you pointers as to how to improve.
I don’t get paid more for doing that rather than just giving everyone an
A or B+ and doing little more.
As far as your background, given the impressive gains you’ve
made since returning to school, I would think that you would appreciate my
selfless and unrewarded efforts in helping you improve. I’m not BSing you, trying to make myself into a VIP, or building my own ego. This is a
painful, time consuming process for me that I do to help you. I get nothing in
return for it. I could not do it. But that wouldn’t be of help to the students.
