Monday, November 7, 2016

Six-word autobiographies

I take attendance by having the students answer a question complete a very brief creative writing assignment.



Today they wrote six-word autobiographies.

Many were school- or study-focused, to no one's great surprise:
  • Majored in chem, not gonna chem.
  • All the labs all the time.
  • Too many interests, what I do?
  • Work hard, algorithm harder. Word. Word.
Here we see the beginning of the recurring theme of "six, you say?"
  • Naive ambition tempered to quiet hope. Rebel.
  • Potato, banana.
  • Went into math, forgot how to count.
And of course the silly:
  • Thank gosh I'm the sane one.
  • Thinking about this, unlearning network flow. (<-- lecture="" li="" of="" s="" today="" topic="">
  • I tell lies all the time.
  • Question: why is it a giraffe?
  • Hello darkness, my old friend. [bum]
And the profound:
  • Trying to do ok & stuff.
  • Once upon a time, I was.
  • What is the meaning of life?
  • I am my own worst enemy.
  • Six words is simply not enough.
  • Regret for yesterday, hope for tomorrow.

I liked "Just passing this sheet along. Cool." for being six-words, self-reflective, and descriptive of the student's life without actually saying anything nontrivial. This is the kind of answer I attempt to head off at the pass on homeworks...


This post's theme word is nimiety (noun), "excess or redundancy." Homework solutions should be sufficient, and absent all nimiety.

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