Originally posted by slick

I'm afraid that if it doesn't have anything to do with pee biscuits or tootsie rolls, I get lost in the shuffle.
Ditto!

Thanks everybody, and thanks Zippy, I was hoping you would check in because I figured if anybody would know what he was trying to say, you would. And now that I somewhat understand what he is trying to say, I'm still confused as to why I'm not getting full points because I thought that (refer to my first quote from him) is what I thought I was doing! I always quote the reference I'm using, then put what that reference was saying in my own words to let him know that I understand what the text is saying. So many of the students just quote right out of the text and don't put their own "spin" on anything - wonder how many points they're getting?

I also checked out dictionary.com before I asked you guys, but somehow I guess I wasn't synthesizing it all - perhaps because there were no predicates offered - so I couldn't come up with the hierarchy - cognitively that is.

I also sent the prof. an email back asking him what he was saying, and here's his reply:

The discussion forum evaluation is based on Bloom's Cognitive
Hierarch...this means that as we learn, we first memorize things like facts, terms, etc. Then we begin to understand or comprehend things. After that we move up the cognitive hierarchy by learning how to apply what we know. Following this is the ability to analyze things...take them apart and know
how they are put together. And then the highest order of cognitive ability is to synthesize material and finally evaluate it...this means we can take various things that we know and put them together to form a new thought or idea about something. And evaluation is the ability to form judgments and make opinions about things. The verbs associated with each level are
defined in the guidelines for discussion....you might want to read through them.

Hope this helps...let me know if you have more questions.

This is a little more clear, but still.....

What I've gotten out of both of these emails is that I need to read the guidelines for the discussion grading a little closer. One thing I know he wants is everything must be spelled correctly, correct punctuation, correct terminology, etc. I have no problem with all of that, but I've already noticed mistakes that he's made - so who is he to downgrade me because of my cognitive snthesis evaluation of hierachy disability.

Oh, and yes, this is actually a database class. We're learning all about Oracle 9i. Interesting class but I didn't know I had to be a literary wizard to get a good grade in it.

Thanks again everyone for your help!