Yesterday morning I finally got an email from my supervisor. However, rather than the multiple pages I was expecting to receive commenting on my paper, the email consisted of two lines. It said that my supervisor felt that the paper was ready to be handed in, as I'd improved it considerably since the first draft. Aunty Belle, always the optimist, thought that maybe my paper really was that good, and that I should give myself some credit. But I am skeptical.
No prof ever approves of the first draft of a student's paper. Ever. And despite the fact that my supervisor referred to the paper I handed in as a subsequent draft, really it was the first. Out of the seven chapters of the paper, she'd only read one before. She commented on it and I improved it. The rest of the chapters--50 pages out of the 70--were virtually unedited. There's no way that they're that good.
It feels like a cop-out.
I've since talked to the Program Director about this and he is always helpful. He has apparently been in talks with my supervisor and my second reader trying to resolve the situation. It seems like the resolution is that I will edit the paper according to the second reader's comments and hand it in. The paper will probably be graded an A-. If it isn't, or if I'm not happy with an A-, then the Program Director assures me that I have a good case for appealing my grade due to "lack of supervision."
If I get an A-, I probably won't appeal the grade. Anything below A-, though, I think I might have the motivation to appeal.
The Program Director's concern, he says, is that I come through this process with a letter of recommendation from a qualified person based on this paper. I wonder what my supervisor would have to say about me and what she would base it on. Really, we hardly worked together on this project at all.
So, it seems that I might be "finished" this MRP before Emeth arrives afterall, though not quite in the way I imagined.
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