[HPFGU-Feedback] About writing to an author (Was : Re: TBAY poll and Majority rule)

[Jennifer Boggess Ramon]

Oh, dear, I'm so late . . .

At 8:29 AM +0000 12/18/03, Doriane wrote:
>
>I'm not talking for North or anybody else, but here's why *I* would
>feel silly. Maybe it's pride, maybe it's a sign of some deep
>pyschological problem, but I just can't force myself to ask about
>something I feel everyone else has understood. It goes back to
>elementary school at least. I would rather spend a great deal of time
>researching on my own, rather than ask the teacher, if I felt like
>all the other kids had understood that particular point. I didn't
>want to look *stupid*. And it's still the same now. My first instinct
>is always to try and guess, rather than ask. I have to make a
>conscious and big effort to do otherwise.

Oh, boy.  You just hit a nerve for me, there, as I'm a teacher, and 
this is one of my greatest bugaboos.  You see, I *know* I have a 
great number of students for whom this is true, and I also have a few 
students with a bit of a mean streak who really will think the less 
of student who does ask a question.  This, of course, drives me up 
the wall.

As a teacher, I have a workable if inelegant solution: I make sure I 
am available during non-class times, so that those who cannot ask in 
front of the other students out of pride or nervousness have a time 
when they need fear no ill-judgement but mine (which I try to not do, 
of course).

It seems that there is an equally inelegant but just as workable 
solution here: e-mailing the author of the original post off-list.

In both cases, this also gives me or the original poster a chance to 
re-visit the topic in class/the public forum, as if one person has a 
misunderstanding and realizes it it's likely that there are two more 
who have the same misunderstanding and don't realize it.

>Amanda replied :
>
>>  It seems to me that writing to the author *would* be working
>>  together.
>
>Del answers :
>
>Not for me. Writing to the author would be making a fool of myself.
>It would mean signalling to someone whose work I'm interested in that
>I'm a fool stupid enough not to understand it, which is of course the
>last thing I'd want to do !

Trust me: it's highly unlikely that someone whose work is worthwhile 
and who is *not* trying to be obtuse is going to think you a fool for 
asking questions.  Moreover, it's possible (I learned this trick 
myself in school) to ask questions in such a way as to elicit 
information that wasn't in the question - and get compliments on the 
insightfulness of the question.  It's all a matter of phrasing. 
Asking good questions is an art form, not a fool's task at all.


-- 

  - Boggles, aka J. C. B. Ramon			boggles(at)earthlink.net
"It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the 
act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment. "
	- Gauss, in a Letter to Bolyai, 1808.