Monday, February 25, 2013

RTF Instructions!

My students' first written assignment, a short essay, was due this weekend. It was designed as a relatively simple piece of work, its purpose being to give me some idea of whether these freshman and non-majors can read a chapter, synthesize some information, and write a coherent answer in response to a fairly straightforward question.

The assignment required no external research. It was based only on reading that they had already done (or, at least, were supposed to have done) for class. Not only had we already covered the reading, but we had also discussed in some considerable detail the very issue that they were being asked to write about. I had essentially given them most of the answers they would need to write the paper.

I posted the assignment on the LMS a few weeks ago, and told the students to read the instructions and to come to class, or to my office hours, with any questions they had about the requirements. For the next few weeks, I made an announcement in almost every class reminding them of the paper, and asking if anyone had any questions. A few students asked basic questions, such as whether they could write a bit more than the required length, and then we moved on.

And then came the due date, and the emails.

Less than twenty-four hours before the paper was due, I had three emails complaining that they didn't understand what the question was asking. Here, in a nutshell, is the main part of the question, with historical place and time period changed to guard my identity:
Some historians have argued that the industrial revolution provided opportunities for poor people in England to improve their living conditions by moving to towns and cities and undertaking new types of work. Based on your reading of Chapter 6 of the textbook, is this an accurate assessment? What were the main challenges faced by the new industrial working class, and were some types of workers better able than others to benefit from industrialization?
As I said, this isn't actually the historical area we are dealing with in my class, but the substance of the question is very similar, and you can take my word for it that the 30-page chapter of the textbook deals with the main issues explicitly and repeatedly.

One email, received on the day the paper was due, said:
I don't know exactly what this question is asking.  Could you explain it a bit more? What do you mean by accurate assessment?
It's not so much the question itself that I find infuriating, because it's a question I would have been happy to answer if raised in class, or in my office. It's the fact that the student has evidently completely ignored the assignment for the past three weeks, despite my exhortations, and apparently hadn't even read the instructions until the day before it was due. Sorry, but your procrastination does not mean that I'm going to sit down on the weekend to write an explanatory email.

The best emails, though, were more straightforward and yet even more lame. For example:
Hello, I was wondering where we should turn our essays in? Do you want them on turnitin?
Here, verbatim, is the relevant section of the instructions, under the heading "Submitting your paper":
Submit your essay using the Essay Submission link on the class website. You will receive a numbered receipt from TurnitIn. Make sure you record the receipt number.

I showed them the relevant link in class. Another student concern:
I was wondering if you could tell me how many pages the paper should be?
From the instructions, under the heading "Length":
Your paper should be about 3 pages long, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins (approximately 750-900 words).
Jesus Christ on a goddamn crutch, people! Read the tea-partying instructions, will ya, or the only questions you'll have to confront in your own work lives will be, "Are you on fryer or grill today?"

20 comments:

  1. I am almost completely convinced that the majority no longer read and simply rely on osmosis as their primary learning style!

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  2. But it's so much easier to email you than to actually TRF(whatever), Defunct!

    Somebody around here suggested putting something along the lines of "I don't reply to emails asking questions that are answered in the assignment" on the syllabus. That might be a solution (but not if they don't read the syllabus *or* the assignment, and not, even if they do, if your job is dependent on student evals.)

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    Replies
    1. err, make that RTF(whatever). It's only Monday afternoon, and it's been a long week already.

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    2. It's ok. When i cuss, I sometimes get the mother damn God fucking words in the order wrong too.

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  3. You are lucky they are asking these questions 24 hours in advance. I have a couple of dumbasses who are emailing me because they didn't even notice there was an essay due a week ago.

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  4. I share your frustrations. I am always asking if there are questions on assignments, class items and get noting. Then at the last minute, I either get questions or they wait until the exam or the assignment to show me that they have no clue what the heck was going on. I really don't understand why most students don't ask for help. As for reading instructions, it is just a lost art unfortunately.

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  5. This is my worst semester ever regarding this issue. I have explained until I am blue in the face, given photographic examples, etc., and no one will read the assignment!! It apparently takes "less time" to email me than to dig the damned schedule/assignments out of wherever they have stashed them.

    I did read somewhere that young people these days (GET OFFA MY LAWN) would rather have a quick answer from the source than to look stuff up by themselves. This tendency has been developing over several years.

    You have my sympathy, Adjunct. I know just how you feel.

    I'm handing back the papers tomorrow. Some kidlets are in for a big surprise. It's as if they think they can absorb information passively through their pores.

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    Replies
    1. This is my worst term for that kind of thing too. Maybe it's catching.

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  6. Following example of someone on here, I've announced to my lower div classes that any assignment that actually fulfills the stylesheet requirements (1 inch margins, indented paragraphs, a fucking staple in the fucking corner, etc) will receive a bonus point. For some reason it seems to be working better than taking off points for them not meeting requirements. They have a strange concept of arithmetic. Whatever works.

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  7. Oh, the procrastination! How to stop the procrastination! What is WITH the procrastination? It's not just in schools anymore, either. People all around me seem to procrastinate.

    Oh, sorry: your post was on following directions, and I focused in on ONE thing. I, too, wonder why they cannot simply READ something. Is reading a skill no longer required of anyone?

    I used to do an "in-class" assignment where they had to follow specific instructions step-by-step, and it was a pass/fail assignment (if they got it right exactly, they got the credit; if not, no go). Only those who followed instructions would pass. Maybe it's time to return to that exercise...

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    Replies
    1. This is funny:

      http://www.eslmania.com/teacher/clssroom_materials/ESL_Exercises/Directions%20Exercise.pdf

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    2. Hey! I remember those exercises from second grade!

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    3. Me, too (well, not from 2nd grade, but from at least 5th grade; our school was a little behind yours, Irritated Isis). :)

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  8. I think we all just have to hold their feet to the fire on this. I know it seems impossible for folks who are part-time or at a community college. The pressure is to pass everyone, keep everyone happy. But the rest of us have got to say "ENOUGH."

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  9. We need to have a clear policy on when students can expect replies to e-mails. I usually state that any e-mail I get after 4:30 on a weekday will be answered the next day. That cuts down on the last-minute crap. Alas, there are always some keen faculty smart-phone uses that reply within a couple of minutes, making the rest of us look mean.

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  10. DA: Didn't you create a YouTube video that pointed out the submission link and the page requirement with a blinking arrow? The poor darlings are lost without such guidance.

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    Replies
    1. I have done something similar, with graphics and arrows (no YouTube video, though) and that just confused them even more. So sometimes, more is just more, and not necessarily better. We spend so much time trying to make it easier for them, but they won't take that initial step to just RTFI or even look at the pictures I've pasted onto our LMS with instructions of where to go. So frustrating!

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  11. One of my colleagues had some really excellent instructions up on the LMS for various projects in her course and how to use the software to analyze data (screen shots and everything). The poor dears can't be bothered to look through the list of topics to find what they need, they would rather google it. I just don't understand their reasoning-why would you want some random crap from joeschmo.com rather than instructions customized for your course by your professor???

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  12. If I get an email with a question that is answered in the syllabus or in the assignment instructions, I trash it without replying.

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    Replies
    1. As the OP, I should note that I did not reply to any of the emails that I described.

      I also made an announcement in class explaining why I had not replied to any emails related to the essay over the weekend. I wanted to make it clear that, when I tell them to read the tea-partying instructions, I mean immediately, and not the day the paper is due, and that I will not accommodate their procrastination by taking time out of my weekends to answer questions that they should have asked days or weeks ago.

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