On a University site that I frequent there was the amusing (and somewhat worrying) story of a current lecturer who had marked two spelling mistakes in a student's essay. The student asked for a review as the 'mistakes' were a wrongly spelled word in a quotation after which the student had inserted the customary (sic) to indicate the mistake in the quote. The lecturer had red circled both as spelling mistakes by the student.

Makes one wonder.

Refer back to the discussion on The prison system and society,s (sic) responsibility.

We learned that some students are doing OK in college despite not being able to read. I guess this incident with the incorrect correction means these students have cruised on to jobs as uni lecturers.

And possibly fictional? I smell an urban legend!

Sniff up all that you like, old chap. I got it from a restricted site and it was factual and named names, and the ethnicity of the lecturer who was not from an English (as a first language) background.

I once lost a few marks in an Essay on Scots poetry because i referred to 'Robbie' Burns; red biro and ROBERT tripple underlined.