English Writing class

[Nobody]

My goodness just when i thought English Writing could not get any dumber my instructor says there is something called self-plagiarism. Which means you can not use your own essays that you wrote in the past for assignments assigned to you now. Personally, I think that rule is just stupid.

I looked at google for a list of definitions and no where does it say that you cant use your own work:

1. the act of appropriating the literary composition of another author, or excerpts, ideas, or passages therefrom, and passing the material off as one's own creation.

2. The false presentation of someone else's writing as one's own. In the case of copyrighted work, plagiarism is illegal.

3. Copying someone else's work and then passing it off as one's own.

Im sorry if i bagged on you English majors here at the clan, but i just can't take it. It is sooooo not logical.

[Zangief]

Don't overlook the class. Just because you are studying engineering doesn't mean that you will never have to write anything. I do just as much writing as math. It is important.

[Dana :D]

What a bunch of poopie.

[Zangief]

well thats true...

[Nobody]

I don't mean that I will never have any use for it. I mean i will have to write resumes in the future, and it is essential to learn to write. However, the whole writing about the themes, motifs, and symbols of the book does not seem logical to me at all. It seems to me you can take any sentence out of the book and analyze it however you want. And if they are teaching you to read critically it isn't exactly helping when you go and read a science journal or something. My teacher said it himself that if the author was sitting at the back of the class and we were analyzing parts of the book, most likely the author would not have any idea what we were talking about.