The Chemportal

My last course within the undergraduate chemistry program was independent research, actually, two of them; one was a higher level then the other.  They were taken to satisfy the upper level requirement so that I could graduate earlier and to save tuition money in the process.  The session was during the summer of 2006 and had been extended to fall 2006, which was sort of nice, since I would have probably gotten a pretty bad grade if the report was turned in its condition at that time. 

The professor who advised me throughout the two courses, which was basically taken as one research endeavor, had told me that he would review the report, edit it, and then return it to me so that it could be revised and then graded; this is a very big favor on behalf of him since the average grade for the lab reports during the Analytical Chemistry laboratory course he teaches is ~40%.

It is now Spring of 2007 and my report has yet to be revised.  Is this guy getting paid to extend my sessions?  Or was his initial "favor" more of a sacrifice on his part?  Anyways, I had wrote a rather demanding email to him without considering the latter argument.......if it was the case that he is not getting compensated then my recent contact would probably have been rudely shocking.  I had asked that I take "advantage of the sessions" by having him instruct me further on the instrumentations that are available in his lab, such as the HPLC, GC, particle analyzer, and perhaps the atomic emission spectrometer that is located in a room that is close by.  I also realize that his initial offer of editing my report is a "good" thing in any light, this is something that I had forgotten completely.  A rather rude awakening indeed.......