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Are students seen as not as smart...
- Thread starter waloshin
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They might be seen as not as smart if they shorten their sentences by leaving out words like "use" or "and" when they're appropriate.
It depends. Gratuitously long sentences never did anyone any good, however too short and simplistic sentences can make it harder to convey an elaborate point without coming across as talking down to your reader. I'd say good texts generally combine both long and short sentences to keep the writing interesting. In short, mix it up! 
I've seen a lot of student submissions for assignments. The short answer is, yes. The long answer is holy crap yes. For forums or texting no. But if you are emailing your professor it would be a good idea to at least spell check.
quote of the year.
And no, students are not "smarter" because they use more punctuation. In fact, that probably means you have run-on sentences, and would be better off breaking them up. You don't look smarter by having a one run-on sentence paragraph.
I would say that, while writing in a style which features long sentences isn't inherently difficult, it does have the effect of looking more sophisticated, hereby increasing the perceived level of english of the person, or in the case of a native speaker, its perceived level of intelligence; in no case, however, does it show any correlation since all one needs to write in such a style is some time, and to use it efficiently.
TL;DR: not in college.
TL;DR: not in college.
I think a series of short to moderately long sentences that can convey a complicated idea succinctly is ideal. Just because the sentence is short does not mean the vocabulary used needs to be limited. It is the combination of short sentences with an unsophisticated vocabulary that I believe conveys this sense of "un-smart" in today's students.
waloshin - - acidfast7
Too early to tell.
waloshin - - acidfast7
Too early to tell.
I have multiple arguments from people when they ask me to review their papers and first complaint I had was it had to much cap fluf words. There is a time and place for fluf but not in research or technical documents. Those are to the point and use that style of writing.
Emails fall under the technical writing format and when I read some fluffy fill emails it really felt like the person was trying to cover something.
Emails fall under the technical writing format and when I read some fluffy fill emails it really felt like the person was trying to cover something.
I remember having some old school "by the book" professor - bow-tie and all - freshman year. He said something along the lines of "Smart people talk about ideas, intelligent people explain their ideas in such a way that anyone can understand them."
I always kept that in mind when writing, whether it was a one pager or a 35 page paper. I must admit, it did sometimes make meeting page requirements difficult at first, but I found out that if your paper has 10 pages of substance in an 8 page paper, professors didn't mind (except one strict formatting freak I had, but at least he knew his standards so he kept page limits lower).
I always kept that in mind when writing, whether it was a one pager or a 35 page paper. I must admit, it did sometimes make meeting page requirements difficult at first, but I found out that if your paper has 10 pages of substance in an 8 page paper, professors didn't mind (except one strict formatting freak I had, but at least he knew his standards so he kept page limits lower).
I don't care how much punctuation you use. I care if I can understand your writing.
A secondary benefit is enjoying reading it and not cringing at stupid mistakes, punctuation, or otherwise annoying stylistic quirks.
A secondary benefit is enjoying reading it and not cringing at stupid mistakes, punctuation, or otherwise annoying stylistic quirks.
If you want to come off as not dumb to your professors, simply write properly punctuated and grammatically correct [insert language that you're trying to communicate in here].
Incidentally, I've never heard of the verb "to much."
Incidentally, I've never heard of the verb "to much."
It would take a crap load more than that to make you look smarter than the average dog.
KGB
When a forum full of people discusses the benefits of a Keurig, discussion of the finer culinary points is not appropriate.
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To contribute directly to the narrative of the thread:
A positive correlation exists between judicious punctuation usage and perceived intellect.