Actual email exchange from earlier this week*

Dr. N, I was in lab on Friday to do work on lab X and was unable to finish the parts that I have questions on. I have been in here working on it for probably 2 hours today and still can't get it. On the last part everytime I try and use the xxx file it comes up with some error and says I can't get it from that folder. And I got it to work once, but then the *.xxx extension will not open. When I tried to open it in word it was 2 pages of numbers all jumbled together. I have absolutely no idea how to make scatter plots out of a bunch of random numbers. Just letting you know I tried to get this done. It is nearly impossible from these vague directions and no one to ask questions.

Frustrated Fred

Fred:
The lab was due last Friday (and I gave everyone until the end of the day, even though they are usually due at the beginning of lab time). There were two lab periods set aside to complete this lab (April 18th and 25th). I was available to help both of those days. We had no lab scheduled last Friday (May 2nd), although I was in my office until after 11:00 that day, just in case someone was around needing help. I had not scheduled lab time for today, but you could have emailed to set up a meeting if you wanted help. Considering that the lab is already late and given the two previous lab times that you should have been completing it, you are not making a very sympathetic case for yourself and I'm not entirely sure the purpose of your email. I can tell you that insulting the instructions that I wrote is not a useful strategy. With these longer labs, I always set aside two lab sessions for working on them and students always have the option of setting up an appointment or coming to office hours for additional help.

Dr. N

*I sent this to Rate Your Students, but so far it has not been published. I thought I would share here.