I try to be a nice person. I really do. Sometimes, being nice has a way of coming back to bite you in the butt.
A friend of mine who is currently working on his college degree asked me to read a paper for his English 102 class last week. I said sure, I would be glad to help you. Well, the paper was a mess. He had actually already received a grade, but wanted to polish it up to get an A. I read it with his professor's comments, and helped him rewrite the paper. He got an A. I am glad for him, and glad I could help, but now it has turned into a nightmare.
He has another paper due this week. He asked me take a look at the assignment, and give him a suggestion for which poem to analyse. OK, fine. He wrote the paper. I reviewed it and gave him pointers on grammar and spelling. I edited only to make his sentences cleaner, but did not comment on the content. He also sent it to his professor to review it. Overall, the professor said it was good, but the introduction and thesis are weak.
Now, my friend refers to it as "our paper," and wants me to stop by later so that we can rewrite the introduction. I am in deep doo doo. I really don't want to rewrite his paper. I am not interested. I have a degree, and I have already written all of my papers. How do I get out of this mess??
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12 hours ago
2 comments:
Tell him you're busy for the next two weeks and hope he gets the message?
Or just tell him it's his paper and he should be doing the work. You're happy to give some pointers here and there, but don't have the time/energy/inclination to help him re-write a paper from scratch.
Good advice! I did tell him I was feeling a bit used, so he did back off. I reviewed his intro again after he re-wrote it, but I think he got the message that it is not "our" paper.
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