A student may be confused by an assignment's instructions. If this happens to you, don't be shy about asking your instructor for clarification. In October, 1993, I addressed this issue in an exchange of messages on Niagara's electronic bulletin board with a student whose remarks are indicated by the "> " at the start of a line.

> ... we just end up having to do twice the project in hopes that we land

> one on the desired results for instance, a friend has to do a project in

> BASIC ... that inputs some midnight temperatures and some

> after noon temperatures. Then average them and print the result. The

> question is do they want the average daily, the total average, the

> average for the night, or the average for the afternoon? He's giving

> them all. Should he have to do this.... I think if professors were

> clear as they should be then this problem would not exist.

Ok, these are serious issues. For all I know, the complaint may be 100% justified (it's not my course -- I'm not teaching BASIC at the moment). On the other hand, my experience indicates that if I work too hard at clarifying my instructions, the instructions get so long that a significant percentage of students will overlook important details.

Here's my suggestion: Your friend, and any other student in a similar predicament, should read over the instructions as soon as possible. (S)He should then discuss them with the instructor, if necessary, by telephone, or by e-mail, or after class, or during the instructor's office hours, or at some other mutually convenient time to clarify any and all points of ambiguity.

All NU faculty are required to hold office hours; (almost) all NU faculty are glad to see (or otherwise communicate with) students who care enough about their work to make sure they understand it and can get it done properly. Office hours and other forms of communication with faculty are vastly underutilized resources -- almost any faculty member will tell you that one of the largest frustrations of the teaching profession is the student who needs help but won't seek it out. Many students don't seem to know that that's what office hours are for. I often tell my classes that I can read your papers and your e-mail, but I can't read your minds -- I'm glad to give help, but you have to let me know you'd like to have it.

as to have completely forgotten life as a student. I know some students are shy, some have too much stubborn pride to admit a need for help, some don't get around to their work until it's too late to ask for help, some are afraid their instructor will consume them for dinner, etc. I was guilty of all these, myself. Ya gotta get over all that. If we are to take seriously our rhetoric about students being adults, then we must expect students to accept some adult responsibility for asking questions and clarifying the specifications of assignments.

This is all the more important in CIS, because it is also part of a CIS student's professional training: the client of a professional computer scientist will rarely be able to specify what a software development project should accomplish with anything remotely approaching the clarity of a typical CIS specification of instructions; not until the computer scientist discusses and questions, often for many hours, the client's desires.

Since "tone of voice" doesn't always come through well in print, let me remark that the comments above are not intended as a lecture to the student to whom I am responding. He is one of this University's finest students, who, individually, probably had little need for these good-sense reminders. Rather, the remarks above are intended any member of the general public who may profit from them.