• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• PART 1: THE START
• PART 2: THE CLASS
• PART 3: THE EXAM
• PART 4: THE PAPER
  • Understand the Assgnt.
  • Analysis, Research
  • See the Professor
  • The Perfect Paper
• PART 5: THE LAST MONTH
• AFTERWORD
• READERS' REVIEWS
• MEET THE AUTHORS

chapter 12

Do's and Don'ts for Going to See the Professor

As your work on the paper progresses, many roads lead to the professor. Lots of students at some point in their thinking about the paper (be it an analytical or a research paper) find themselves confused about one or other point, or unsure whether they're on the right track. If and when this happens, the simple solution is to head directly to your professor's (or TA's) office hour to consult. Your little tête-à-tête with the professor might last only 15 or 20 minutes. But this quarter of an hour could have more impact on your grade than all those hours holed up in the library -- times two. But like any other human interaction, the office meeting with the professor can hit the rocks. Especially if you don't have the right combination of academic and interpersonal savvy to pull it off right. Follow our do's and don'ts and you'll be sure to reap the full benefit of your excursion to see the one who holds your fate in their hands. Your grade fate, we mean...

DON'T: Don't Be Afraid to Go See the Professor

Some students avoid going to see their professors simply because they're intimidated. Perhaps they have heard about how erudite the professor is, how much of an expert in his or her field he or she is, or how much he or she has published. And the last thing they want to do is to have a one-to-one discussion with the world's leading authority on whatever the topic is that they have to write about in their paper.

But if you have questions about your paper -- if you really don't know what to argue in the paper, whether a given point should be included or left out, or what point should come next in your presentation -- then you should just suck it in and go. Don't worry, it won't be as scary as you think. Did you know that this professor is just a regular person once he or she steps out of the academic world? That there are normal, everyday people who flip this guy (or gal) the bird for cutting them off on the freeway?

You have a question that needs to be answered. And your professor is clearly capable of giving you an answer -- one that could really help your grade. Live brave. And get your answer. Who knows, a good dose of adulation -- not to mention genuine intellectual engagement -- might do your professor some good....

Chapter 13 »

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