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newerspeak comments on Eight Short Studies On Excuses - Less Wrong
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What the teacher should say depends on what the formula is. If the formula ignores empty cells, then the teacher can say "I won't grade it". If, on the other hand, the formula treats empty cells as if they contained the value 0, then the teacher should not say "I won't grade it", but should instead say "I will assign it a grade of 0".
"Grading" means "scoring"; it does not refer to a specific ritual performed by the teacher to arrive at the score. What if the teacher decided to score each student's paper by means of a random process, such as rolling dice? Would you say that the teacher "did not grade" the papers, or would you say (as I would insist) that the teacher graded the papers in an unfair manner?
Furthermore, whatever the semantics of the verb "grade", it is the impact on the student's score, and not the teacher's behavior, that is relevant, and consequently it is to the former that the teacher should be referring. (Indeed, the reality is that that is the intended referent, and the teacher is simply referring to his/her own behavior as an oblique, implicit way of referring to the impact on the student's score. I object to such an oblique way of speaking.)
I honestly don't understand the resistance to conceding me this point. I can perhaps understand if people aren't as bothered by this kind of thing as I am, but...why the need to actually defend what is clearly less-than-maximally-considered language? Do people really not understand where I'm coming from here? In this, a place where I thought sympathy for logical precision mixed with skepticism of institutionalized education? Exactly what mistake do you think I'm making, all ye hordes-of-orthonormal-upvoters? Or is your apparent disagreement just a way of signaling disapproval of my having made the complaint (as I am inclined to suspect)?
Surmise: that's because you've only gotten around to mentioning your real objection in this post, two replies down from the top of the thread. It's not the inconsistency. You mean to say you object to the prof's use of his greater power in this situation to frame the conversation to his benefit.
You're right that "I will not grade it" is the wrong phrase to use. The correct one is "I will fail you on this assignment," which the prof is deliberately avoiding because being honest makes him look more responsible for the student's bad outcome than necessary.
Standard Divisive Topic Warning: I suspect there are some here who object to the power dynamics in academia, which are covert for reasons both good and ideological. I know there are also academics here who will naturally take issue with that characterization.
I don't see how that's more "real" than his other objection -- he mentioned that it's not obvious that "I won't grade it" actually means "I'll grade it zero". And as a real autistic-spectrum person, I can completely sympathize with missing these expected transformations you're supposed to make. The fact that he has additional good reasons doesn't take away from this, and it doesn't justify a teacher's use of sloppy language when clear language is just as easy.
Clear language is not just as easy for neurotypicals. It's contrary to their models and their habits.
Your failing to know this isn't an autistic spectrum thing. People are generally very bad at modeling minds different from their own.
I'm not claiming that it is, as a general rule. I'm just claiming that the intrepretative assumptions they make about their speech are much more likely to match their audience's, thus mitigating the effect of unclear speech.
I didn't fail to know it; when teachers have said what komponisto complains about, I've understood what they really meant. But I also recognize it's because I made some assumptions about the teacher's disposition that someone wouldn't necessarily realize had to be made, especially if they were autistic-spectrum.
As a recent example, one time I was asked, "Did you come prepared to make a payment today?" Since I didn't know I would have to make a payment at that time, I said no, on the grounds that my failing to expect it is a lack of preparation. Then I realized they meant "Are you capable of paying today?" and were just using a roundabout way of saying it.
My apologies for misunderstanding and being a little sharp about it.
Apology accepted :) (And I didn't take your comment as breaking any kind of etiquette.)
Oh, I hadn't heard you explicitly claim that before. It doesn't change my impressions at all but it is still interesting to fill in my mental check-list of people's identification with the label.
Meh, it's still self-diagnosed. I've never gotten a professional diagnosis, which is why I only claim I'm on the spectrum. And in the context of the comment you're replying to, my point was just that my claim to the title is much more realistic than that of a certain someone else who doesn't seem to understand the problem with using "I won't grade it" to mean "I will grade it zero."
Peh. Professional diagnosis. I've got professional diagnoses of all sorts of things purely because it allowed access (or cheaper access) to substances that authorities have decided to exert control over. To be honest I think it's easier to act the part of having various diagnosable conditions than it is to act neurotypical. (And even there a lot of high IQ spectrum folks avoid a diagnosis because they're so good at emulation.)