4% because of spelling mistakes....

[sighyoung]

It seems that there are a variety of opinions on the quotation mark punctuation issue. I'm going to conclude that the choice is arbitrary, and that anybody who complains about it is just being anal for no reason.

It is arbitrary. All punctuation is arbitrary. The type of punctuation you use depends on the standards of your audience/publication. The three main formats are MLA, Chicago Manual of Style, and AP.

It's pretty easy. Find out what format is expected by who/what you are writing for and look it up in a manual.

That's fine. When I used to write for the school newspaper, we had that AP style guide, and it was great. Whenever you had a question like this, you could just look it up, get a definitive answer, and stop worrying about it. Now, most of the writing I do is not tied to a particular style book, and I don't see much point in defining one. In that case, I don't think there's any need to worry about minor issues like whether the period comes before or after the quote mark.

I agree. When I grade, I do point out issues of style to help students, but I mostly grade on content.

I make exceptions when the student's paper is virtually unreadable. Style rarely is an issue; neither is an occasional misspelling. However, if the paper looks like it was typed by a cat on a bender, I do take off because it affects my ability to read and understand what the writer was saying.

[thrill]

One guy I knew waited for his final grade to come in and then pooped in some clear plastic wrap and stapled it to his professor's office door.

[Leroy]

However, if the paper looks like it was typed by a cat on a bender, I do take off because it affects my ability to read and understand what the writer was saying.

Roscoe?

[G. Keenan]

One guy I knew waited for his final grade to come in and then pooped in some clear plastic wrap and stapled it to his professor's office door.

That guy should be hit by a bus.

That's vile.

[Dillagii]

That sucks. I could understand the prof at least pointing out the typos and advising you to be more careful, but not giving 0 points because of it. I had a cool prof at SIU-E for a marketing class, he advised us to NOT use spellcheck because it would mess our papers (too long to explain, but he had a certain format that he preferred, certain items in all CAPS, etc. and spell check would change it). I appreciated his warning because it really could have ruined my paper for his class....I always spellchecked until that particular class.

You are SIUE graduate?!? I went to SIUE 2001-2004.

[JL21]

One guy I knew waited for his final grade to come in and then pooped in some clear plastic wrap and stapled it to his professor's office door.

I don't even know how to respond to this.

Part of me wants to gag. Part of me thinks it's hilarious. And yet another part of me thinks that it's the most classless thing I've ever heard.

[ThatGuy]

I agree. When I grade, I do point out issues of style to help students, but I mostly grade on content.

I make exceptions when the student's paper is virtually unreadable. Style rarely is an issue; neither is an occasional misspelling. However, if the paper looks like it was typed by a cat on a bender, I do take off because it affects my ability to read and understand what the writer was saying.

This is pretty much the stance that all of my teachers have had over the years, and I think it makes a lot of sense. Don't allow too much leeway, but don't take off points for something small and stupid when the rest of the paper is up to snuff.

I do remember an otherwise good paper where I was docked 10 points for comma errors. I've since learned my comma rules a lot better.

[jim]

I just read the first post. I hate to say it - but bravo for the prof. No offense, but I think he's doing you a favor.

[ThatGuy]

I just read the first post. I hate to say it - but bravo for the prof. No offense, but I think he's doing you a favor.

You would.

[AdmiralKird]

I just read the first post. I hate to say it - but bravo for the prof. No offense, but I think he's doing you a favor.

You would.

I'm banking on it that we took the same guy. This guy is a d-bag. Here are his most recent reviews:

This was the WORST teacher I've ever had in my life- I had to drop because I could not stand to be around him any longer! (and I had a B+ at midterm!) He's extremely arrogant, condescending, disrespectful and thinks he's better than everybody else. Probably the least sympathetic or understanding person I've met in my entire life, horrible person.

First of all, **** is arrogant, but not as bad as the reviews make him out to be. Go to class, read the book , and don't pay attention to lectures because they are boring and not helpful. Paper was graded harshly,I recommend starting early and having several people read it before turning it in. Overall not too hard of a class overall.

Horrible teacher. Thinks that he's God's great gift from heaven. Don't expect anything higher than a C on your semester paper (and I'm an honor student, no joke). Tough and anal grader. I did well only because I bit the bullet and memorized all the material for the tests, so don't slack there. Don't bother reading before class, do it during.

He's tough. Probably one of the toughest and most anal professors in the Business School. He's very knowledgeable though, and he knows it. The arrogance definitely shows. He's a difficult teacher, so study hard right from the beginning. He has dry humor though, which I found somewhat amusing. Difficult, anal, smart, eloquent guy.

I've been at SLU for 2 years now, but I've never had lower than an A in a business class until I got a B+ in his. His instruction for the paper were very, very, vague with no samples or warnings of things to look out for. I walked down to turn in a test one time, and I started to set my papers down in the three piles when he snapped angrily at me: "Woah, hey. Stop. Thats MY job." I'm a lax guy when it comes to noticing people being rude/d-bags/a-holes, but this guy reeks of it.