Who do you side with?

[~Spirit of Dragons~]

Sorry if there's a subforum for this sort of thing...

So, I met this guy on a cruise. He's a professor and faculty member in a university (not a very high-end one). We made friends and hung out together (which might have looked a little weird... I'm a late teen and he's in his late 50s/early 60s).
I was kind of interested in his field, so he promised to introduce me to it when we got home (he lives and works way beyond traveling distance from me).

So he sent me some papers, I think about 4 or 5, and I read them.

Then he wanted me to do an executive summary on two of the papers that I'd read. For those of you who don't know, an executive summary is a major stripdown (maybe two lines long) of an article or book. I sent him this. He sent it back complaining that it wasn't fleshed out enough and described an abstract, which is basically a cut-and-paste stripdown, a little longer than an exec. summary, of the book or paper. I sent him this.

It finally turned out that what he'd really wanted was a report in my own words. He had a total fit, accused me of plagiarism (specifically of going on other Internet sites and stealing what other people had written about these papers; the thought had never even crossed my mind). He claimed he could prove that I'd plagiarized because he had apparently Googled the phrases out of my abstract, but I Googled them and found nothing but the papers I was doing the abstract on!

I apologized for the fact that our signals had crossed and offered to re-do it the way he wanted it, but he shut down on me and told me he didn't want to talk to me for a month. He also told me not to bother sending him the new version of the report before a month because he'd be "still sore with me".

He really was acting as if I was somehow unworthy of him, and that I'd let him down.

I'm kind of put out and upset with him... somehow, I don't think this is proper behavior for a professor. I mean, I blow it once (because he misleads me) and he dumps on me? He himself remarked that his students complain that he's not clear in his assignments.

Should I drop him or should I send him the report in a month? Who do you think is in the right here?  

[Erverain]

Well, it's a bit late in the semester to drop, isn't it? So suck it up, and hope that he isn't just senile. If it gets completely stupid, bring it up with the faculty. I've run across quite a few professors who knew their material, but couldn't teach it. This guy sounds like one.  

[aretoo]

The way I understand it, you don't take any classes from him, and were just doing him a favor. Yes?  

[~Spirit of Dragons~]

aretoo

The way I understand it, you don't take any classes from him, and were just doing him a favor. Yes?

No, he was "mentoring" me. We met on this cruise and got friendly and he proposed that we keep in touch so that he could tell me about his field. He's kind of obsessed with it: he thinks everyone should know about it.

I thought it would be interesting to get an insider's view of it since I couldn't make head or tail of what I learned about it in high school. In fact, I did learn quite a lot from even the few papers he sent.  

[[ Terra ]]

He doesn't sound like a very good mentor to me. Not only is he unclear about the tasks that he sets and blames you for it but he chucks a tantrum like a child and threatens not to talk to you for a month because of it? If I were you, I would tell him that you are looking for a mentor and not a middle aged brat and be done with him.

I kind of have to question why he decided to mentor you (because poorly set tasks and not talking to you for a month hardly has your best educational interests at heart) and wonder if he's just after attention. (You don't have to be a child or teenager to be an attention whore, you know.) He probably expects you to go crawling back for forgiveness.

Now, maybe I'm judging his character too harshly but that is what it looks like to me. The reading material he sent you may have been helpful but he himself just sounds like a stressful situation in the making. Character aside, I would expect a professor to know the difference between executive summaries, abstracts, and a brief report if he expects to be assigning these to his students. He may know his subject, but he sounds like a poor teacher if you ask me. confused  

[God-Raped-Me]

If his field means that much to him, and you didn't quite grasp what he thought you would, then that's a normal reaction. It may not seem normal to you or me, but to people who are completely obsessed with something it is. I suggest that if you are still interested in whatever field it is you start researching as much as you can about it.

 

[Agent_of_Misfortune]

ya... cuz thats what you wanted during a cruse... homework... stare

lol mrgreen

wouldn't worry about it too much people like that just love high school drama....

dump him and hang out with your buddies at the ATG xp

(we will never quiz ya) d (^_^) b  

[Omnileech]

An executive summary is a summary that s one page or shorter, not one to two lines of text. There is no excuse for plagiarism. Ever. Cite where ideas or text comes from if the words are not your own. If you want to still get instruction from him then apologize and try again.

If you do not want, then apologize and break things off.  

[Shannalee_Lace]

~Spirit of Dragons~

Sorry if there's a subforum for this sort of thing...

So, I met this guy on a cruise. He's a professor and faculty member in a university (not a very high-end one). We made friends and hung out together (which might have looked a little weird... I'm a late teen and he's in his late 50s/early 60s).
I was kind of interested in his field, so he promised to introduce me to it when we got home (he lives and works way beyond traveling distance from me).

So he sent me some papers, I think about 4 or 5, and I read them.

Then he wanted me to do an executive summary on two of the papers that I'd read. For those of you who don't know, an executive summary is a major stripdown (maybe two lines long) of an article or book. I sent him this. He sent it back complaining that it wasn't fleshed out enough and described an abstract, which is basically a cut-and-paste stripdown, a little longer than an exec. summary, of the book or paper. I sent him this.

It finally turned out that what he'd really wanted was a report in my own words. He had a total fit, accused me of plagiarism (specifically of going on other Internet sites and stealing what other people had written about these papers; the thought had never even crossed my mind). He claimed he could prove that I'd plagiarized because he had apparently Googled the phrases out of my abstract, but I Googled them and found nothing but the papers I was doing the abstract on!

I apologized for the fact that our signals had crossed and offered to re-do it the way he wanted it, but he shut down on me and told me he didn't want to talk to me for a month. He also told me not to bother sending him the new version of the report before a month because he'd be "still sore with me".

He really was acting as if I was somehow unworthy of him, and that I'd let him down.

I'm kind of put out and upset with him... somehow, I don't think this is proper behavior for a professor. I mean, I blow it once (because he misleads me) and he dumps on me? He himself remarked that his students complain that he's not clear in his assignments.

Should I drop him or should I send him the report in a month? Who do you think is in the right here?

I think u should totally stop talking 2 him, he sounds really strange.