Essay forum

[ninwa]

So, the essay submission/marking program isn't really working out that well. After discussing it with the mods we think it'd be best just to scrap it the scheme.

Possible options:

- keep the forum as a place for "mark my essay!" type threads. This reduces clutter, and also provides a good resource for students looking for sample essays.
(Can be either just for English, or for EL and Lit as well, and people will be required to just add [english] or [EL] or [lit] to the thread.)

- keep the forum, have mods post up essay topics and language analysis articles as planned. Anyone who wants to can write on whatever topic / article they want. This has the benefit of many heads thinking on the same topic, which encourages discussion and sharing of ideas.

- scrap the forum and go back to how it was previously (essay threads just go in their respective forums)

[shinny]

I'd say a combination of 1 and 2. Reducing clutter would be awesome. Having common topics for people to do would be good too, but people shouldn't be restricted to these since they might want to do another topic because they know they'd get more benefit from it, it's for a SAC draft or because their tutor gave it etc.

[jane1234]

I think its good to just have a "mark my essay" thing.
As you said, it would probably clutter up the main forum and a lot of people's essays would be shuffled down with all the other english questions, and get overlooked completely.
Maybe just clean the subforum up? E.g. delete empty topics and even get rid of the stickied threads with "this weeks work"...
I think it's really helpful to get other peoples' opinions aside from the teacher's, when people bother to give it.
Maybe someone could just make a list of random articles to analyse... in case people want extra topics for LA? Apart from that, they could just post whatever is relevant to their own class.

[Water]

Can there be any incentives for marking works? This way, it'd encourage people to mark works, instead of having the same people or similar people. Which ultimately, goes back to square one of the problem.

You can disregard the idea if you want, its just a thought, after witnessing no one really marking the Essay Submission Forum anymore.

[werdna]

I think maybe keeping the subforum may make essay submission seem too regular and frequent; this isn't visually appealing and isn't easy on the eye, especially when you've got 2 full pages of essay threads with unmarked work. Perhaps moving essay submission back into respective threads will alleviate these problems, I know I myself sometimes couldn't be bothered marking anything because of the overwhelming amount of work to mark.

If we go by the past, people will be submitting essays at their own free will and thus less regularly, which would mean the task of marking isn't too overwhelming. And maybe the issue of accessibility can be important too, I know some people that can't be bothered to go that extra mile and click onto the subforum. Having essay submission back the way it used to be will mean there's no forced or strict mentality of submitting on time or marking work in return or whatever, instead, it's all about submitting and marking at your free will. And you might argue that option 1 may allow this, but it'll still have a sense of control/demand which may have contributed to the failure of the subforum.

I know I helped to make the subforum, but you gotta call the shots.

[ninwa]

Can there be any incentives for marking works? This way, it'd encourage people to mark works, instead of having the same people or similar people. Which ultimately, goes back to square one of the problem.

You can disregard the idea if you want, its just a thought, after witnessing no one really marking the Essay Submission Forum anymore.

What kind of incentives?

[iffets12345]

Can we scrap all these user threads in the forum? Instead, have ONE thread for each week and the original post is like a list of essay topics, and everyone posts their essays in that thread. It'll be a massive thread but all the essays will be in one thread and we can just reply, or even better, personal message the user who wrote the essay. I think a lot of us haven't been bothered marking because its not really obvious what user does what texts and like, I ceebs clicking on EVERY thread just to check if they do my topic...

[Water]

Can there be any incentives for marking works? This way, it'd encourage people to mark works, instead of having the same people or similar people. Which ultimately, goes back to square one of the problem.

You can disregard the idea if you want, its just a thought, after witnessing no one really marking the Essay Submission Forum anymore.

What kind of incentives?

It was an idea, not really sure what incentives would be adequate :x.


Plus, the essay markers who should be help marking some or a few essays, aren't really helping, even if that one person did do the "topic." Apathy has reigned supreme.

[ninwa]

Alright I like the idea of combining 1 + 2. We can just keep "suggested topics" and "suggested articles" threads stickied?

Maybe just clean the subforum up? E.g. delete empty topics and even get rid of the stickied threads with "this weeks work"...

Yeah definitely. What to do with the threads that have essays in them already? Keep as is?

I think maybe keeping the subforum may make essay submission seem too regular and frequent; this isn't visually appealing and isn't easy on the eye, especially when you've got 2 full pages of essay threads with unmarked work. Perhaps moving essay submission back into respective threads will alleviate these problems, I know I myself sometimes couldn't be bothered marking anything because of the overwhelming amount of work to mark.

If we go by the past, people will be submitting essays at their own free will and thus less regularly, which would mean the task of marking isn't too overwhelming. And maybe the issue of accessibility can be important too, I know some people that can't be bothered to go that extra mile and click onto the subforum. Having essay submission back the way it used to be will mean there's no forced or strict mentality of submitting on time or marking work in return or whatever, instead, it's all about submitting and marking at your free will. And you might argue that option 1 may allow this, but it'll still have a sense of control/demand which may have contributed to the failure of the subforum.

I think it was the strict adherence to a timetable nobody could really keep up with that was the main cause. Nobody wants to spend all day at school being bossed around by teachers... and then come home and have that again. Also, I think having pages of threads with stars next to them indicating that they have to be marked is different from having a few "please help" essays. One implies obligation/demand (and therefore negative connotations), the other doesn't.

Re: people who can't be bothered to click on the subforum, if that's how much their VCE means to them then I highly doubt they would be the kind of person to bother writing extra essays in the first place...

However, I'll be keeping an eye on it to see how it is faring. I'll also ask the mods to move all essay threads in future into the subforum.

Can we scrap all these user threads in the forum? Instead, have ONE thread for each week and the original post is like a list of essay topics, and everyone posts their essays in that thread. It'll be a massive thread but all the essays will be in one thread and we can just reply, or even better, personal message the user who wrote the essay. I think a lot of us haven't been bothered marking because its not really obvious what user does what texts and like, I ceebs clicking on EVERY thread just to check if they do my topic...

Yeah good point. When I have time later I'll go through them and split the posts into their respective texts. And after that it'll be like it was before - ppl usually post threads like "Maestro essay critique please".
Having one thread for a bunch of essays would get confusing though, what with people marking different essays and posts all over the place...

It was an idea, not really sure what incentives would be adequate :x.


Plus, the essay markers who should be help marking some or a few essays, aren't really helping, even if that one person did do the "topic." Apathy has reigned supreme.

I know, I just can't think of anything I could possibly offer a bunch of people over the internet

[Russ]

Tell them that the person who makes the most significant contribution to the subforum will get a fancy custom title

[ninwa]

How about I offer them Borders vouchers Russ?

*runs*

[Russ]

I cashed mine in a week before they went bankrupt, shinny is the one who got caught out

[shinny]

I cashed mine in a week before they went bankrupt, shinny is the one who got caught out

[ninwa]

Forum has been sorted out, mods are in process of moving essay threads

[Fyrefly]

I'd say a combination of 1 and 2. Reducing clutter would be awesome. Having common topics for people to do would be good too, but people shouldn't be restricted to these since they might want to do another topic because they know they'd get more benefit from it, it's for a SAC draft or because their tutor gave it etc.

I agree with this... Have "suggested topics" each week for people who want to do them, but obviously let people write essays on whatever topic question they want.

I still think it should be requested of all members that they critique an essay before they post their own. Obviously they won't be ostracised if they don't, but it may promote people reciprocating by critiquing the other member's essay in return. Otherwise it'll just be a board full of unmarked essays.