When you have something due...

CommandoDude

and you have no fucking idea what it is you need to do.

I have a fairly significant piece of writing due in 9 hours and I have no fucking idea WHAT the subject is suppose to be on or how long it needs to be.

Why is there not a description in the course syllabus about what this project is? Why isn't it in the course website? It's like, I RELY on knowing these things, and yeah, I have a really, really bad habit of starting things at the last minute.

Malkavian

I have a really, really bad habit of starting things at the last minute.

Your problem right there.

TheConductor

Take notes man. In Scotland, you get nothing handed to you, you're expected to write everything down.

InsanityAddict

Which works fine if you actually have lecturers who know how to tell a coherent story, and never forget vital details. Since we're talking about university teachers, this is highly doubtful.

RedEyedAbyss

"I have a fairly significant piece of writing due in 9 hours and I have no fucking idea WHAT the subject is suppose to be on or how long it needs to be.

Why is there not a description in the course syllabus about what this project is? Why isn't it in the course website? It's like, I RELY on knowing these things, and yeah, I have a really, really bad habit of starting things at the last minute."

Then it's your own fault for not contacting your professor about it through e-mail at least. Try doing it now.

TheConductor

Meh, I dunno how it works in the States, but in the UK we hire competent lecturers :P 

Evergreen

I have an actually not-that-significant piece of writing due before 11 tomorrow morning (it's about a quarter to one in the afternoon now) and the major problem in my case is that I literally can't start writing it until I've finished reading through this load of late 40's newspaper articles. Like, I'd be doing it dishonestly and badly if I never actually found out how the press reacted to China falling to communism and the Soviets testing their atomic bomb, even though I could probably still write a page single-spaced with everything I've seen so far...

captainbrass

"how the press reacted to China falling to communism and the Soviets testing their atomic bomb"

I'd hazard a guess that they weren't very happy about it, unless you're talking about Pravda's reaction...

Evergreen

Yeah, but this assignment is sort of looking for specifics, so you can't really fake it with generalities...

Well, I finally finished that part of it all. Now I actually have to write a single-spaced page on all this. This could either be not so bad or terrible, depending on how fast I can work and, on a related note, how focused I can stay. The evening is my absolute worst time for working.

Evergreen

Doublepost to say...

Damn it. I wrote this stupid thing so quickly and easily. What was supposed to be my opening took up half the page no problem.

I barely was able to answer the prompt properly. If he wants proof I understood the assignment, the professor would be better off reading my two days' worth of notes on the damn sources. I hope I don't get a bad grade because it turned out I couldn't fit what I wanted to say in one page and was forced to stop incredibly short of making full points.

I am doomed to do this forever. When they want more writing, I can never produce enough. When they want less writing, I either write too much and have to trim it, or I have to seriously compromise what I wanted to say to fit under the limit.

InsanityAddict

Define competency. Many professors are ace in research and paper writing, but do not know how to give a class(assumes the audience already knows everything because he's only used to conference crowds, focuses on style over substance-again, this is conference style-, does not ask questions-which is vital if you don't want to rehash the reading materials in the notes). Don't know if you need an actual teacher's training to teach in college in the UK, but in Ireland I was giving second and third-year classes in Dutch despite not having any previous teaching experience.

captainbrass

^ I'm pretty sure you don't need any training in actual teaching to be a university lecturer over here. My Dad was one for 35 years and he never had any that I know of.

During my time at university, small group teaching of undergraduates was often done by graduate students for beer money, although the "proper" academics always delivered the lectures.