Another dispiriting day at the pearl-swine interface (to steal a line from Peter Temple's Bad Debts*). I started reading the first year essays today. Most of them aren't too bad. Some are good. A few are excellent. The usual bell curve. Of course, that means that a small number will be truly hideous.

The worst so far is an essay that is only 400 words long (it should be 1000) and has no references. The text is in one-sentence paragraphs, centred and liberally sprinkled with photographs of flowers. It looks like a Hallmark greeting card.

I haven't given up yet. But it's only a matter of time.

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*which is now engraved on my memory.