From:
Wallace, Harry
Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 2:02 PM
To: Class.of.2013
Subject: class marshal musings
Greetings 2013ers! I hope you've had a fun/exciting/educational week so far. Most of you attended the "Thriving in an Academic World" panel discussion on Sunday, and I wanted to follow up on your questions about professors' pet peeves.
I am confident that most Trinity professors share my view that Trinity students are generally a treat to teach. I'm routinely impressed by your intelligence and ambition, and inspired by your enthusiasm, intellectual curiosity, and consideration of others. But hey, we all make mistakes. Consider the common academic faux pas listed below.
If you want to annoy your professor, you should...
· Make alot of typos, mispell words, and make a mess of your grammer when riding papers/emails that your proffesor will read. My personal favorite is either (a) the student who misspells a word in the title of a paper submitted for a grade, or (b) the waitlisted student who fails to use spellcheck before sending an email pleading for admission into a class.
· Surf the Internet or check/send email/text messages during class. While you're at it, you can annoy your classmates too by leaving your cell phone in not-so-silent vibration mode.
· Keep your email questions vague and structure them in ways that discourage short and simple responses. You might add a few typos for maximum impact.
· Make no effort to use/remember information contained in your course syllabi. This works best when you complain that you didn't have enough advance notice of a paper/project deadline.
· Convey frustration about the fact that your professor took hours to respond to your email.
· Use inconvenient office hours as an excuse for poor performance, even though your professor included the "or by appointment" qualifier to his/her posted office hours.
· Keep working on your exam when your professor tells you "time's up, put down your pen."
· Start packing your bags before the class period ends. Caveat: It's OK to start packing if your absent-minded professor shows no sign of recognizing that s/he's out of time.
· Try the "did I miss anything" line after missing a class or skipping the new student orientation panel discussion that mentioned this particular offense. Alternatively, you could complain that you weren't told which parts of lectures would be covered by exam questions.
· Ignore your professor’s feedback when writing/revising papers.
· Refrain from laughing at your professor's jokes.
That's all for now. In all seriousness, I hope you recognize that I'm just trying to raise your awareness of the professor perspective. Don't get paranoid about making innocent mistakes—those who boldly claim their education will occasionally do things that give professors something to complain/chuckle about. Besides, I'm quite sure you could generate a longer list of the ways that professors annoy you. You'll get the chance to share your own pet peeves when you complete course evaluations.
Good luck with registration!
- hw
_________________________
Harry M. Wallace, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology
Trinity University
One Trinity Place
San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
210-999-8384