Liberal Arts Capstone

[Amberlinjeanne]

I’m not sure I would even want an expert in my topic. That sounds like double trouble. The mentor is supposed to mentor on composition, format and mechanics. Not so much the subject matter. I had Black, I don’t really recommend him unless you like chicken scratch from top to bottom. He’s very hard to please. On the other hand he always says to call him any time for assistance, if you like doing that sort of thing.

He's hard to please because he is incredibly precise with APA, and wants to help his students be the best possible writers. Because of him, when I went on to my master's degree, I had multiple professors comment on how on-point my APA was, and how concise my writing was. Neither of those would have been the case had I not had Dr. Black. And mind you, I had done a lot of writing, for decades, before having Dr. Black's class.

It really depends on what you are after.  If you want to learn how to write at a graduate level and to deeply understand the importance of clarity in your writing, Dr. Black is an outstanding mentor.  I suppose if one doesn't give a crap and just wants an easy class then he's not the best.  But in my book, it's really a shame to turn down the opportunity to better one's skills.  The assistance he offers by phone is awesome, and he is literal that it can be any time; one of my friends who also took his class needed to talk to him and the only time was when he got off work at midnight CA time.  Dr. Black is in NC, and told him to go ahead and call him at 3am!  They had a great and helpful conversation.

Hmmm. Gotcha. It wasn’t easy and I got an A. So I guess I got the best of both. A hard A. 

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I’m not sure I would even want an expert in my topic. That sounds like double trouble. The mentor is supposed to mentor on composition, format and mechanics. Not so much the subject matter. I had Black, I don’t really recommend him unless you like chicken scratch from top to bottom. He’s very hard to please. On the other hand he always says to call him any time for assistance, if you like doing that sort of thing.

He's hard to please because he is incredibly precise with APA, and wants to help his students be the best possible writers. Because of him, when I went on to my master's degree, I had multiple professors comment on how on-point my APA was, and how concise my writing was. Neither of those would have been the case had I not had Dr. Black. And mind you, I had done a lot of writing, for decades, before having Dr. Black's class.

It really depends on what you are after.  If you want to learn how to write at a graduate level and to deeply understand the importance of clarity in your writing, Dr. Black is an outstanding mentor.  I suppose if one doesn't give a crap and just wants an easy class then he's not the best.  But in my book, it's really a shame to turn down the opportunity to better one's skills.  The assistance he offers by phone is awesome, and he is literal that it can be any time; one of my friends who also took his class needed to talk to him and the only time was when he got off work at midnight CA time.  Dr. Black is in NC, and told him to go ahead and call him at 3am!  They had a great and helpful conversation.

Hmmm. Gotcha. It wasn’t easy and I got an A. So I guess I got the best of both. A hard A. 

I didn’t notice where you recommended him or I would’ve refrained from my opinion.

I too had Dr. Black and my experience was mixed. He made me cry after he insisted I call him on the phone to discuss a recent assignment because it was “so bad” that it was clear to him that I had “no idea how to write an academic paper.” I’ve always been skilled in writing and it’s the one subject I feel comfortable with so it was incredibly hurtful and bizarre that he withheld the feedback on my paper until he could insult me verbally over the phone for a nearly 45 minute long conversation. With that being said, after we completed our intellectual tug of war and found common ground, he eventually awarded me a PERFECT score on both my final draft and my presentation. I couldn’t decide whether he picked on me for my actual performance or because I chose an incredibly controversial topic (neuroscience of internet p0rnography). Nonetheless, even though his tactics were intense and requirements sometimes oppressive of critical thinking and creative expansion - he succeeded in challenging me immensely and I am better because of it. This was the first A I’ve ever felt really proud of and that I’d actually earned (not that I hadn’t earned it before but this one did NOT come easy). I had to stretch myself quite a bit and learn how to fit into rigid instructions. If I didn’t have to fight so hard to defend my ideas, I’m not sure my educational experience would have been as enriching. If you’re looking for an easy A, don’t pick Dr. Black. However, if you’re looking for a solid educational experience to get your moneys worth and you have a thick skin - definitely do. 

Like most people in this forum, I love school & I love education. There are many ~degree collectors in this forum who strangely(to most outsiders at least) pursue knowledge as a hobby and are simply finding affordable ways to do it. I am one of these people and I enjoyed 99% of all the classes I’ve taken. With that being said, I GREATLY underestimated the mental fortitude required for my capstone and I wanted to quit at times. Writing the friggin thing was the easy part, but the 100+ hours I invested into finding and reading articles, cataloging them into a spreadsheet, making notes, arguments and counter arguments and then synthesizing them all into a 15,000 word manuscript was intense. I ran on adrenaline and luckily was immensely interested in my topic. I enjoyed it after receiving the satisfaction of a job well done, but be prepared to give 110% of your brain to this class. My advice is to choice your mentor wisely, and select a topic you don’t mind losing yourself in completely. I’m not saying this to scare you - you can definitely do it and I have no doubt about it, I just wish I hadn’t completely underestimated the level of effort it was going to require. The mentor’s area or specialty will not matter much because the actual content is not what they’re grading. I highly doubt my mentor had any idea what I was talking about, and it was my job to educate him and present a sound academic argument. That’s all any of them are looking for. I wish you the best of luck!! Please update us how it’s going and once we can congratulate you on your shiny new degree
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