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