0% on my research paper

[BlaineCM]

I am so frustrated! I spent days writing an 8 page research paper with 20 sources for my nursing research class. I ended up getting a zero on the paper. This doesn't seem right since I spent so much time on the paper. I called the professor about it and apparently my paper was convoluted and I had some APA format errors. This still doesn't seem like a legitimate reason to give me a zero. Have any of you ever heard of a situation like this?

[jov]

2 rules of college:

1. The instructor is always right.

2. If you want to pass, see rule #1.

The above was sage advice from my very first college prof. As much as anything else, this advice kept me from failing nursing school.

This is the worst advice I have seen yet, and it is supposed to come from a college professor? So this is what higher level education is all about? Does it raise a red flag that your college professor was the one who said "instructors are always right?" Talk about having your own agenda.

Believe me, I have taught college level courses before and personally can assure you that rule #1 is so not true.

There's absolutely no reason why a well-rounded, intelligent, ambitious and hard working person couldn't get through nursing school ignoring rules 1 and 2.

Sorry, but seeing this kind of blind-following propogated really gets me going...almost as much as the liberal BS I see dished out in most college classes that idealistic 20-something's take as the gospel truth without thinking about it critically themselves.

Please, people, let's not stoop that low!

[WDWpixieRN, RN]

My only comment would be is that just from viewing your original post, you obviously can spell, have a decent grasp of punctuation, and seem to be able to put sentences together that make sense.

With what I have seen from many students through the years, that alone should garner you 50% or better....I can't imagine how those who don't have those capabilities would ever do with an instructor like that (and unfortunately, there are a LOT of students who can't).

Was this for a nursing class? With all the idiot managers I had in the business world making the big bucks who still could NOT put the correct "their", "there" or "they're" in a memo without some terrific $10/hour secretary cleaning their writing up, I can't imagine why there should be all much pickiness in a nursing research paper?

Honestly, give me a nurse that can't get their "their", "there", or "they're" straight, but that can start an IV without a hitch every time....and I'm not saying standards should be lower, but it just seems that there's enough stress in NS without compounding it by making it an advanced English Composition class, too!!

Good luck!!

[MurseNeutron]

sounds like somethings up with that. your not telling the whole story or you need to go see the person in charge of your nursing department.

[ZASHAGALKA, RN]

This is the worst advice I have seen yet, and it is supposed to come from a college professor? So this is what higher level education is all about? Does it raise a red flag that your college professor was the one who said "instructors are always right?" Talk about having your own agenda.

Believe me, I have taught college level courses before and personally can assure you that rule #1 is so not true.

There's absolutely no reason why a well-rounded, intelligent, ambitious and hard working person couldn't get through nursing school ignoring rules 1 and 2.

Sorry, but seeing this kind of blind-following propogated really gets me going...almost as much as the liberal BS I see dished out in most college classes that idealistic 20-something's take as the gospel truth without thinking about it critically themselves.

Please, people, let's not stoop that low!

I'm saavy enough to know that many of my instructors were, shall we say, highly constipated when it came to facts.

I had one instructor say in class that the problems of the US gov't were related to the conservative domination of the House from the 1930's to the 1980's. Huh? Democrats controlled the House almost that whole time.

But, if you want to pass, you have to give the answers THEY expect. It's that simple.

I never equated learning with education. They are two almost separate things.

And, it WAS good advice. Otherwise, I would have spent my college time challenging professors instead of getting the grades I needed.

My nursing school instructors blew so much wind that I'm SURE I would not have passed if I had challenged them on even a tenth of it. So, I answered their test to their delights, and learned despite them.

I never said I wasn't critical of some of my college profs: I was critical of MOST of them. But I served up their garbage back to them and learned anyway.

As far as getting through nursing school: too many nursing instructors feel it is their 'duty' to determine who is 'nursing material'. I was determined not to get on THAT list. If I had said my peace as many times as I had wanted to, I most DEFINITELY would have been on that list.

Most profs, as the OP can probably attest, are the arrogant despots of their own little fiefdoms. You don't challenge the King when the king decides your fate. Or rather, I chose not to die on any of their little hills when I had mountains to climb.

~faith,

Timothy.

[wildmountainchild]

Is there a possibility that you accidentally DIDN'T cite one of your sources? I f you left off a pair of quotation marks and a cite that could look like plagiarism....and that's the only thing I know of that can get someone a 0 despite turning in a whole paper.

If you don't mind I would love to take a look at your paper. I could give you some advice on style and format, or at least tell you if the prof was off his rocker for giving you a zero. Of course it's up to you, just PM me of you're interested.

[BSNtobe2009]

This is the worst advice I have seen yet, and it is supposed to come from a college professor? So this is what higher level education is all about? Does it raise a red flag that your college professor was the one who said "instructors are always right?" Talk about having your own agenda.

Believe me, I have taught college level courses before and personally can assure you that rule #1 is so not true.

There's absolutely no reason why a well-rounded, intelligent, ambitious and hard working person couldn't get through nursing school ignoring rules 1 and 2.

Sorry, but seeing this kind of blind-following propogated really gets me going...almost as much as the liberal BS I see dished out in most college classes that idealistic 20-something's take as the gospel truth without thinking about it critically themselves.

Please, people, let's not stoop that low!

AMEN!

[BSNtobe2009]

I'm saavy enough to know that many of my instructors were, shall we say, highly constipated when it came to facts.

I had one instructor say in class that the problems of the US gov't were related to the conservative domination of the House from the 1930's to the 1980's. Huh? Democrats controlled the House almost that whole time.

But, if you want to pass, you have to give the answers THEY expect. It's that simple.

I never equated learning with education. They are two almost separate things.

And, it WAS good advice. Otherwise, I would have spent my college time challenging professors instead of getting the grades I needed.

My nursing school instructors blew so much wind that I'm SURE I would not have passed if I had challenged them on even a tenth of it. So, I answered their test to their delights, and learned despite them.

I never said I wasn't critical of some of my college profs: I was critical of MOST of them. But I served up their garbage back to them and learned anyway.

As far as getting through nursing school: too many nursing instructors feel it is their 'duty' to determine who is 'nursing material'. I was determined not to get on THAT list. If I had said my peace as many times as I had wanted to, I most DEFINITELY would have been on that list.

Most profs, as the OP can probably attest, are the arrogant despots of their own little fiefdoms. You don't challenge the King when the king decides your fate. Or rather, I chose not to die on any of their little hills when I had mountains to climb.

~faith,

Timothy.

I totally disagree with you. When you are a student, you are at school that claims to be hiring competent, educated professors that are experts in a particular field and their job is to be able to teach you that same skill or level of knowledge, at the level required for a particular course.

God forbid if students across America, have to take what the Professor says as the gospel, regardless if it's correct or not? How does that help you later on in life? How does that help you get your money's worth?

I have never, in many years of being a college student, had more than a couple of professors that had such a huge ego that you dare not challenge them. I eventually learned that one of them was fired, because of numerous complaints and poor student performance (which he spent YEARS blaming the students for), and another that went from being a Department head at a major University to a CC professor..not the head of anything. Evidently the attitude didn't get them very far in their careers.

If I had walked into a class, and heard a professor say that, I wouldn't even give them the courtesy of waiting until the end....I would promptly get up and walk out and change classes.

As far as nursing school goes, I would probably not challenge someone that has been a nurse for years versus someone who is just learning, unless I was 190% I was correct, and then I wouldn't present it to the instructor that he or she was wrong...I would just ask for a 'clarification'. There isn't anything wrong with that!

TRULY EDUCATED PEOPLE do not care to be challenged, and are always open to being proven wrong, provided you can produce the evidence.

To feel that you can never challenge a professor or your college career is doomed, or that you'll go through college butting heads with every instructor, is just simply, an animal that doesn't exist on this planet or anywhere else.

[ZASHAGALKA, RN]

I totally disagree with you. When you are a student, you are at school that claims . . .

There you have it. I stake my case on the dubious nature of such 'claims'.

While I might agree that most profs know FAR more than me about the topics they teach, I equally maintain that very few can keep their own ideological garbage out of their lectures. They might be trying to fill my mind with their expertise, but few, in my experience, could resist trying to also fill it with their own personal brand of ideology.

If I had walked into a class, and heard a professor say that, I wouldn't even give them the courtesy of waiting until the end....I would promptly get up and walk out and change classes.

That particular statement wasn't made in class. It was made while I was CHALLENGING a grade he had made.

I wrote a paper where I included the phrase, "Third World" 11 times. I was marked off 11 points for capitalizing the phrase. Previously, he had maintained that the Chicago Manual of Style was his Bible for grammar. IT had said that such semi-proper nouns could either be capitalized or not, so long as such a use was consistent throughout.

So, I argued that my grammar was in line with the Manual. He disagreed.

Then, I argued, that the manual specifically pointed out the need for consistency so even if he disagreed with my first point, per the manual, it was ONE aggregate error and NOT 11 distinct errors.

At THAT point, he laid out the 2 rules.

~faith,

Timothy.

[DanaR85]

Sadly, the "two rules of college" are true to a certain extent. Most professors I have had, both at a 4 year university and at a 2 year community college, are interested in knowing that you listened to what THEY said. Not necessarily what the text book said(unless they are the author of the text book, which has happened to me). As far as writing papers at the college level, following the given directions to a tee are paramount. Most professors won't give a flip how brilliant your ideas are if you can't even follow their basic instructions. The best thing to do, if possible, is after you have written a rough draft of the paper, see if you can have it read by the professor or by one of his TAs. Then you can make adjustments based on the feedback. Another thing you could look into would be an English Lab. Basically, it was a place where anyone could go to have their papers read and critiqued by english tutuors and sometimes professors themselves. It was a good place to go, since no one knew the formatting rules better than the tutors, and many of them had taken classes with these same professors, so they had the inside scoop so to speak.

As far as getting a 0% on this paper, I think that's a little bit harsh. Did he/she ever state that it was possible to get a 0% if instructions were not followed? If they DID, then you are probably going to have to accept it, but if they DIDN'T, then I would go over their head if you can't get the issue resolved with them. First try and resolve it with that professor one on one(they HATE when you go over their heads first thing). If it doesn't work, then follow the chain of command until you are satisfied with then answer you recieve. Even if you can't get the grade changed, you deserve to fully know why you got that grade and what you can do next time to avoid it happening again. Unfortunatly, much like real life, college isn't always fair. I suppose it's good practice for the real world. Good luck!

[BSNtobe2009]

I actually agree with this to a certain extent. I have had professors many times, especially on issues that are very controversial, that have said, "Now if you ask most ie. Historians this, they will tell you this, but for the purposes of this class, I want you to know this."

To me, that is ENTIRELY different, than for a professor to tell you that 2 + 2 = 8 when you know it equals 4.

I completely agree with professors establishing a certain protocol on "hot button" topics to get the class on the same page. But in the case of the OP, it sounds like the professor has been having an all-close relationship with the local amateur pharmaceutical rep.