Watch Evensven break down because her TAs are evil and insane (long college rant)

The BBQ Pit
1

I have a paper due tommorow. A six page rough draft- nothing to big, but still pretty substantial.

It is one of those papers that builds off of an earlier paper. we did the research and wrote a short paper incorporating that research with historical background and analysis of sources. The idea is that we get feedback from that and then use that feedback to further refine it into a longer paper.

Here is where the problem begins. My prof promised us that we would get emailed comments on that earlier paper back in a reasonable manner. The assignment was vague but the teacher is picky, so these comments are really valuable to figureing out what they are looking for and what to avoid. This Tuesday, she apologized profusely for not having them, and said they would be mailed by Wednesday morning.

Wednesday morning comes. Nothing but spam in my inbox. I didn’t think much of it- I set aside time in the afternoon for the paper and surely I’ll have my comments by then.

Nope.

Eight o’clock at night rolls around. I really don’t want to start writing the essay without these comments. I’d really hate to write six pages and then get comments saying that I should go in a completely different direction. I talked to some other people in the class who did get comments, and all their comments seemed very useful to helping them know where to go on the next essay (once again, the assignment was very vague).

I fire off email to my TA explaining that I never got the comments and that I really didn’t want to write the paper without first getting feedback on the essay I was building on. I also mention that it is getting late, and that the time that I had set aside for this essay had passed while I waited for the comments and that any essay I started now would involve me staying up all night and getting delierious from lack of sleep. I proposed either turning in a shorter less formed paper, or else turning the paper in later (it is a rough draft, and the final isn’t due for a while). I wait a while. No reply. I don’t know what to do.

Several hours later, I decide to head off to bed, because I have a long day of classes tommorow that I ought to be awake for. I check my email one last time- at midnight.

I finally got my comments, along with a nasty note about how I should have been working on this paper weeks ago and that comments usually take two weeks to get to students so I was lucky to get comments at all. She said that I shouldn’t rely on comments for direction and that she expects a full and ready paper tommorow and if I didn’t turn one in she’d have to make arrangements with the prof on how to penalize me. To make things worse, she says the reason why she was so late with her email was because her modem wasn’t working.

Thats when I started to cry. Nothing like a six page paper facing you at midnight when you are sleep deprived and freaked out.

First off- It is not right to assign us papers assignments that amount to “write something” when you clearly are expecting something specific that you choose to keep secret from us. Then you expect me to invest myself in a six page paper when I could easily get comments back from the earlier paper that says “You are going the completely wrong direction, write about something else”. I can’t further refine my paper when I am completely in the dark

Second off- It is not unreasonable to expect comments back when you claim you will have them back. I don’t care if it usually takes teachers three months to write comments. You said you’d have them this morning and I counted on that. I planned for that. I set aside time to do my paper assumeing that. You fucked up. Now I have to stay up all night because of that. Bitch.

Third off- I don’t care what you modem was doing. That is no excuse for a students, and it should be no excuse for a TA. If my modem doesn’t work and I have a paper due, I get my ass over to Kinkos or a friends house or something and take care of it. If I told my teacher I didn’t have something because my “modem doesn’t work” he’d laugh in my face. Excuses don’t go very far in academia. Getting those comments out is your job. I shouldn’t have to pay because you didn’t feel like taking care of it.

Then, she has the nerve to sign off saying that she will be unreachable until monday. Arrrggggg!!!

Time to get back to writing…see you all in the morning.

2

Sven, darling, I hope things worked out.

As a teacher, I’d never do that to my students!

I’m sure your paper will turn out okay. Maybe don’t put your name on the cover, just your student number, to avoid the wrath of a vindictive TA. Be sure to review your paper carefully to make sure the TA was fair when she marked.

I’ve been a victim of unfair TAship once because I’d asked “too many questions” I suppose.

Take care - sleep well tonight.

Elly

3

Oh, why I am so glad I have had one (1) TA in college. EVER. And she was cool.

Tech-like class (well, inasmuch as we were using netscape composer). I know the coding beyond anything the class could teach me, so the TA, who has also figured this out, says something like “Yeah, I know you can do the assignment, but surprise me for the final!”

To some of you those would be horrible words to see in front of you from a hateful TA. It was fun for me:) I took it as a challenge to do something beyond the dinky C&P we’d been taught, and incorporated mouse-over code and pop-up windows into my final project. TA, instead of being jealous, was happy to see someone who understood the material and had fun with it.

And that, friends, is how to be a GOOD TA (I think. I never got chocolate from her so I can’t say for sure).

sven, I’d take up the issue of this TA with the head of the department or someone in a similar position of authority. Your grade shouldn’t have to suffer because of a prof or prof’s helper.

4

Forward your TA’s e-mail to the professor, along with an explanation of your grievances and a request for your professor to consider what to do. Be polite, above all.

TA’s do not have the right to be bitchy to their students, and can suffer consequences (don’t know what) if they’re not nice. I was an undergrad TA (think lab assistant) for three years, and the one thing that was always stressed was that we had to be nice to the students.

5

Having been both a student and a TA at different points, I have two things to say:

  1. Your TA is an asshole. If she promised you the comments before your paper was due, then she had an obligation to deliver. She should extend your deadline by the same amount of time she was late with your comments.

  2. Talk to the professor. Explain that you had planned much of your writing around the comments that were promised to you, and delivered to others much earlier. Simply ask to be allowed to turn in the draft without penalty a little bit late.

But above all, accept that this sort of unfair shit happens, and try to do well in spite of it. There are lots of bad TAs – it’s what you get when you pay untrained grad students very little money to teach, as well as do research and take their own classes.

6

Sorry, I thought TA’s meant something completely different. :wink:

However, I do have this comment: Why, oh why do teachers (and TA’s for that matter) think the student actually learns anything by writing for them? :eek:

7

I agree with Giraffe.

I’m a TA right now, and student’s opinions are important to the dept. Not to my boss (who’s the coordinator), though. She dislikes the students.

With that in mind- be careful how you complain. Using the snippy email is fine, but don’t undermine your credibility by going over the top- just let the facts talk for you.

Keep in mind that TAs do have other things they’re doing- 4 hours isn’t completely unreasonable as a turnaround time. The bitchiness isn’t excusable, nor the threat.

By the way, were the comments the TA’s responsibility, or the profs?

8

The comments were the TA’s responsibility.

I just wrote the darn paper. The quarter ends in a few days, so I’m not going to worry about it too much. I don’t think complaining would really help my cause.

The paper turned out okay, and I’ll probably get a good grade on it. I’m just a little upset that I had to stay up all night when I was exhausted doing it when I made perfectly reasonable plans for writing this in a reasonable manner. I can (kind of) see why she denied me an extention, but she really didn’t have to be mean to me, especially when she didn’t bother to get back to me until midnight the night before the paper was due.

9

No kidding. What use is compiling research, synthesizing knowledge, and communicating same in a comprehensive and coherent manner? :rolleyes:

10

even, I’d still talk to the prof about the TA. Even though you might soon be done with her (or worst, might not be) others next quarter have to deal with her, and a bad TA is pure hell.

11

Your TA is most definitely an asshole. However, why the hell did you wait until 8:00 on Wednesday night to find out what was going on? Since she had promised you comments on Wednesday morning, you should have e-mailed her at noon and if you still hadn’t heard anything by 1:00, e-mailed or called the professor to tell him/her what was going on and to either get an extension or some direction on the paper. I know this was rough for you, but I think a lot of this is your own fault. Next time, don’t let the asshole jerk you around–go straight to the professor and rat her out.