Can’t figure out why you’re single? Your professors have some ideas. 

  • “Repetitive and boring” 
  • “Not sure I agree with you on that”
  • “Perhaps an overly strong claim”
  • “Too expressive”
  • “Seems as if you have multiple critical problems” 
  • “Work on a logical transition”
  • “Ha!”
  • “Consider shifting this away from the first person”
  • “Confusing”
  • “You might be more specific about what you’re trying to argue”
  • “A bit clunky”
  • “Hm”
  • “Your arguments are very forceful”
  • “Don’t be cute”
  • “This feels like a willful misinterpretation of the argument”
  • “Not sure what you’re getting at here”
  • “Too formal of an analysis”
  • “Not committed enough to the topic”
  • “Watch the word count” 
  • “Good,”
  • “This is way too big of a claim to be making here” 
  • “Bloated and wordy”
  • “Your thinking feels disorganized here”
  • “Skim this part down” 
  • “Why should we care?”
  • “Consider ways of easing into the topic more gracefully”
  • It feels like this doesn’t have any stakes”
  • “I’m not persuaded”
  • “This is quite a scary conclusion!”
  • “You do quite a bit of violence” 

Photo of failed essay courtesy of Miyoki