I'm delighted to be advising promising undergraduates, and here are a few things I'll try to stick to so you get the most out of the experience.

Appointments

Always make an appointment. This is not because I am busy and important, but because your project is important, and it deserves my undivided attention.

Minutes

At our meetings, as we talk, I'll keep a record of what we talk about in a text file---what we decide to do, what I advise you to read, where you should be looking for data, and so forth. This will be emailed to you as minutes of the meeting. These minutes are the record of your FYP.

Actions

With everything we decide, when a concrete action comes up ("Complete a detailed outline", "Write a 5 page lit review", etc), we'll set a deadline for completing that action. The deadlines you and I set in there are yours to own. When you say you'll meet a deadline, I expect you to meet it. If for some reason you have to change it, email me and set a new one. It's your project, so you own it. Don't expect me to hound you to get the thing in on time. If you've a problem meeting deadlines like this, I suggest you read this book or look at this website. Both are well worth your time.

Turnaround Policy

When you're working on a draft and you send it to me, expect a 7-10 day turnaround from the day you send it to me until you get it back. Normally I'll be much faster than this, but sometimes I won't. I have other things to do and sometimes they're going to be a higher priority than you. After 10 days, feel free to send me a bitchy email. What the 7-10 day turnaround means is: if you're handing in your first draft of your FYP one week before the official UL deadline, having broken all of the previous deadlines you set yourself without talking to me about it, you're not going to find me breaking my back to help you---I'll generally only go through a one draft iteration with you in that case. But don't let that happen to you. Stick to the deadlines, and we can get some interesting work done together.

Finally, enjoy the experience of putting a piece of original research together. There are loads of good topics to work on, and I'm sure something will interest you. For a list of potential FY P titles, email me.