Please excuse me while I vent. I'm currently in the midst of writing an essay (due tomorrow) for my first year Geography course, and it is possibly one of the most frustrating essays I've ever had to write.

Not that it's difficult, per say, but social science essays are so very different from English essays. For one, the teachers seldom appreciate creativity. I doubt I could include a little geography anecdote, or (heaven forbid!) use the word "I" in this essay. I just reread our assignment outline, and ugh is it ever disheartening: "The purpose of this assignment is to [...] develop essay writing skills [...] develop research tecniques for geographical analyses [...] this individual and independent research [...] a crucial component of your course performance [...] it is a measure of your understanding of the subject matter [..] you are to demonstrate your understanding [...] should cover at least two elements from the following list to secure maximum marks [...] research essays are regularly used in academia to describe empirical studies and" blah blah blah more dry comments blah blah etc.

Yes, I have totally been spoiled with Creative Writing courses and Interdisciplinary Expressive Arts courses and even my recent English courses have been very creativity oriented... Bottom line: I no longer feel that I should be required to write such structured essays.

And yet, with all the specifics given on what should be included in the essay (Title Page, Introduction, Method, Results, Figures, Maps, Conclusions), there is a serious lack of actual marking criteria. All I know is that this is a teacher who feels it's only right to deduct a mark anytime he spots a typo or spelling error, even if the assignment in question is only out of 10 marks. This assignment happens to be out of 50 marks... which means nothing to me when there's no marking criteria...

Anyway, I'll be getting back to writing now. I just spent several hours gathering notes on a topic that I knew practically nothing about (I chose to write about salmon streams and dams, because it's an geography-type issue that I've actually heard about before), and I literally just finally typed out my theme statement. (Which was surprisingly easy to do, and made the minor freakout I was having over my time limit very much lessen, as I suddenly remembered that I'm good at essays, and this is a freakin' first year geography class.) So now I finish the outline and then get to the actual writing... At midnight...

So back to the river levels of British Columbia and the effects of human development on marine wildlife... Those who know me will know just how riviting I find this sort of stuff... Writing ability don't fail me now.

Hour-Later Update: Ugh, I keep shifting between feeling totally keen to write and feeling utterly tired. Also, this would be much better if my laptop would stop taking 20 second freeze-naps at sporadic intervals (happened twice while I was writing this)... Methinks it might be time for a laptop checkup...

Tea time!

10-Hours-Later Update: Still writing? Oh you betcha! But sleep was included in those 10 hours as well.

So I just spent a good two hours putting together a map and some other figures, because it's required. Holy hellbells, if I don't get full marks for my map I am going to be peeved, because that was a lot of work! (But non-writing work, so it was also kind of a break.)

Alright: introduction completed, valuable quotes recorded, all my works pre-cited, figures at the ready... Now time to put it all together with some fine writing! (Yes, this is how I write essays... Not recommended .)

Oh, and the essay's due in 4.5 hours.