Author: Jonathan Golding

Special Guest Writer-Casey Magyarics (graduate student): Writing an Email to Your Instructor

Jonathan Golding Working with Your Instructor , ,

Writing an email might sound like an easy thing to do, especially since we all spend so much time writing text messages, but writing an email to a professor or TA is very different from writing a text message. When you’re writing an email to a professor, there are a few things you need to keep in mind:

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1. State your name and what class you’re taking. Your professors likely teach more than one course and they can’t keep track of everyone. If you tell your professors who you are and what class you’re taking with them, you’ll probably get a much better response.

2. Clearly explain your issue or question. Don’t just say that you need help with an assignment, be specific about the question you have. Make sure you have looked at the syllabus or assignment guidelines clearly before asking your professor or TA for help.

3. Be respectful! This is very simple, but it can really help you out. Everyone is busy, so if you are appreciative of your instructor’s time, they are probably going to be more willing to answer take care of your concern/question thoroughly.

4. Use professional language and grammar. This is where writing an email to a professor and text messaging are very different. You will want to use proper grammar and sentence structure. Don’t use things like jk, lol, !!!???, or emojis.

5. Don’t act like your instructor owes you anything. Your instructor may not be willing to provide students with their presentations or notes, so it’s important that you not act like you’re entitled to these privileges. Same thing goes for extensions on assignments, etc.

These 5 pieces of advice can really help you create a positive relationship with your instructor through email. Remember that you might need to contact these people when it comes to bumping your grade up from a B to an A at the end of the semester or when you need a recommendation letter for a scholarship or grad school. Plus, it’s always nice to treat your instructors with the same respect that you expect from them.

Jobs and College

Jonathan Golding Jobs and College , ,

Consider this question: should you get a job while you’re at college? Some of you don’t even have to worry about earning extra money because you’re lucky enough to have your parents pay all your expenses. Some of you need money to pay for school and housing and therefore definitely have to work.

For the rest of you, the question is a bit tougher. For example, some students’ parents will pay for some things, like tuition, but leave the cost of other important things for the student to deal with. These costs might include rent, food, gas, entertainment, etc. These students often feel forced to get a job because living at the standards they’re used to without a steady stream of income would be difficult or impossible. There are also those students who, though their parents pay for most things, feel they want to take greater responsibility for their life, gain work experience, and have extra spending money.

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If you’re thinking about getting a job, it’s important to make a plan before you go out looking for them. Don’t just take the first job you see. Remember that you’re a student first and that whatever job you take must truly take a back seat to your primary responsibilities as a student.

Keep the following guidelines in mind. First: make sure that the number of hours that you work allows you to go to class, study, and have a normal life. I’ve talked to many students who committed to too many hours and ended up falling far behind in their schoolwork. Related to this, I should add that faculty members are usually not moved by students who use a job as an excuse for not completing schoolwork. Second: consider the location of the job. You should favor a job either on or close to campus. If you get a job far off campus, you’re going to be saddled with transportation costs and the time it takes to get to and from work. Third: be sure the job is worth it, both financially and as a way to gain experience. I worked through all my years of college, and I can say that all those hours in the places I worked would have made no sense if I wasn’t paid fairly well and if I didn’t learn a lot about myself and how to deal with other people.

Please note that the comments of Dr. Golding and the others who post on this blog express their own opinion and not that of the University of Kentucky.

Study Tip: Making Rehearsal Work for You

Jonathan Golding Studying

Exams are creeping up on some of you. Time to get studying. When you review for an exam, you’re almost certainly going to rehearse the material you learned, which means repeating the information in order to more securely store it in your memory. This makes sure that what you need to know is easy to remember come exam time.

However, don’t think about rehearsal too simply; psychologists often talk about two distinct types of it. Maintenance rehearsal is when you repeat something over and over without giving any meaning to the information. Let’s say you want to remember the definition of the word “axon,” which is a part of a neuron: maintenance rehearsal would involve saying “axon” over and over until you think you can remember it. This is also called rote rehearsal. It keeps information active in your mind, but it typically has limited value if you want to remember it for any significant length of time.

Elaborative rehearsal involves giving meaning to the information you’re trying to memorize. Research clearly shows that when you want to commit things to long-term memory, like when you’re studying for an exam, you need to use this kind of rehearsal. Elaborative rehearsal isn’t only repeating the piece of information you want to remember, but also making it associated to something else you already know. So, going back to the word “axon”: to remember its definition, you can think that an axon takes a neural impulse “away” from the neuron. “Axon” and “away” both start with the letter A. This makes everything much easier to remember.

Here’s another example of how you can use elaboration to improve your memory. Let’s say that you want to remember the names of all five Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. You could repeat the five names over and over (rote rehearsal) or you can think of a more meaningful way to remember them, like forming a word from the first letter of each of the five names (this is called an acronym). This spells HOMES. Using acronyms makes it much easier to remember than five separate words!

Have you ever used elaborative rehearsal before? If “yes”, how has it helped you remember something?