THE CRISIS OF CREDIT SUMMARY

(Or Why Obsessively Stalking Lecturers' Websites Is Always a Good Idea)

I'm not sure if we were supposed to post our summaries, too, or just reflect on them, but considering the first thing I said to my schoolmates after I'd got the corrected version was "We shall never speak of this again", it's probably safe to say that sharing my foolishness with the world is not very high on my bucket list. Then again, I can describe the mistakes well enough.


As far as I know, the point of all these before-and-after exercises is to see what valuable lessons we can learn, so how about I get right to it.
(For anyone who has no idea what I'm talking about, the assignment was to summarise this video: http://www.crisisofcredit.com/.)

The things I learnt while and after writing this summary:

1. proofreading doesn't solve all the world's problems;
2. thinking I've heard everything I need to know in class is foolish and shall never happen again;
3. s is a dangerous letter;
4. procrastination is a bad idea;
5. you gain leverage, not get. (How did I not know that?)

Let's start with proofreading. When you manage to make 20 mistakes in 200 words and approximately three of them have to do with content or not knowing the right phrase, proofreading is the obvious thing to suggest. But I kind of had to read the whole thing about 20 times just to get it to precisely 200 words, and then I read it a few times just for kicks to check. If that wasn't enough, I don't know what is. It's really hard to trick the brain into not reading the words as they are supposed to be written as opposed to how they are written. (Though maybe the problem lies in fact my brain had turned to scrambled eggs that day. One word: exam.)

The second point doesn't mean that our classes are bad, merely that forgetting to check the desired layout isn't going to get you any bonus points and we can add sloppiness to my list of character flaws. Also, reading the evaluation criteria had proven useful to me before, so why the heck didn't I read it? It usually tells you where to be careful and what the emphasis is on. I'll claim temporary insanity again (see: scrambled eggs).

S being dangerous refers to plural and the fact I really shouldn't imagine one where there is none (and vice versa).

Number four is self-explanatory. (Because procrastination leaves you with classes over the whole day, an exam, and two pieces of homework to turn in, and that's just bad time management.

Number five also needs no commenting.

All in all, I've learnt that I need to be more careful. And focused. And develop better defence mechanisms against stress.