Kind of annoyed that professor won't let semester end.

[soliloquy]

So, I had a professor spring semester who approached me and asked me to write an article with him to be published in a scholarly journal. This project would be in lieu of one of my electives as an independent study so I still get credit for it. I chose to start in the fall because summer was just too packed with 3 courses. Anyway, we started in August, I went through Univ of Miami to obtain my behavioral research certification per school rules and we began. I dutifully returned all assignment on the due date according to his instructions and even before. But, he has been very busy and I feel like he's dragging his feet a bit. Winter break started two weeks ago and although he entered my grade he is still emailing me about tasks that need to be completed. He says he'll get back to me at certain times and he doesn't. I emailed him tonight because I had been waiting two days for a response to my question regarding a status update since we had finally decided on the format of the survey and had it approved. His response was that something was amiss and he'd deal with it tomorrow. :/

We have not even surveyed our target population yet and the delay is no fault of my own. It's exasperating. I have taken the initiative to send him things even without being asked. I don't want to be rude but I really don't need extra work in the spring since i'm taking 3 more classes and this is my last semester... and I certainly would like a break before spring starts. I just don't feel like i'm in a position to ummmm say anything. It was my understanding from speaking to him in the beginning that this would be completed by the end of the semester. Otherwise, I probably would have just taken another elective.

Suggestions?

[cookderosa]

yikes. The best thing to do is something I probably would be too chicken to do- but that's to just ask if he could outline his expectations of you over the next few weeks/months so you can allocate your time accordingly. I had a nightmare thesis advisor, it was awful, and they have so. Much. Power. over your destiny that it's a lot of just sucking it up. I'm sorry you're going through that. Ugh.

[dfrecore]

Could you very nicely tell him that you had thought that it was a 1-semester project, and that you are overloaded for your final spring semester, and is there a way to finish up as early as possible because you're afraid you won't be able to give the project the time and attention it deserves if it goes on into the semester. In a very sucking-up kind of way.

[soliloquy]

Thank you for your suggestions. I'm known to be rather direct in my communications and I have written and deleted drafts of emails several times. I'm just not sure what ettiquette calls for in this situation.

However, asking him to outline his expectations for me over the next month or so might be a clever way to figure out how much more he wants me to do on this project.

Blech.

[LaterBloomer]

Asking him to outline his expectations is an excellent idea. It might even cause him to be more restrained in his asking you to do additional work. (Okay, that's a weak hope as he has the power, and he sounds disorganized, but one can always hope.)

Just out of curiosity, what have you learned from this experience? I don't mean educationally, but about how to avoid a situation like this in the future. Was there any warning ahead of time that he'd behave this way? Are there any forums on professors that might have provided some insight?

[soliloquy]

He was very organized in the class I had with him in the spring and I had the opportunity to speak with another student who did an article with him a couple of years ago and she informed me also that it was all done by the end of the semester... in fact she said she found this article to be less time consuming then her other traditional classes. So as far as I can tell I don't think I could have guessed it would turn out this way but hindsight is 20/20.

[EI2HCB]

Soliloquy, that's not good, can you test out of the elective in the meantime or does it mean taking a separate course, At Excelsior you can test out of some of your Prerec courses within their MBA

[dmjacobsen]

Realize that creating, submitting, and finalizing an article for a peer-reviewed journal can take several months, if not a year or more. Perhaps the professor has assigned you a grade based on your work so far, with the assumption that you would like to continue to see this article through to publication.

If the grade is already posted, the two big questions are:

1) Do you have any obligation to continue working on this project?
2) How interested are you in seeing this publication to the end?

If you're not that interested in seeing things in through the end, I would -- instead of asking expectations about how much longer this project will take -- begin a conversation thanking the professor for the experience and asking how he would like to proceed with you handing off the remaining work. Unless there was some stipulation that the article would have to be completed and submitted before you get credit, you shouldn't continue to be on the hook for this and should still receive credit as a contributing author once the article is finally published.

[soliloquy]

Soliloquy, that's not good, can you test out of the elective in the meantime or does it mean taking a separate course, At Excelsior you can test out of some of your Prerec courses within their MBA

He has already given me an A for the independent study. There's nothing to test out of.

[soliloquy]

I took the expectations advice and received a favorable response, thank you.

The survey is done and will go out after the new year. He states that I have more than fulfilled my requirements. Going forward I can be as involved as I want to be.

Thank you!