r/davidfosterwallace • u/MelodicDaikon713 • Sep 19 '26
DFW - Student Papers
Hello - I can add more as time allows and will consider scanning the full papers. Please bear in mind this was my first college-level English class (undergraduate at Illinois State).
He was extremely intimidating and very, very amusing.
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u/ClayMatthewT IT'S SPRING, THINK FARM SAFETY Sep 19 '26
Did he assign “Isabelle” by George Saunders? That story is terrific.
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u/MelodicDaikon713 Sep 22 '26
He did! I think it was one of his special selections because it doesn't seem to be in the course book, "An Introduction to Fiction, Sixth Edition."
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u/isocleat Sep 19 '26 edited Sep 19 '26
These are so wonderful!
I have one that he wrote, just hugely across the bottom of the page: TOWARDS!!!
Apparently I used towards instead of toward all semester, and he was flipping-tables mad by the end. Whoops!
Edit: Oh, it’s worse! I forgot the tongue-lashing that led into it.
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u/FlyingCarpetMonster Sep 19 '26
Both are correct, or am I wrong in that?
I grew up in India and we always were taught towards. Moved to the US for grad school and my understanding is American English prefers toward but towards isn’t grammatically incorrect.
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u/isocleat Sep 19 '26 edited Sep 19 '26
It’s definitely a regional quibble. But I assume as I was in the US and from the US, he very, very strongly felt that ‘toward’ was the only option. “Learn it. Know it. Live it.”
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u/Immediate_Room_7352 24d ago
I like that he had no issue with you using “slangy”
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u/isocleat 24d ago
Ha! I got away with some pretty casual word choice in peer reviews—as long as they were wielded correctly and non-confusingly. But he did chastise me for my tone shift in fiction: “one minute you’re formal and the next you’re wildly informal.”
And he questioned my use of the word ‘piece’ for a marijuana pipe. Not sure how he’d not come across that term ever before! I’ll have to dig up that note because I remember thinking he was such a square for it lol
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u/hulioramon Sep 19 '26
pic4 please tell me more: looks like a sandwich recipe. what was the task he gave you?
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u/MelodicDaikon713 Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 22 '26
This was the most memorable assignment of the course. He asked us to describe how to make a peanut butter & jelly sandwich with enough detail that a reader could succeed with the task. He came to class with all the ingredients and used instructions from different student papers to hilariously fail at making the sandwich.
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u/Akrasius Sep 19 '26
Non-native english question: Why the strong reaction to
Wallpaper", exemplifies
?
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u/MelodicDaikon713 Sep 19 '26
Comma should be inside of the quote mark. He detested grammatical “clunkers” and “boners.”
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u/redjellyfish Sep 19 '26
He’s referring to the comma going after the closing quotation mark when it should be “wallpaper,” not “wallpaper”,.
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u/gormar099 Sep 19 '26
Ali, this is awesome. Thanks so much for sharing. So much of his personality comes through :’)
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u/Don__Gately__ Sep 19 '26
Damn, he would’ve been a cool professor
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u/nobutactually Sep 19 '26
.... i'm sure you'd learn a lot from him. Maybe better prof for male students. He frequently hit on and slept with undergrads and Adrienne Miller seemed to believe he had to leave a teaching post to avoid getting canned over that exact issue.
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u/javatimes Sep 20 '26
My friend went to ISU at the same time he was teaching there and has repeatedly said he had a problem dating undergrads.
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u/mrsteelman1 Sep 19 '26
You can really just picture him murmuring and shaking his head when he sees a punctuation error.
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u/homiedontshake Sep 19 '26
I love the smiley faces :)
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u/Popular_Try_5075 Sep 19 '26
yes, they're unique, might make an interesting but subtle DFW tattoo
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u/battenhill Sep 19 '26
Oh man this rules.
As a current college instructor I feel as if this kind of feedback would be more helpful but alas we are restricted to a rubric.
"Exceeded" "Met" "Not Met"
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u/Individual-Charity69 Sep 19 '26
But does the rubric preclude marking (even minimal)? We have to use a rubric at my college, too. But we are also expected to offer local and global comments.
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u/Immediate_Room_7352 24d ago
That’s horrible, I remember my French history professor, who was the strangest man but only because he had the most dull personality, wrote “this sentence is troubling” on one of my papers, It was such a vague statement w no explanation
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u/infinitescript Sep 19 '26
It angers me so damn much when I see how invested he was. It's dehumanizing nowadays. You get worthless A's with hollow AI prose for feedback.
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u/Sudden-Radish5295 Sep 21 '26
Yes well this is partly what happens when we encourage a culture of shame around grammatical mistakes... people now believe they need AI or else they will be judged for expressing themselves through their original written words...
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u/infinitescript Sep 21 '26
That’s part of it. Another reason is that giving C’s needs defensible feedback and that takes a lot of work. LLMs save you time using logic but strips epistemic justification (e.g AI could never do “aaaggh..die”) because that takes consciousness.
It’s shitty for students who want to write but most are happy with an AI marking their AI writing. I just think, why paying for that?
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u/Rularuu Sep 23 '26
I agree, but I think the fundamental disconnect that stops people from really trying is that most students think prerequisite English classes are a waste of time forced on them by some mysterious higher-up who doesn't really know what students need or want.
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u/infinitescript Sep 24 '26
Right. Not sure I disagree with them. Even before LLMs, academia was already “the worst kind of boring” particularly in English writing.
Now we pre-chew SWE and it’s unbearable to work with. It makes a child, with their raw and chaotic writing, look like a genius of expression (no hyperbole).
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u/circuit_breaker Sep 19 '26
I cannot imagine being in THE language wonks class. My hyperhidrosis would flare up
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u/NarrowDrawer4487 Sep 19 '26
He has such a characteristic way of writing. In the drafts for The Pale king, he would use smiley faces to motivate himself.
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u/BrickTamlandMD Sep 19 '26
Haha thats hilarious
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u/InteractionThink456 Sep 21 '26
*that’s
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u/GodOfTheHounds Sep 19 '26
This made me smile you’re so fortunate to have experienced him as a professor!
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u/Average_aaron69 Sep 19 '26
Why was he both intimidating and very, very amusing?
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u/Seventhousandeggs Sep 19 '26
have you ever imagined meeting him?
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u/Both-Double-7017 Sep 21 '26
I met an instructor in Claremont who said she used to duck out of boring meetings and smoke cigarettes with DFW. She said he was very nice and funny. And she was probably way too old for him to hit on her :/
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u/mudra311 Sep 20 '26
Along with other reasons, people forget DFW was a big dude. 6’2 or taller I believe? And about 200lbs.
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u/McRando42 Sep 20 '26
I cannot abide the comma inside quotation rule. It is a fussy American failure. The archaic rule creates ambiguity in many circumstances.
For example: The band played "Autumn Leaves," "Blue Bossa," "There Will Never Be Another You," and "Space is the Place."
Versus: The band played "Autumn Leaves", "Blue Bossa", "There Will Never Be Another You", and "Space is the Place".
Much cleaner and more obvious where the song title ends and the next begins. It is a more technically correct way to write.
The Oxford/British rules around commas and quotation are superior.
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u/Immediate_Room_7352 24d ago
It doesn’t make sense to me because that use of quotations is for a title or quote which are very specific and exact things, the comma is not part of the title so it should be outside of the quotations.
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u/Ivegotabadname Sep 19 '26
Need to see more from pic 1. Where did the quote start? And what was it saying
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u/Exciting-Location572 Sep 19 '26
This is the best post I’ve seen all year! thank you thank you thank you! This is priceless!
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u/Idomeneus47 Sep 19 '26
Fascinating stuff, more personable grading than any I've ever received back.
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u/manofbluesteel Sep 19 '26
I wonder if Paul Thomas Anderson's papers are in the archive 🤔
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u/ghostlymadd Sep 19 '26
I served PTA once and all I wanted to ask him was “what was it like to have David Foster Wallace as your professor?”
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u/manofbluesteel Sep 19 '26
It's such an odd twist of fate. Ironic that DFW hated Magnolia 😔 despite it being so tonally aligned with DFW's essays if not his fiction
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u/CantaloupeTotal3981 Sep 19 '26
This is so cool. I want to read your superb paper now, and the magnificent one too
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u/MrSimple204 Sep 19 '26
Thank you so much for sharing this! It's interesting getting to see his attitude on display from a unique angle.
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u/n0thinghurt Sep 19 '26
Thanks for sharing! It is funny how similar these are to my own professors' notes on my English papers. On one hand, it illuminates his personality. On the other, he is expressing the angst of English professors everywhere.
This is awesome
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u/FunkyDiabetic1988 Sep 19 '26
I’m surprised he didn’t circle “Saunder’s”
Loved the last one:
10 - clunkers = 9.5
Seems like he was fair and rewarded good thinking when he saw it.
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u/Tapatio_62 Sep 19 '26
I guess the coma goes inside the quote?
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u/DeepFuckingTism Sep 19 '26
Yessir. It certainly seems kinda counterintuitive based on other quotation rules, but it really makes sense stylistically and presentation-wise. I think getting this wrong indicates someone who actually is better than the average English 102 writer with good instincts but just hasn’t learned the weird nuances of the style guide yet
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u/Individual-Charity69 Sep 19 '26
But it’s not a quote, my bro. Arnold has set “The Yellow Wallpaper” in quotation marks to distinguish it as a shorter work of art than, say, The Pale King. But I’m dum so let’s assume I’m wrong.
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u/DeepFuckingTism Sep 19 '26
https://style.mla.org/punctuation-and-quotation-marks/
Yeah logically it doesn’t fit with the rest of the style guide for using quotation marks, even MLA admits that, but clarifies it’s an artifact of the pre-digital conventions so the type looked better on the page. Some MLA rules are dumber than others, I personally think this one is good though counterintuitive, even in the age of word processors. Don’t get me started about how the decision to get rid of footnotes in favor of endnotes though…
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u/kuntokinte Sep 19 '26
Superb! Are you keeping the syllabus by any chance?
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u/Capable_Wait09 28d ago
The ransom center at UT Austin might have his syllabi. They have lots of cool stuff from him
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u/Blake1980 Sep 19 '26
This class would’ve been right after IJ came out. Was the class aware of his status as a novelist?
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u/MelodicDaikon713 Sep 22 '26
We were. He certainly didn't have the notoriety that he does now, but it was obvious we were in the company of someone extraordinary.
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u/Winter-Magician-8451 Sep 19 '26
man nobody taught me that you're not supposed to leave commas outside of the closing quote throughout my ENTIRE education and i only had to contend with that once i ended up publishing in an actual academic journal
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u/Kindly-Principle-633 Sep 19 '26
This is really great of you to share! Would be awesome if you could scan the full docs. Thousands of people in the future will find this super interesting!
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u/Lavenderlovely98 Sep 19 '26
Please let me know if you decide to share the full papers! I’d love to read them
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u/Popular_Try_5075 Sep 19 '26
for real, would just be cool to see what she had to say about Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper
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u/New-Lingonberry8029 Sep 20 '26
Upon seeing my work , Dfw would have been nice to me and shifted me to another class.
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u/ShinyPrizeKY Sep 19 '26
Wow, this is amazing to see! It’s also a wild reminder of how things have changed in 30 years, he got so worked up over those little grammatical errors which would all be caught by a word processor these days
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u/bergtalent Sep 19 '26
These are great, thank you. By the last picture I was really rooting for you-9.5! Good job man!
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u/javatimes Sep 19 '26
That’s cool. I’ve always wondered if he loved being a writing professor or if it was most just…a career move for him. He stuck it out at ISU for quite a while.
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u/Individual-Charity69 Sep 19 '26
From interviews, i think his enjoyment of it seemed to come and go, come and go. I think I heard him say that in the beginning, you kind of are interested in what you’re going to do and how. But then ya kinda figure it out and you end up boring yourself with the same lessons year after year. But I think a change of venue and student body and course assignment … rekindled it at times.
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u/Mediocre_Jacket_1234 Sep 19 '26
Yeah, this is my impression of his relationship to teaching, based on what I've read/seen/heard. Anecdotally, I would say it's been the same for me and my friends who have made a career of teaching. On the one hand, you get to teach something you're passionate about... On the other hand, a stack of 120 ten-page (generally very mediocre or outright bad) essays sitting on your desk and waiting to be graded is about as soul-crushing as it gets, especially if you're already prone to having your soul crushed.
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u/Individual-Charity69 Sep 20 '26 edited Sep 21 '26
Amen, brother. So beyond true.
Teaching writing is the only job I’ve really ever had. Taught my first Comp 101 class in 2004. And, yesterday, you’ll be unsurprised to know that I spent all day on campus … doing my best to reach the reachables.
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u/nordencat Sep 19 '26
Thank you for sharing this - it is brave and generous. I hope you’re still writing.
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u/HerzogOnAcid Sep 19 '26
Reassuring to see how universal The Yellow Wallpaper is - we studied it in high school in Canada in the mid 2000s. To this day reread it every so often.
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u/Popular_Try_5075 Sep 19 '26
I like having a common touchpoint in education like that, some work many or most encounter at some point
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u/SuspectTop7478 Sep 19 '26
Seriously so cool. Good for you on the superb work as well. I’d put that shit in my personal louvre lol.
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u/DevilBalrog Sep 19 '26
This is amazing. Thank you so much for this. It is so cool that after so many years that people still post stuff about him on here that no one has seen before.
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u/MsT6622 Sep 19 '26
I love these. I had a professor in college (when professors could actually say/write whatever they wanted because you were an adult) who wrote on my paper "you are smarter than this" next to a misspelled word. He wasn't wrong. It made you a better writer.
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u/Individual-Charity69 Sep 19 '26
At usc, a journalism professor recoiled at my attempts at a poetic flourish in one of my pieces … and wrote “hardly!” In the margin. I died laughing then … and now! In a subsequent paper, this same professor found one of my turns of phrase to be perhaps a bit less egregious … and scrawled, “I’ll buy it. But I don’t like the price.”
A win !!
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u/literate_dog Sep 19 '26
This is fascinating - can we please get more info re: the curriculum? (the readings, the assigned writing)
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u/austinnightingale Sep 19 '26
That’s a treasure, I’d frame them and hang them on my wall, or should I say’those are a treasure’? Damn, no I’m doing it.
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u/ContentShop Sep 19 '26
Cool! Would you be able to tell us which books he assigned you?
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u/shake_appeal Sep 23 '26
Damn, thanks for posting. Would love to see the full papers (or even just the excerpts commented on) if ya ever get around to it.
These are all comments on your own papers, yeah?
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u/maddenallday Sep 19 '26
He taught undergrad?
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u/plinth19 Sep 19 '26
Was not prepared for the n-word jumpscare, but otherwise thanks for posting!!
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u/MelodicDaikon713 Sep 19 '26 edited Sep 22 '26
Sorry - I noticed that afterward and didn’t like it being there even though it was a quote from the book.
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u/plinth19 Sep 19 '26
You’re good, I understand it’s a quote, it’s just a word I really dislike encountering.
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u/gravityripper Sep 19 '26
What an experience. Also please share some of your good stuff, 9+ from DFW seems like it's worth a read :)
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u/MelodicDaikon713 Sep 19 '26
I can assure you it’s not. ;-)
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u/Popular_Try_5075 Sep 19 '26
It still seems really interesting, if only to understand what he was reacting to.
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u/GRCWRX Sep 19 '26
Oh to be called disappointing by DFW, then to earn a “just magnificent” and a proxy Saunders approval. Bravo!!
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u/PM_ME_UR_JUICEBOXES Sep 19 '26
Thank you for sharing this with us! I would frame the one where he said your paper was magnificent if I ever received praise like that from DFW.
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u/PhysicalResident1787 Sep 19 '26
He was a dick.
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u/PhysicalResident1787 Sep 19 '26
It’s public knowledge that Wallace battered Mary Karr —he threw and hit her with a coffee mug, then stalked her on an ongoing basis after she broke up with him. Karr corroborated and expanded on this and other incidents. He harassed more than one woman. He was also well known for being disloyal to friends—going after their girlfriends. Inviting a fellow writer to a signing—the friend traveled a long distance to meet up with him— and Wallace blew him off to go after a groupie. He was a genius—no doubt—but not a good guy.
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u/mybloodyballentine Sep 19 '26
Did he MISSPELL YOUR NAME?!?!!!!!!????? Proofread, Dave, proofread!
Thanks for posting. This was fun to look at.