Guys?

[conuly]

If you want people to do your homework for you, or to help you cheat on your homework... please, ask in a way that preserves our integrity.

Correct: OMG! I have this impossible assignment. I've worked really hard on it, but I can't figure out what songs are most like the book "Catch 22". Help?
Incorrect: OMG! I have this impossible assignment! It's due really soon, and of course I couldn't read the entire book! Tell me what songs are most like "Catch 22".

Do you see the difference?

Good.

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. That "I didn't read the book" bit just shoots the whole thing out of the water.

[conuly]

She didn't read all of the book. The girl commented back saying that she's not a fast reader, but in that case she should've spoken to the teacher about it, gotten an extension... as near as I can tell, they chose their own books for this assignment, so.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

If she read some of the book, I'd think that would be enough for the stupid assignment - especially since "which songs are like the book?" is so subjective a question.

LOL, when I was in school I had a habit of inventing books that didn't actually exist. This started out with just references for report bibliographies - which nobody ever checks, because why should they? - but then I got intrigued by the fact that nobody ever did check or care. Why, one could do an entire report on a book that didn't exist, and no one would ever know...

... heh, so I tested this hypothesis and found it correct. As long as all the structure of a report is correct, and nothing "sticks out", it's doubtful the teacher gives it any more thought than necessary. I also had developed this unbelievably pedantic and verbose literary style - classic Ivy League Academese, which was the ticket to automatic A's in the kind of schools I went to, even though it's practically unreadable - so I'm sure my teachers weren't reading any more of it than they felt they had to.

Anyway, your young friend could take a leaf from my book, and just write a couple of songs for some characters or incidents in the book, then attribute them to a band whose songs are in that general style. They don't have to be literary masterpieces, either, especially if they're in the Metal/Industrial genre - ha, or Filk, where far too many people think of scansion as 'optional' - and even if her teacher turns out to be a rabid aficionado of that particular style of music (which is unlikely), there's so much of it out there, and so much of it is so obscure, that no one will ever be able to prove the songs didn't exist till she wrote them.

[conuly]

Haven't we all invented books?

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

LOL, probably so, but I think it's less common to get credit for book reports on them.