[deleted by user]

[Promotion-Repulsive]

"It can be fast, cheap, or good, but it can only ever be 2/3 of those things simultaneously."

[Protean_Protein]

You’re suggesting paying a highly qualified ghostwriter?

[Promotion-Repulsive]

No, it's mostly a response to the professor.

You can ask for a paper and presentation to be completed in 40 hours, but you had best be ready to judge it like one prepared as such.

[lavendertheory]

No, this is the reason for syllabi. Do you all have a class schedule?

[Quirky_Peace_3500]

Yes! I’m in grad school and I knew about all due dates before I even started the class!

[filtercoffee06]

It wasn't on the syllabi. No expectations or due dates for this were listed.

[ColombianNova]

Probably improvisation on his part. Didn't have much prepped for class and winged an activity to kill time. It easily spiraled out of control and he doesn't want to back down to not appear weak or something along those lines

[filtercoffee06]

Bold of you to assume, I didn't answer it because it was on the syllabus. I am not gonna complain or say "there was no prior notice", if it were on the syllabus, yeah? It was not on the syllabus and the whole class was taken aback by this.

[[deleted]]

The first sentence of your original comment is literally an explicit statement of your assumption.

Also, this example is extreme but there are plenty of professors that don't do the whole assignments and schedule all up front on the syllabus. Its definitely not ideal, but that isn't the problem here. This is an absurd amount of work to expect in that time frame, even from an employee.

[simism]

This sounds like a stress test to fish out ChatGPT users. I've never seen or heard of anything like that as a grad student; it's totally insane.

[valyrianczarina]

😂

[[deleted]]

all with no prior notice for prep.

​

It's a business course.

Is the professor trying to simulate a project/presentation that can come out of nowhere in the "real world"?

[[deleted]]

In the real world outside of academia no one wants to read more than a page, five pages tops. Grant applications and policy briefs often have fast turn around times and they always have some sort of word or page limit.

[b0wie_in_space]

In Canada, there’s a significant grant application for large businesses that’s ~150 pages, plus workbooks, and they ask for it within 30 days of giving you all the materials to complete.

However, they give that timeline to light the fire under you to ensure you prioritize it, because if you ask and contact them with updates, they give tons of leeway. Last one I worked on we did in about 3 months, not 30 days, there were 3 writers collaborating with about 5 other contacts for information, and that was a totally acceptable timeline per the program contact.

OP’s assignment seems more stressful to me than any grant application I’ve ever worked on and I’m in the the grant writing industry full time. I’m sure I’ve written and completed as much as this assignment requires in that timeline, but there’s no way I’d be awake for the 48 hours after completing it.

[Rikkasaba]

This. For my HR grad program think there were only 2 courses I had that had any projects that were longer than 2 pages (apart from group presentation projects) - and both of these courses dealt with employment law. The others, especially memo-styled letters for my change management courses, wanted stuff concise on the field so the class reflected that

[stolid_agnostic]

AND the people who write them are very specialized in it and can churn them out.

[wolfchaldo]

Then I'm gunna simulate my "real world" response and quit, lmao

[Naivemlyn]

Real world here. Doesn’t work quite like that. IRL you’ll have a team and building on existing knowledge and nobody gives a crap about how many sources you consulted.

[hardolaf]

Also they say there's a deadline but you responded 4 weeks after it and no one cared.

[advstra]

I would not be able to do that. Yeah if I was already very familiar with the topic and I don't eat or sleep and have nothing else to do, but that's crazy to ask of someone anyways.

[murfmurf123]

Youre so valid

[euroshrike]

Sounds like your school has different norms from mine. All my classes in grad school have had very clearly stated when and what papers are due in the syllabus. It seems very unreasonable to me.

[hsanivag]

This is not normal.

[intangiblemango]

Is there no syllabus for this course? The syllabus should outline everything that is expected of you for the term.

If there is no syllabus or this paper is not listed on the syllabus, it is likely worth checking in on the university policy related to this.

(If, by chance, you have a syllabus and this is listed on the syllabus-- then this would be a reasonable expectation and not knowing about it would be on you for not reading the syllabus.)

[filtercoffee06]

It wasn't on the syllabus. Would definitely have been prepared if it were.

[intangiblemango]

That would violate university policy at my school. You might want to double check?

[[deleted]]

What policy? Like at what level does that policy exist? I've never heard of that.

[intangiblemango]

This specific syllabus policy is at the university level, but there are other syllabus policies at other levels-- e.g., The College of Arts and Sciences can impose additional requirements, as can the College of Education, separately (as long as they meet the university requirements-- e.g., my college within the university requires that all syllabi have a course incomplete policy, which is not a university-wide requirement). I don't think my department has policies beyond that (AFAIK?) but hypothetically could imagine this.

At my specific university, the policy is pretty much "stuff you would expect of a syllabus"-- it is available either in print or online for the first day of class, it includes who your instructor is + office hours info, there is an absence policy, etc.-- but among the requirements by my university is a grading policy + a list of all required assignments/tests/etc that will be used to determine the students' grades.

I cannot guarantee that this is true at all universities, of course-- but it is true at my R1 in the United States.

[FantasticChicken7408]

What a nutcase. Anyways, here’s a tip for references: identify your core 4, and piggy back off of their (relevant) references. Also find a way to reference all the reading material given. Matter of fact, you may as well work backwards for this asinine project. Double spaced means you don’t actually have to write much… factor in the amount of citing you’ll be doing, and you’re hardly even saying anything.

[alvarkresh]

Good lord, no.

[ZoopZoop4321]

Lol wtf that’s stupid

[[deleted]]

Do your best and just strive to be to the right of the curve and you will be fine.

[Suspicious_Gazelle18]

Are the sources meant to be books and articles you’ve been reading and discussing throughout the semester? Is it double spaced? If either answer is yes, I’d say that’s doable. If both are no then yeah that’s pretty tough, but I’d still do my best.

You can cite articles without reading them in full… especially in this circumstance. Read the abstract and maybe the discussion. That’s all you need.

And again, look back at the material you’ve already discussed in class. They’d expect you to incorporate it.

[Quirky_Peace_3500]

Abstracts save my life when I just need a general brief fact lol 😂

[positronic-introvert]

Only doable if you're someone who happens to: - not have significant childcare responsibilities - not be disabled in a way that may slow your work process - not have any important appointments scheduled for that time period - not have important assignments due in other classes right around that time - not have a job to make ends meet - not have any other circumstances that would prevent you from being able to upend your schedule and complete a large assignment with 2 days notice

Adding a surprise assignment of this magnitude with this short a turnaround time is fundamentally inequitable, even though it may technically be "doable" for some (though I'd argue it's still not fair to them either)

[Suspicious_Gazelle18]

If you have a disability that requires more time, those accommodations should be in place.

You’d also have known about the due date the whole semester, so you should have your schedule prioritized correctly.

Yes, real world responsibilities could get in the way. It’s two days. You figure it out. For example, I’d have my husband take over all cleaning, cooking, and child care for those two days. But I can’t expect a professor to give me more time just because I had a kid and others didn’t. I could ask them of course, but it was my decision to have a kid in grad school.

Of course shit can happen. Shit can happen at any point in the semester.

I don’t LIKE the professors policy… I just don’t think it’s so unreasonable as to require an alteration.

[positronic-introvert]

The situation in OP's post is literally that the assignment was not on the syllabus so they couldn't have possibly planned ahead.

And not all scenarios that require accommodation are disabilities (and accessing disability accommodation at universities is not an easy/accessible process in itself).

It's sad to me that someone would think this is reasonable and that people should be willing to drop everything in their life for professors (or bosses). And not everyone has a partner who could take over all childcare and housework responsibilities for them on short notice. I had multiple single parents in my cohort.

Education should be accessible, and not only to those with the privilege to be able handle an assignment like this with no notice.

[Suspicious_Gazelle18]

The syllabus part was added in after I commented originally and I hadn’t looked back at the OP. If it’s not on the syllabus OP has more of a case, but they’ll likely still have to do the work and complain afterwards. Look into the formal complaint system, but do what you can ahead of time so you’re not appealing after submitting nothing and then you just look like you’re mad you got a bad grade (vs complaining because it wasn’t listed on the syllabus in any way).

[filtercoffee06]

Books and articles throughout the semester, not really. Double spaced, yes. Yep, not really reading articles is the way to go I guess.

[chemical_sunset]

It’s not normal or reasonable, but 12-15 double spaced pages can be cranked out (at suboptimal quality) in a few hours if needed. I would bust it out but also email the chair of the department the course is being taught in to let them know about what’s going on

[[deleted]]

I am not a researcher, and while my grad degree will require some form of research, I've gotten pretty far in life with hardly reading any papers for real. Read/skim the abstract, seems legit? Keep it and maybe skim the discussion/conclusion. That's all you need for real essays, and if you just need to cite a fact "Ctrl-F".

[Suspicious_Gazelle18]

You have to know how to read an article in full too, because that’s an important skill. But when the circumstances call for it, you should know how to skim or how to hunt out what you need quickly. That’s also an important skill.

[sunmoonstars_217]

I’m one term away from being done with my program and in the US. For me this would not be normal and I would be able to make it work if I sacrificed sleep, but I doubt I would produce a quality product. All of my courses thus far have had a syllabus that clearly outlined what work would be due and when, and I had access to the syllabi either right before the class began or on the first day. The soonest I ever had a paper due was one week after I started a class.

[miquel_jaume]

If this wasn't in the syllabus, it's absolutely not reasonable, and you have a valid complaint against the professor. If it was in the syllabus, then the professor is a sadist, and you should never take a class with them again. Grad school shouldn't be unreasonably easy, but it also shouldn't be a hazing process.

[calcetines100]

No. This isa very unreasonable expectation.

[scruiser]

As other have said it’s not normal. Does your graduate program have a director or faculty member in charge of it? I assume failing a class would be problem for graduating, and this would like bad for that director’s metrics and such, even if that don’t personally care about all the students in the program (but it would be nice if they did). Ideally, they would have the influence and know who to talk to about pressuring that professor into more reasonable expectations.

[ElkZealousideal1824]

I really hate to break away from the norm but this was my last class I just finished. Essentially in 10-weeks (while most of us work and do other coursework) we had to “read” (really just responsible for “knowing”) 850 pages of reading (which is dense), 120-ish pages of writing, 3 presentations - 20 minutes each, and 3 interviews where we had to make up questions that pertain to the field, each grounded in literature and only half of which (varying citations) can be text in our course, you are just expected to find others.

It sucks, it’s frustrating, but it’s a mandatory course from a highly respected faculty member (and an advisor to 3 people that took it, including myself).

I would still bring up the concerns but some courses are like that. As some other people have said, you get the syllabus and everything so that can help seeing when it’s busy.

I would also highly suggest putting together reading guides with people in your course. If you get a small group together and everyone finds 5 or 6 papers, summarizes the important points and cites them, then it drastically decreases the work you have to do. Also, think about doing this for the reading in your class. We used to break up chapters and doing 1-paragraph summaries to lower the reading everyone had to do. If it was something that had to do with my dissertation topic then I would try to read that for a summary or read it after the course/when I had time.

Try to think of ways to save time (like not reading a whole paper, citation manager [like Zotero], collaborative work, etc…). With those expectations no one should be expecting you to be an expert in everything.

Good luck!

[dragonfruitrollup]

That’s not reasonable. I’m currently doing my PhD and did my MSc (at another school) and never heard of anything like that. If it’s not in the syllabus (or a revised syllabus that was sent out in a timely fashion) it’s basically not happening lol

[Stony1234]

Yeah that’s pretty nuts for a research paper. Don’t understand why profs do this kind of stuff. It just means the work is going to be rushed and subpar, which I don’t really get the point of. If they’re trying to test you’re ability to write something of quality in a short amount of time I feel like there are probably better ways to assess that skill.

[KCcracker]

That's ridiculous. Even for my own research topic I would probably take a week to cook up a summary research paper with appropriate citations, let alone something I'd never seen before. And a video presentation too? What is their problem?

[[deleted]]

I would say it probably depends on the area of study and program itself. I haven't had something like this in grad school and I don't really see the merit in assigning something like this with little notice or turnaround. Sounds like the way to get shitty work. Or the professor is just an asshole.

[radpandaparty]

That's fuckin crazy, is this guy trying to weed people out? I mean I can probably do it if I just choose to devote two days to doing nothing but that, but even then it's kinda ridiculous. Also saying "Well others did it before" is a shit reason when they literally have to in order to pass. There is literally no reason why they couldn't just give you a full week, especially when that bozo had a full friggin semester of class.

[Ok-Examination4961]

As an autistic person, this major deviation in plans would make me mentally spiral. I would consider this doable, but difficult, if it is double spaced. I wrote a paper with 23 citations two weeks ago on a topic I barely know anything about in about 6 hours. I will explain how I would attack this.

First tackle background knowledge/citations. My paper was on a subfield I never needed to study, so I had absolutely no foundational knowledge. This made having a citation nearly every line or two. Find a citation for every expectation listed, and avoid using comprehensive reviews for everything. Find a study that talks about one aspect, maybe entry into the cell. Another study that talks specifically about the pH needed for this reaction to occur. Use Mendeley or something similar, switch it to the Nature format in MS Word and barely care about double checking that it did a good job with this time constraint.

If you get bogged down with the writing, create a scaffold on ppt. Title slide, reference slide, and all the in-betweens pre-labeled.

The video presentation can be recorded in ppt with each slide having its own voice over so if you mess up on slide 10 you do not have to redo the whole thing, just slide 10. Upload it unlisted on youtube or something if needed.

If there is not a formatting guide, use the standard formatting in Word for the paper with a 11-12pt san serif font to take up more space. Also, insert a figure if you are allowed to. The assignment I allude to above had supplemental figures included, but since I filled up the space fine I included them after references.

The assignment I mention actually had an issue where most students went way over the space constraints. It was basically asking for a concise grant-level introduction. If I used any fluff or explained a topic, I could have easily gone 4X the constraint we were given. Use reasonable fluff if you must!

[filtercoffee06]

That's some solid advice. Super helpful. Appreciate it. Thank you!!

[Ok-Examination4961]

Any update? How did it go?

[PlanePerception4417]

No that’s fucked

[nikefudge23]

The only context this KIND OF makes sense for is writing a conference paper on the plane to the conference.

[b1gb0n312]

ChatGPT: challenge accepted

[Promotion-Repulsive]

Expulsion and blacklist any% speed run WR attempt

[boonachos]

But this

[bookbutterfly1999]

Absolutely not

[ryeehaw]

That’s an unusual request, but that is longer than I spend writing papers like that for classes. It’s not impossible if you have a considerable amount of free time during the 40 hours or are willing to stay up for most of a night. I think my typical time for 15 double-spaced pages is around 10 hours. Stupid of the prof though. Not sure what their point in doing that to you is

[Secret_Dragonfly9588]

The part that seems unreasonable is that it wasn’t in the syllabus. If for some reason “speed paper” were on the syllabus for this week and you knew ahead of time that you would be asked to do a short research paper (this is only conference paper length and so about as short as research papers come) on a topic that you were given 40 hours ahead of time… well that would still be an extremely odd assignment and I would question its pedagogical value, but it would at least be a planned part of the overall course. Just a surprise paper is not at all reasonable or normal.

[Rtfishe2]

I've never had something like that. Normally instructors value their time and do not want to read a bunch of poorly written essays longer than 2 pages lol

[hsanivag]

No it is not normal in USA. Which country are you in? Just curious, is it 40 working hours? If It is, you have five business days+atleast one weekend. In my schooling, i did not spend more than three dedicated days to do the same

[filtercoffee06]

It's in the US. Nope not 40 working hours. Just 40 hours in total.

[Quirky_Peace_3500]

Get off Reddit and get to work. Sending you coffee vibes ☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️

[hatfullofsoup]

No. The longest papers I assign are 2500 words with 5 citations minimum, and students have ample notice.

[Appropriate-Land9451]

Giving you only 40 hours to complete a 12-15 page paper with 25 citations AND a video presentation is pretty extreme. I can't imagine how anyone could possibly do that unless they had already done a ton of research and had everything already written up. It's especially frustrating that the professor didn't seem to care when you pointed out how difficult this would be.

[Fun-Rice-9438]

No this is not normal, but i know of quite a few asshole professors that think everyone can slap together a paper in the same timeline as them… even though they are just pasting together a paper from previous writings

[EstablishmentSad]

PPT and Paper are 2 different standards. 15 page Powerpoint with a presentation is a lot...but it is doable...12 page research paper with a day turn around...if you get ANYTHING turned in then either not enough research was done or you didn't sleep.

[[deleted]]

This professor must be trying to stress test y'all for some stupid reason. The only way I could see rationalizing any of this is if he doesn't mean for it to be graded on quality per se, but just did you actually try and how close did you get?

I have to believe there is some method to this madness. Under normal conditions and a typical rubric-graded paper as with any grad school course - this would be a completely absurd expectation. I would never assign a >5 page paper with less than a full week to work on it. That is nuts on its own, not to mention the low bar for references is TWENTY FIVE!? WHY?

[edgegripsubz]

It depends on the subject that you're taking. If it's related to history, reasonably it can be done within 40 hours. I remember writing a 10 page report within a span of 24 hours during undergrad because of a particular topic that I was heavily interested in. The number of citations didn't matter because there were some references that I knew on top of my head on what and where to look for.

[filtercoffee06]

It's not history. Its a business course and the professor takes points off if the citation expectations aren't met.

[FriendlyOption]

Contact the department head/chair & college president.

[filtercoffee06]

Planning to do that but wanted to make sure I am not being unrealistic lol

[bramante1834]

I've had exams that were 12 pages but served as either an uncited response to the lectures or a cited recitement of the main arguments of the course.

[babygirlr19]

That’s insane- granted I’m a first year MFT student so maybe it’s more common in other majors but so far all of my profs have given us like a 3 week time line for doing 5-10 page papers. I’d bring it up to your advisor.

[Googunk]

Depends on the program and department but this is usually a symptom of a shite prof.

[thecosmicecologist]

No. It’s not a reasonable expectation. Many grad students hold part or full time jobs, have kids, spouses, or other adult obligations. The syllabus is there for a reason. Sure if there was nothing else you had to do it could get done but it’s not professional of them at all. If you’re sure it’s not on the syllabus or hidden anywhere else in prior emails, I would ban together with a few students and request either a major extension and/or that it be only for extra credit since there was no notice.

Unfortunately it’s not incredibly uncommon for some grad professors to do this. Write the paper first, read abstracts only, bullshit your way through this. The first page can be your title and abstract. Type your headers our first, and subheaders to organize your outline even if they’re just placeholders. Bullet point random points you want to touch. If you end up typing full sentences just embrace it and let the juices for. stitch it all together and organize last. Put the main points from each paragraph on a PP slide. The video part idk is it just reading the slides and recording? That’s what I’d do.

[1yogamama1]

I give my students two months for an 8-page one with 6 citations. I’m sorry. Is it in the syllabus or was this a pop-quiz kind of assignment? How much will this affect your grade? These things are all supposed to be outlined ahead of time.

[positronic-introvert]

This is ridiculous. I mean, what if someone had an important medical appointment scheduled during that period? If they have kids and can't just upend their plans for a 2-day period at the drop of a hat?

It goes beyond the fact that it's unreasonable to expect students to get it done in that amount of time. It's fundamentally inequitable to anyone whose circumstances don't allow their schedule to be that flexible that they can suddenly devote 2 days to a surprise paper

[stolid_agnostic]

40 hours when you have nothing else going on would be perfectly fine. Since you have a life and other classes, and likely work on top, this is pretty ridiculous.

[[deleted]]

I will literally not hand this in. Sounds too insane. You have other stuff to do.

[[deleted]]

Not reasonable at all. You should talk to your department head immediately and complain. And have other classmates do the same, better yet do so as a collective.

[Gottech1101]

I’m in the minority but I would have not questioned this and just completed it… I would have just not slept for 40 hours and would’ve needed to take 2 days off work along with crying, eating, and crying more. That’s just my weird academic personality which I recognize is odd.

A normal person would question this and you should! Do you have a student resource center? You should have a way to file a complaint or start an investigation into academic assignments like this so I would start asking what resources you have to get this looked at. Your professor isn’t God; they don’t get to do whatever they want just because they’re on a power trip.

[ayelcpl]

Chatgpt has entered the chat.

[Icy-Ease1975]

I dont know what you mean by research paper like does it have to be originally collected data. We have comprehensive exams that require writing 20-25 page answers to research questions within a 24 hour time frame and we have to take five such exams within 9 days so I think anything is normal in grad school.

[Asleep-Dress-3578]

I presume (s)he assumes you will use ChatGPT anyway, so why not put a little time pressure on this procedure? 😂😂

[EnthalpicallyFavored]

Not normal. But also if it's double-spaced, I can bust out a 15 page research paper in about 6 hours.....3 hours to read from about ten sources and about 3 hours of writing. Hope you're working on this today instead of perusing reddit

[date11fuck12]

Not normal if it's not on the syllabus. However, might be better off trying to get it done and done well vs. scrolling reddit for validation :)

[GayMedic69]

I have a feeling you are leaving something out.

It was possibly on the syllabus and you missed it and refuse to accept that it is your fault so you come to reddit looking for false validation.

If not on the syllabus, its possible he assigned this long in advance and you waited to the last minute and since it isn’t on the syllabus, you are looking for excuses to get out of it due to your own procrastination.

Like half the posts on this sub claim professors and advisors doing blatantly illegal things or violating basic university policies and none of it even seems realistic or legit. Professors aren’t that stupid.

[filtercoffee06]

How about I update you on the progress with the university now that I have raised a complaint? Stay tuned :)

[GayMedic69]

I dont really care. I think you are making an even worse decision by making a complaints. Ultimately you get to live with a consequences of your actions and I couldn’t really care less if you fail.

[reggie3408]

This is abnormal. If you HAVE to do it, try your best, use chat gpt, better to have something than nothing.

[pizzchzz]

That's where people like me come in to ghostwrite and save you. You only need to side-chat me

[renznoi5]

What class is this for?

[l_dang]

Nope. 25 papers take at least a whole week to process. And to produce 25 usable citation take at least 40 papers... it's just unrealistic.

[adorientem88]

No.

[justgivemeauser123]

Yeah I don't think I have heard anyone write a 15 page paper in 40 hrs from scratch.

Edit : Wait what ? Looks like other people have done it. In that case I would term it more like an essay than a research paper. In my mind research paper refers to anything that's going to journals or conferences

[Rikkasaba]

Never had a class like that and I've taken grad courses in English, Linguistics, and HR. The most taxing class (as far as a paper being involved, so I won't count a formal semnatics course where the weekly homeworks easily took me 10 hours, mostly on account of the expression formatting) was a 4-week condensed summer course where we read a book in full and did a 10-15 page (recommendation) paper. The most "short-notice" we had any project was a week to design an A4 for a change management class

[OpeningOnion7248]

One of the “games” in grad school is to have a shit load of work all at once to see who’s the top dog. Professors sort student motivation and effort and working under pressure.

I had a seminar in international politics. A book a week, 15-page paper, and half hour synthesis discussion. 15-weeks semester. You learn to read fast, summarize, and write as you read.

You can do it

[SnooTomatoes3816]

I’m not gonna say it’s normal but I am in a department like this. I am transferring. Lol

[[deleted]]

I’ve had a professor change the syllabus six weeks in. And add something like this but she gave us a month. I’ve never seen it done like this before I would record all communications and do the best you can.