# How should I "take" this email from my advisor? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 18, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929 "2010-05-18T19:57:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![statsman1982](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@statsman1982](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statsman1982)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/1 "2010-05-18T19:57:22Z")
The situation: My PhD advisor told me to read a particular journal article that he attached in an email. In doing so, I became confused about something the authors said. I emailed my advisor (he and I share emails frequently, so asking him for help is not unusual) asking him about the issue, mentioning that the authors seem to be saying something different from what I understood to be true. The paper is mathematical, so the claims in proofs are either true or not. My advisor sent the following reply, quoted here in its entirety: > [@](#): > > I think they are being fast and loose with language. They really mean “at less than or equal to alpha”. Sometimes its easier to say things loosely expecting that people will understand. I’ve stated numerous times on this board that I have depression and anxiety, am seeing a therapist, am on medication, etc. I’ve also had lots of stress lately in my program, now that I’m in the dissertation phase. That said, the email quoted above sounds snarky to me. When I read the words, I hear, “Jesus, don’t be so damned obtuse. It’s an advanced statistics paper. The authors expect that people who read it know something, which you clearly don’t.” How would \*you \*“take” such an email? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/2 "2010-05-18T20:01:08Z")
It doesn’t sound snarky to me at all and I can’t really figure out where you’re getting it from. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/3 "2010-05-18T20:06:06Z")
It may or may not be intended to be snarky, but you certainly can’t tell whether it is or is not based solely on this email. Why assume the worst? ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/4 "2010-05-18T20:07:02Z")
Looks like your advisor is snarky to the author, not you. He’s saying they were lazy and careless with their explanation by expecting the reader to immediately fill in the fuzziness correctly. ---
**Author:** ![sugar\_and\_spice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@sugar\_and\_spice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugar_and_spice)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/5 "2010-05-18T20:08:32Z")
Out of context, no I don’t think that’s snarky at all. He answered your question and followed up with some musing about why it was written that way. He’s your advisor so he gets to share nuggets of wisdom with you. > [@](#): > > That said, the email quoted above sounds snarky to me. When I read the words, I hear, “Jesus, don’t be so damned obtuse. It’s an advanced statistics paper. The authors expect that people who read it know something, which you clearly don’t.” Then he would have said “The authors assume prior knowledge of \_\_.” And he didn’t say that. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/6 "2010-05-18T20:16:10Z")
I don’t know your advisor, or what “less than or equal to alpha” means, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt – but I didn’t get snarky out of that. My guess at translation: “The authors dumbed it down for the general readership, but in doing so actually made it less accurate. Most people wouldn’t be smart enough to catch that, but you did.” ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/7 "2010-05-18T20:17:34Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > Looks like your advisor is snarky to the author, not you. He’s saying they were lazy and careless with their explanation by expecting the reader to immediately fill in the fuzziness correctly. That was how I read it as well. The authors took a loose path, rather than taking the time to write it out correctly as they should have for a journal article. Nothing to fear here that I see. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/8 "2010-05-18T20:18:23Z")
What **BubbaDog** & **sugar and spice** said. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/9 "2010-05-18T20:18:43Z")
Nope, decidedly not snarky. Had my advisor said that, I would have taken it as a dig at the authors of the paper. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/10 "2010-05-18T21:31:17Z")
Did the voices in your head interpret your advisor’s e-mail for you, as that’s the only way I could gather you got that interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/11 "2010-05-18T21:34:55Z")
I am not following the logic in the OP either. The e-mail isn’t bad in the least. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/12 "2010-05-18T21:38:25Z")
Not that you probably need yet another opinion at this point, but I’m with the rest who think that if there’s any snark here, it’s directed at the authors for not being precise in a mathematical paper. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/13 "2010-05-18T21:44:59Z")
Yup, that’s what I see, too. That’s why in writing we must use lots and lots of smileys. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/14 "2010-05-18T21:47:04Z")
> [@Angua](#): > > Nope, decidedly not snarky. Had my advisor said that, I would have taken it as a dig at the authors of the paper. That was my instinct. So, can I have a citation so I can PALATR (point and laugh at the researchers)? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/15 "2010-05-18T21:48:25Z")
> [@Angua](#): > > Nope, decidedly not snarky. Had my advisor said that, I would have taken it as a dig at the authors of the paper. As would I. Being told one has played “fast and loose” with language is rarely praise, and I can’t imagine it being so in an academic context. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/16 "2010-05-18T21:56:22Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > As would I. Being told one has played “fast and loose” with language is rarely praise, and I can’t imagine it being so in an academic context. Quite. Given the context we have, it wouldn’t surprise me if the advisor is highly critical of the authors. If it were me, I’d assume the authors were playing a sort of word game where things are phrased deliberately ambiguously in order to either get the paper past referees or to cover their own arses in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/17 "2010-05-19T02:08:49Z")
Joining in the chorus that says that any victims of any snark attack are the authors, not you. 🙂 I reckon you’re worried/stressed/being over-careful and perhaps seeing issues that aren’t there. (I do sympathise with the depression and anxiety thing, so I hope that can be alleviated). ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/18 "2010-05-19T03:10:54Z")
Definitely not snarky. I can almost see how you reached that interpretation, but he wasn’t criticizing you because _they_ weren’t clear. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/19 "2010-05-19T03:15:06Z")
“Definitely” not “snarky” at all"." ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929/20 "2010-05-19T03:22:25Z")
Not seeing even one iota of snark in that. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-take-this-email-from-my-advisor/539929.md?page=2)