Write evaluations in BLOCK LETTERS
Professor griping about RateMyProfessor.com says:
This is the time of year when Lucy the Dog must decide whether to dip her paws back into the world of academia.
For two years, I’ve spent September through December teaching Intro to College Writing to incoming freshmen who are none too interested in my thoughts on E.B. White’s “Once More to the Lake” or the differences between there, their, and they’re.
And responding to one of the comments …
And yet one student who was in attendance for those statements turned in a stack of unstapled pages. I did not fail her, but I made her take the paper back and get it stapled. I also told her it was ridiculous that she didn’t follow such a basic, clearly-stated instruction.
In her course evaluation, she complained that I’d threatened to fail her just because she didn’t staple a paper.
This is why you write your evaluations in nice, nondescript block letters, preferably written with your nondominant hand (but usually you don’t get enough time to use your nondominant hand, unless you are quite ambidextrous; so, in this case, just use block letters and in the months before, make sure never to use block-letter writing in any of the class work).
Even though your evaluations are supposed to be anonymous, the instructors can tell each student’s handwriting.
Also, leave out any personal details. I’ve been a TA and a tutor, and believe me, when the evaluation gets into enough details, I can guess very easily who wrote it.