Art questions by email
Or somebody's homework?
Every day I find a couple of emails requesting information on an art technique, a painting medium, paper storage or a particular artist. Yesterday somebody wanted a suggestion for inexpensive flat paper storage and someone else needed vertical storage for paintings. I usually go the Web and do a quick search for links, unless I happen to know the answer right off the bat. I'm happy to help.
But once in awhile I receive an email that is clearly a class assignment, for example, "List five examples of impressionist art. Give the artists' names and dates. Tell what medium each artist used." Sometimes the email looks like this:
"list 5 exsampls of impressnis art give artst names and dates tellwht medyum each artis uset."
I can't help myself--I respond with "I don't do other people's homework." I've had just one reply, from a woman whose emails weren't misspelled. She confessed it was her homework for an art-history class. She was a middle-aged woman going to college for the first time and hadn't a clue how to do research on the Web. Somehow she had found my web site. I gave her a short course on Google. She's doing her own research now. The others probably just sent their homework to someone else, hoping to find a sucker who'll answer the questions for them.
Every day I find a couple of emails requesting information on an art technique, a painting medium, paper storage or a particular artist. Yesterday somebody wanted a suggestion for inexpensive flat paper storage and someone else needed vertical storage for paintings. I usually go the Web and do a quick search for links, unless I happen to know the answer right off the bat. I'm happy to help.
But once in awhile I receive an email that is clearly a class assignment, for example, "List five examples of impressionist art. Give the artists' names and dates. Tell what medium each artist used." Sometimes the email looks like this:
"list 5 exsampls of impressnis art give artst names and dates tellwht medyum each artis uset."
I can't help myself--I respond with "I don't do other people's homework." I've had just one reply, from a woman whose emails weren't misspelled. She confessed it was her homework for an art-history class. She was a middle-aged woman going to college for the first time and hadn't a clue how to do research on the Web. Somehow she had found my web site. I gave her a short course on Google. She's doing her own research now. The others probably just sent their homework to someone else, hoping to find a sucker who'll answer the questions for them.
Labels: homework, miscellany
posted by Nita at 5:08 PM
2 Comments:
Nita....no one has gone so far as to ask me in quite the 123 order your person did. But, I have received quite a few emails in the past from people I suspected of using my for their homework. Most of the time, they said they were doing research on abstraction or something.
One thing that really gets me is they don't even thank you when you do go to the trouble of taking the time to help them with some answers (if I have the time). So, I've about quit answering any of these kinds of emails unless I just impulsively do want to and have the time at that moment.
Cheryl
I think about half of the legit ones do write a brief thank-you note to me, which isn't all that bad. It's what I do, so I reply, unless I think it's "homework."
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