Here's a rant against something I saw in my own professors in college, and many other professors I still encounter today.
Back in my college days, after I submitted what I believed to be a flawless or near flawless rough draft for the professor to offer comments on, I sometimes received remarks such as "say some more" or "explain this" or "more comments."
Mind you, these were not skimpy, anemic, or superficial passages that I wrote. I felt that I had taken these points to their logical limit, and that adding more would be superfluous.
Naturally, I extended those passages anyway...because I knew that the professor wasn't going to give me that higher grade if I didn't implement his/her recommendations. So I did it dutifully, but I cursed myself all the way because I felt I was simply adding fluff to what I had already written to satisfy the professor's demand for "more." Unlike the initial material, I didn't believe in the additional material at all. It was done simply to satisfy the professor.
Invariably, I'd get the "A" on the paper, and the professors would write glowing comments on the additional parts (which he/she suggested more than I conceived) and singling those parts out for special praise. I was happy to get the "A" and the praise, but I was still disgusted because I thought that frankly, the essay was better *before* I conceded and made those additions. To me, adding those extra parts for the professor was, as we Chinese say, "painting legs on the snake."
I got so frustrated by this once that I turned in the paper with a sticky note that said something to effect of, "Professor ____________: in my culture, we have a saying: 'don't paint legs on a portrait of a snake.' However, since you like your snakes with legs, I've happily obliged."
He was quite amused after he got the joke.
This is a pet peeve of mine to this day.