Students Write the Darnedest Things

<p><strong>Pamela Hill Nettleton is a writer editor and professor who has taught writing at top universities for three decades. Everyone knows she loves her students. She's <em>loved</em> for loving her students.</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>But Lord. Their essays.</strong></p><p> </p><p>Sometimes she'll laugh so hard she has Earl Gray squirting out of her nose. Other times she'll feel like weeping quietly into a handkerchief. On occasion she spots something so egregious she's forced to give up grading for the night and head straight for the chocolate.</p><p> </p><p>Each of the 250 quotes in this book is from a real student submitted in an actual assignment. The punctuation spelling grammar and conceptual errors are left intact as written. Most are from Nettleton's college courses; some have been provided by colleagues who have followed her hilarious posts on social media for years.</p><p> </p><p>As it turns out these gaffes goofs and blunders are excellent for use (anonymously in future classes) as a teaching aid. Seeing actual mistakes made by peers students are often galvanized to <em>(gasp!)</em> reread their sentences and double-check their work lest they end up in the next edition of <em>Students Write the Darnedest Things.</em></p><p> </p><p>In the end Nettleton writes The students who made these errors of haste naivete inexperience and-I'll go ahead and say it-the passing cluelessness of youth help us all challenge our assumptions and work to express ourselves more clearly.</p><p> </p><p>Dedicated to student writers everywhere-and especially to the teachers who read them.</p>