It isn't a good feeling when you are sort of "accused" of plagiarizing. I far from agreed with what my Lit teacher said today, but I didn't say anything. I really felt like Joan of Arcadia then. The last episode I watched, she got accused of cheating for a History test, because she usually flunks them and suddenly, she got an A. Well, today I got back a Lit assignment; practical criticism on the text I'm currently doing. I got 16.5/25 for the assignment, not bad I suppose. But my teacher's comments were:

"The essay is well-written, yet certain parts are taken/lifted from critics' comments."

"Essay must be in own words"

"Please see me."

I accept her reasoning, that since it was a take-home assignment, the authorship would be dubious. Oh, but hey, I haven't exactly said why she thought I cheated, right? Because of this line, "... a surfeit of propriety and decorum, that leaves him sickened." She told me that "even scholars don't write like that." That is exactly what she said. I was frankly, quite appalled. Maybe it's just me, but I really do not see the big deal about a phrase like that. I replaced the word excess with "surfeit" and added in the propriety and decorum on my own. And her comment on that phrase was, "Did you write this? Or copy from a critic?"

What really irked me was her assumption that I lifted my ideas and my words from someone else's work. I detest that. It's not so much her doubting my integrity, as her assumption. She thinks that I am still developing the way I write, and even compared me to Mark. (Nothing to do with you, Mark.) She made me sound amateurish. Can she show me the evidence that a specific part of my essay was lifted from a critic's work? And just what does she mean by "critic"? Am I not a critic either, seeing as how I am to write a practical criticism of the excerpt of the play? Does a critic have to be some old fogey who has read all of Shakespeare's work?

All I can say is, I did not lift my work from anyone else's. I feel insulted. Maybe I am being haolian, but I do not need to copy anyone else's work for Literature. Chinese, maybe. Math, maybe. But definitely not English Literature. I have never had Mdm Wee, Mrs Kok, Mrs Ang, Mr. Chow or even Mrs. Gan for that matter, doubt my abilities to write and craft words, or even my originality. My secondary school teachers believe in me. That's enough for me, because they have marked many of my assignments. But that is more than I can say for her. I have just realised that this is the only assignment that she has marked so far, in relation to my text. How is she to judge whether my work is unoriginal or not, when she has no basis of comparison, seeing as how she has not assigned any previous essays for us to write? And for her to assume, just like that. Have I given her cause to doubt my ability to write?

I was angry, but I am not anymore, because I talked things out with my family. My dad never fails to calm me down, simply because he is so logical, its annoying. Haha.

Literature PC was alright today. I really liked the way I analyzed Love Letter by Sylvia Plath, but unfortunately, my interpretation is somewhat the exact opposite of Mrs. Gan's. Arghhh. Just hope she finds it logical.

Can't wait for next Tuesday; end of exams!!