How Not to Ask Questions on Academic Listservs

This week I caught a post over at The Little Professor, providing sage guidance on "how to ask questions on academic listservs." And it made me smile.

For it reminded me of a pet peeve from my teaching days at Very Prestigious University (VPU). And while Little Professor's post addresses students in particular, the author rightfully notes that "students are not the only ones" who can benefit from her counsel. To which Prunella says: Amen.

For Little Professor brought me back to the days when I was ranting to anyone who would listen (who was not my colleague at VPU) about the sloth on display within my department listserv. Now, back then we were just getting acquainted with the listserv concept and practice, so perhaps some slack might be cut.

Or maybe not. Because some of the posts from my colleagues demonstrated such amazing laziness that I still feel outraged. (Sure, I like to sleep late on Saturdays as much as the next person, but come on--don't people become academics in the humanities because they actually find the work of research appealing?)

One such post still stands out in my mind. The gist of it was (and I'm paraphrasing only slightly): "Can anyone recommend readings on Famous American Novel?" To which I wanted to type back: "Have you heard of the MLA database? For starters?"

The posts also belied the idea that we, and the students who were choosing to take independent study or seminar courses in our department, also liked to read. Memorable example (with slight disguise): "I'm running into a problem with a student in an independent study on The Nineteenth-Century Russian Novel. We want to include Famous Novelist Whose Books Easily Exceed 1000 Pages, but we don't have time for anything long." (Worse, our chair, a Famous Literary Scholar in his own right, then chimed in with a "helpful" suggestion.)

So, Little Professor, Prunella hears you. And appreciates your post.

--Prunella