Practical Arrangements

These are the practical arrangements for any supervisions you may have with me.

Times and Contact

• I will not supervise unless you have handed some work in beforehand. Essays should be submitted either to my Departmental pigeonhole by noon the day before the supervision, or emailed to dc132@cam.ac.uk by 5pm the day before, or put through the letterbox beside the security gate by 9am on the day. This is to give me time to mark them. I don't mind which of the deadlines you choose, but if you miss an earlier deadline, even by ten minutes, you should put the essay through my letterbox. This is because I will make sure I check my pigeonhole and email after the deadlines given, but it may be just after.
  I can handle attachments to email, and any format that Word 98 can read. If in doubt, RTF (rich text format) is a safe choice, with the advantage that it can't spread macro viruses.
  If you find yourself completely unable to write an essay on a subject, submit a list of questions and of what you do and do not understand. This will give me something by which to guide the supervision.
• If you arrive more than ten minutes late for a supervision, I will have decided that you are not coming, and I may have gone off somewhere.
• If you miss or cancel a supervision, or fail to submit an essay in time, it is your responsibility to get in touch with me and your partner to arrange a new time. The easiest way is probably to turn up at the original time, if possible. If I cancel it, I will make the new arrangements.
• I can be contacted by email at dc132@cam.ac.uk, or by phone on 322797. I check my Departmental pigeon-hole several times a week, so non-urgent messages can be left there.
• Please note that I am doing quite a lot of supervising this year, and I will not generally be able to rearrange a supervision unless you have a good reason. Sports do not count. I will charge for supervisions you miss without good cause, and your College may pass the cost on to you. If you do have to miss a supervision, please let me know in advance, as this increases the chance that I will be able to find another time. Failing to hand work in in advance counts as missing the supervision.

Other Practicalities

• Essays should be about 1500 words long (about four and a half sides of A4 if hand-written) for Part IB HPS. I will mark longer ones, but bear in mind that supervision essays really should not be over 5000 words, as that is a short dissertation.
• I much prefer typed essays. Typescript is easier to read than any handwriting, and will put me in a good mood. Double spacing is not necessary: I write my comments on a separate sheet and reference them with marginal numbers. Note that the comments on the sheet are not exhaustive, and will often be notes to me on questions I need to ask you. You should take notes during the supervision.
• I will usually hang on to your essay until the end of the supervision, so that I can check what you wrote in detail. Thus, you might find it helpful to print out a second copy and bring that along.
• If you wish to change supervisors for any reason, talk to me or your Director of Studies.
• If you have any specific comments about my marking or supervising, I am interested to hear them. If you don't fancy criticising me to my face, pass the comment onto one of the student reps to tell me.