Five ways to deal with teaching assistants

Woman at the whiteboard: proud owner of an infallible bullshit detector. Photo by Kaplan International Colleges via Flickr

University class populations sometimes run into the high hundreds, and it can feel weird being taught by profs who don’t even know who you are. As a result, your assignments will mostly be graded by teaching assistants — you know, TAs — who you’ll often have much more contact with.

Unfortunately for you, TAs are busy, underpaid and frequently cranky as hell. In spite of this, they’re there to help you and can make your academic life much easier and more productive. Here are an insider’s tips for how to deal with TAs, so you can get the most out of your school year.

Check the syllabus first. Before you email or meet with your TA about an assignment deadline, reading or course policy, make sure the info you need isn’t already on your syllabus, because, 1) it probably is, and 2) that shit drives us TAs crazy.

Come to office hours. Almost all TAs have scheduled office hours, to which nobody usually shows up except during term paper and exam time, but we have to be there either way.

For assignments, it’s a great way to have the person who is going to mark your work give you advice on how to improve it; they will tell you exactly what you need to do to get a better grade.

Stopping by and introducing yourself also shows that you’re interested and keen, so you stand out in the crowd of faces. It’s participation-mark gold, especially in large classes.

Never ask a question by email that can’t be answered in three sentences or fewer. Remember that your teachers, profs and TAs are responsible to many — you have four or five instructors, but they often have hundreds of pupils — and answering email can take up a lot of time.

A short question requiring a short answer is fine, but if you need help understanding a reading or concept or have problems with what’s expected of you for an assignment, don’t ask for an explanation over email. That’s why we have office hours. Which, again, are totally worth going to.

Don’t lie. Teachers have infallible bullshit detectors. If you want a deadline extension because you’re busy and overwhelmed, then ask for one and let the cards fall where they may. But don’t say that your grandmother died or you need to head home for an obscure religious holiday (we’re going to ask for documentation anyhow).

If your paper comes in a bit short on the assigned word count, let it be. When graders are looking at a stack of essays that are all formatted the same way, nothing could be more obvious than stumbling upon one with extra-wide margins, a massive font or vast white spaces between the paragraphs. If anything, this is a giant neon sign on your paper screaming, “READ CAREFULLY! I’M DODGY!”

Similarly, recycling paragraphs or adding filler to hit your word count only makes your essay worse, and your mark will suffer accordingly. Better to have a slightly shorter essay that’s solid than force your TA to read something long and terrible.

Thou shalt not grade-grub. Seriously? Bullying or sucking up to your TA for a higher mark is demeaning. You’re better than that. ■