Graduation
A Fool's guide to British Universities13 total reviews
Comment from Douglas Goff
It is an interesting phenomenon that people feel they can do whatever they want at graduation.
In the states it is a big thing for students to streak naked at graduations. So bizzarre.
Good read. Good win
D
reply by the author on 18-Apr-2024
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It is an interesting phenomenon that people feel they can do whatever they want at graduation.
In the states it is a big thing for students to streak naked at graduations. So bizzarre.
Good read. Good win
D
Comment Written 17-Apr-2024
reply by the author on 18-Apr-2024
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Thank you
Comment from BermyBye50
Mark,
Congrats on the win in the 200 word flash contest. Your story is a colorful example of youthful angst in the face of having to abide by higher education's unnecessary rules of privilege. Good for you even though it was a foolish expression of freedom.
All the best,
Eugene
reply by the author on 17-Apr-2024
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Mark,
Congrats on the win in the 200 word flash contest. Your story is a colorful example of youthful angst in the face of having to abide by higher education's unnecessary rules of privilege. Good for you even though it was a foolish expression of freedom.
All the best,
Eugene
Comment Written 17-Apr-2024
reply by the author on 17-Apr-2024
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Thank you, it is purely fictional, to my shame.
Comment from patricia dillon
I was not quite clear about the ending. Who imposed this penalty on you? Were you apprehended for your transgression? I, too, have visited Oxford and know the feeling of not quite belonging.
reply by the author on 17-Apr-2024
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I was not quite clear about the ending. Who imposed this penalty on you? Were you apprehended for your transgression? I, too, have visited Oxford and know the feeling of not quite belonging.
Comment Written 17-Apr-2024
reply by the author on 17-Apr-2024
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It is a fictional account, I just thought about doing it. I did not follow through.
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Of course. I should have known.
Comment from JP_Ryan
I love this, I love your humor, and I can imagine the defiant dance on the lawn. congratulations on your placement in the competition. Very well deserved. thank you for sharing.
reply by the author on 16-Apr-2024
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I love this, I love your humor, and I can imagine the defiant dance on the lawn. congratulations on your placement in the competition. Very well deserved. thank you for sharing.
Comment Written 16-Apr-2024
reply by the author on 16-Apr-2024
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Thank you, my first first place, I am happy.
Comment from Bill Schott
That was a funny story and makes for a good way to live forever -- tending the lawn at Oxford. Sheffield P-tech seems to have fashioned rules according to Benjamin, the donkey from 'Animal Farm'. Instead of tending the grass, grow none.
Having a tail to swat flies is fine, but he would rather have no tail and no flies.
reply by the author on 16-Apr-2024
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That was a funny story and makes for a good way to live forever -- tending the lawn at Oxford. Sheffield P-tech seems to have fashioned rules according to Benjamin, the donkey from 'Animal Farm'. Instead of tending the grass, grow none.
Having a tail to swat flies is fine, but he would rather have no tail and no flies.
Comment Written 16-Apr-2024
reply by the author on 16-Apr-2024
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Oxford grew up alongside a town that grew into a city around it. Sheffield, Poly used to be various colleges around Sheffield but than bought a land in the city centre, not much room for massive grass quads. Thank you. Have you voted?
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Voting for President is in November.
Comment from Ric Myworld
Well, I don't know, but I guess I'd have to figure the second option might come first. But I hope it works out the other way for you. LOL. Thanks for sharing.
reply by the author on 15-Apr-2024
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Well, I don't know, but I guess I'd have to figure the second option might come first. But I hope it works out the other way for you. LOL. Thanks for sharing.
Comment Written 15-Apr-2024
reply by the author on 15-Apr-2024
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Thanks
Comment from Mrs. KT
Hello, Mark,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post. My own son-in-law is a graduate of Oxford University, and he has shared a bit about the required behavior of students. I find the British educational system fascinating.
Your ending is sublime.
What interests me as well is your application of punctuation throughout your posting.
Please, I do not mean to offend, but I have taken the liberty of punctuating your post from an American educator's viewpoint. Specifically, I have noted the variances in your application of semi-colons, commas, colons and capitalization as compared to mine. (For example, I follow the adage regarding commas as "When in doubt, leave them out!"
With apologies if I have overstepped:
At Oxford University, (-) I walked the gardens, (-) that summer I was newly graduated. I noted the neat freshly cut lawns and the sweet scent of the immaculate flower beds. Then my eyes fell on the sign: Only Fellows may use the lawns. (Only Fellows May Use the Lawns) (Would not that sign have been in all capital letters save the article "the?")
I was a graduate, so, (-) I was going to use that grass. I stepped onto that emerald square, (;) I walked boldly to the centre. Ignoring the gasps, I looked around, took a deep breath, and began to dance.
I did the one-step, the two-step, and the three. On that beautifully tended green: (,) I lifted up (lifted) my knees, I kicked back my heels, and I threw out my feet.
The sod flew; I caroused, I cavorted, I pirouetted upon that square of mud.
I'm a graduate, I thought, from Sheffield...Polytechnic. (I'm a graduate from Sheffield...Polytechnic)
'You fools!' I cried in my ecstasy.
In Hindsight (hindsight,) I was the fool.
A Fellow is a senior member of the academic staff; (,) far above any lowly Honours,(-) degree. I now go back to that 10x10 square, the scene of my shame, every year for eight hours of unpaid tending. I will do so for the next one hundred and seventy-two years;(,) or until I die.
Whichever comes first.
Again, please accept my apologies if I have overstepped and/or offended. But I am genuinely interested in understanding the application of the points I noted.
Thank you!
diane
reply by the author on 15-Apr-2024
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Hello, Mark,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post. My own son-in-law is a graduate of Oxford University, and he has shared a bit about the required behavior of students. I find the British educational system fascinating.
Your ending is sublime.
What interests me as well is your application of punctuation throughout your posting.
Please, I do not mean to offend, but I have taken the liberty of punctuating your post from an American educator's viewpoint. Specifically, I have noted the variances in your application of semi-colons, commas, colons and capitalization as compared to mine. (For example, I follow the adage regarding commas as "When in doubt, leave them out!"
With apologies if I have overstepped:
At Oxford University, (-) I walked the gardens, (-) that summer I was newly graduated. I noted the neat freshly cut lawns and the sweet scent of the immaculate flower beds. Then my eyes fell on the sign: Only Fellows may use the lawns. (Only Fellows May Use the Lawns) (Would not that sign have been in all capital letters save the article "the?")
I was a graduate, so, (-) I was going to use that grass. I stepped onto that emerald square, (;) I walked boldly to the centre. Ignoring the gasps, I looked around, took a deep breath, and began to dance.
I did the one-step, the two-step, and the three. On that beautifully tended green: (,) I lifted up (lifted) my knees, I kicked back my heels, and I threw out my feet.
The sod flew; I caroused, I cavorted, I pirouetted upon that square of mud.
I'm a graduate, I thought, from Sheffield...Polytechnic. (I'm a graduate from Sheffield...Polytechnic)
'You fools!' I cried in my ecstasy.
In Hindsight (hindsight,) I was the fool.
A Fellow is a senior member of the academic staff; (,) far above any lowly Honours,(-) degree. I now go back to that 10x10 square, the scene of my shame, every year for eight hours of unpaid tending. I will do so for the next one hundred and seventy-two years;(,) or until I die.
Whichever comes first.
Again, please accept my apologies if I have overstepped and/or offended. But I am genuinely interested in understanding the application of the points I noted.
Thank you!
diane
Comment Written 15-Apr-2024
reply by the author on 15-Apr-2024
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Hello, I will try to explain why I wrote the way I did. This started as a poem. A poem that was part of 7 others to form a work called In Hindsight. It was written to be performed by me which I have done a few times now. It did not have punctuation to start with.
The challenge was to take what I had written and turn it into writing that had 200 words. I think it may have had to add something like 16 words to hit the count. I then had to punctuate it and I tried to do it to show how I would have read it. So a comma is a short pause whilst a semi-colon is used for a long pause. I used the semi-colon here for an example: 'for the next one hundred and seventy-two years; or until I die' to guild tension before the joke as no one lives that long so it was superfluous. The sign is a memory and as such it appears as I remember it and actually, I may have remembered it wrongly. I searched the internet for a photograph of it and could not find it. I added the colon as I saw the next part as a list. The previous sentence includes 1 2 and 3 and I wanted the next sentence to refer back to that by being a list. The capitalisation of In Hindsight is a reference back to the original work where it was the title of the who work.
I admit I may well have used some punctuation wrong and will make a couple of changes, thanks for that help. I cannot however take out words as it will no longer meet the word count I think for example the 'I thought' you suggest should be removed. had been added in order to meet the word count. Thank you for your interest and I hope this explains my thought/working process.
Comment from Wendy G
lol. I enjoyed this one for its originality and freshness, being very different. With humour it speaks of hierarchy and prestige, and the silly signs of superiority, along with human misunderstanding and exuberance... and punishment. Well done! Best wishes for the contest.
Wendy
reply by the author on 15-Apr-2024
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lol. I enjoyed this one for its originality and freshness, being very different. With humour it speaks of hierarchy and prestige, and the silly signs of superiority, along with human misunderstanding and exuberance... and punishment. Well done! Best wishes for the contest.
Wendy
Comment Written 15-Apr-2024
reply by the author on 15-Apr-2024
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Thank you, I think the voting is open on this one, if you are interested.
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Yes I have voted already. (I voted for yours!)
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Thank you
Comment from Karen Cherry Threadgill
172 years or until you die? What have you been doing at Sheffield Polytechnic? I have seen that no grassstuff many places. My question is if you don't want people walking on the grass, why have it? Good writing. Karen
reply by the author on 15-Apr-2024
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172 years or until you die? What have you been doing at Sheffield Polytechnic? I have seen that no grassstuff many places. My question is if you don't want people walking on the grass, why have it? Good writing. Karen
Comment Written 15-Apr-2024
reply by the author on 15-Apr-2024
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Voting is open for this competition now; if you fancy reading some more short stories and casting your vote.
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I did vote, you are in second place at the moment. Karen
Comment from Shirley Ann Bunyan
A quirky story. Funny and interesting. I don't really know what else to say to make up the required characters, just that I enjoyed it. Thank you for writing.
reply by the author on 14-Apr-2024
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A quirky story. Funny and interesting. I don't really know what else to say to make up the required characters, just that I enjoyed it. Thank you for writing.
Comment Written 14-Apr-2024
reply by the author on 14-Apr-2024
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Thank you.
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Voting is open for this competition now; if you fancy reading some more short stories and casting your vote.
