ramble on academic writing spaces

I’ve now taken 4 college writing workshops, and one thing that has driven me mad about all of them has been a good amount of the class just does not give a fuck. This semester alone I’ve critiqued at least 6 pieces without any title and more that don’t even have an attempt at the formatting required in the syllabus. It’s really frustrating to see how unimportant my peers find a lot of english classes. I’ve had people casually admit to me/in earshot of me that they use AI (which I Hate for a myriad of reasons, but thats a whole different blog) to help with their work or give them ideas. 

I’m like, are you fucking kidding me. You are in a 3/4000 level writing workshop but you can’t even come up with ideas with your damn brain? What’s the point of paying for a class you won’t even do the bare minimum for. 

But I digress. 

This also means I’m getting criticism on things like how my (very obviously, or I think so) unreliable narrator contradicts himself and it’s comfusing. Or asking if the character I make a point of describing as having sharp pointed nails and fangs is supposed to be inhuman. The only helpful input I ever get is from my professors, if I get Anything other than “I liked it” or “it was okay” with no other input from my peers. 

I read recently that America’s reading comprehension/ability has dropped in the past few years, and I feel like I’ve seen firsthand the decline in my english classes. Even in highschool people could understand pointed subtext. Now, unless I say something point blank TWICE people just can’t grasp it. 

I was in a poetry workshop where I submitted a poem that was visually formatted. Somebody assumed I stumbled onto that on complete accident and started explaining visual poems to me. 

Why would you assume I didnt know what that was :/.

Writing spaces have become so .. weird and almost hostile to be in lately and honestly I think I’d be better off just teaching myself with textbooks and online courses. 

I’m also curious if anybody else has noticed this or if it’s just me aha

Anyways this was a largely pointless blog. I just had to critique for class and had a handful of pieces that were just very careless. One piece had no title and one was a Single paragraph long with no actual plot. This is a creative writing workshop get it together guys.