Her Green Figs

The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.

26 September 2006

Phrases That May Kill Me if I Read Them One More Time

90 student essays to read and grade. Kinda makes you want to gouge out your eyes, really. These are your average argumentative essay and largely uncompelling.

It doesn't matter if the paper is about boats or pets or euthenasia or abortion, these are the two phrases that, if I read them even one more time, I may just fall over dead from linguistic exhaustion.

"In today's society..."

"due to the fact that" (seldom followed by an actual fact)

Could I put in next semester's syllabus that I'm going to subtract one point from students' final grades every time they use one of these phrases?

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