This sort of thing

Okay, so here's an example of a typical "conversation" with the lecturer I've been whinging about.  The background of this was that there were two Assignment 2s, with no indication as to which one was for the assignment in which I am enrolled, and which was for the other assignment that happens to share our teaching materials and platforms.

I worked out that I could only post a comment in the discussion board attached to one of these assignments, so I assumed that was mine - but just to be sure, I thought I'd post a question to check:

Me:

Can I safely assume that, since this is the only assignment I can post a discussion for, that this is the one intended for EDLA504?

Her:

I'm not quite sure what you are asking, Sharon. Each topic has at least one discussion forum where you can post a contribution. Towards the end of the trimester, choose three of your contributions to these forums, and combine them into one short paper of 800 to 1000 words, then submit this paper as Assignment 2.

Me:

It's a simple enough question, Susan, don't let the fact that I mentioned technology confuse you too much:

Is this the correct assignment for EDLA504?

There were, you see, two Assignment 2s and two Assignment 3s, and I just want really CLEAR and OBVIOUS confirmation that the assignment description I am looking at is the correct one for me.

Now that the other assignments have been hidden, the question is moot.  But it would be nice if the assignment decription mentioined the subject by name somewhere.

Her:

Assignment 2, Sharon, is exactly the same for both units so it wouldn't really matter which description you read, you would have the correct one. Your capital letters suggest that my previous answer wasn't satisfactory. I'm not sure what extra information might be useful, but let me know if you need more.

Now, I can see why she might be confused (I really can - there's background stuff that makes my original question more confusing to begin with) but I can't see why she can't just say "Yes, this is the assignment for EDLA504" - or why she seems to think that saying "I don't understand your question, so I'll just tell you what is in the assignment description" is perfectly satisfactory, and I shouldn't have any problems with it.

Yes, I could have been a lot more specific with my opening question - except that I have found the more detail I include, the more likely she is to focus on some random point in the details and not answer my question.

I also can't see why the assignments wouldn't have the name of the subjects written on them somewhere in the first place.

These little details just keep stacking up on each other, so that eventually I feel like I'm drowning under an ocean of minor inconveniences.

And then I get snarky, and write replies that seem unnecessarily rude - and start contributing to the problem.

It's a vicious cycle.

And now I will never know

I've come to the conclusion that I only ask questions of a certain unit coordinator if I never want to receive a clear answer or a useful reply of any description.

I base this on the fact that I have never yet asked her a question in which she didn't take great pains to fully explain something that did not, in fact, answer my question at all.

I don't know why this is.  I sometimes suspect she isn't actually reading my question, but only scanning it for keywords - or that she is, in fact, willfully misunderstanding me.

It's either that, or she is on such a completely different wavelength to me that she cannot understand why I would want an answer the the question I have asked, and therefore tries to answer a different question instead.

It's the kind of situation where, if I asked, "do I need a carrot for this salad?" she would respond: "salads are known to have both fruits and vegetables in them."

Now, this could be a subtle way to say "I can't advise you on this, because deciding whether or not to include a carrot is part of the activity", but surely you don't need to say that subtly - you can come right out and say "you must chose for yourself if carrots are needed," can't you?

Or, even better, you could say "carrots are advisable" or "carrots are inadvisable" or "carrots make no difference one way or another".

Any of these things would be better than not talking about carrots at all.

Yet, that is how she answers the vast majority of questions:  by not answering them at all.

I have this wonderful communicator again this semester (part two of The Most Frustrating Subject I Have Ever Undertaken) and I have been trying to ask her questions about the practicum for months, now.  We were finally given access to the prac booklet and told to decide where we wanted to go within a week ("I must not fly all the way to Armidale just to shake a lecturer.  I must not fly all the way to Armidale just to shake a lecturer...")

"Oh joy and bliss!" I think to myself, "There's an actual practicums experience office!  I can ask practical practicum related questions of people who aren't frustratingly vague!"

So I fire them an email asking a couple of basic questions... and they write back saying my email has been forwarded to the unit coordinator.

A couple of hours later the unit coordinator sends out a generic email to everyone that doesn't really answer either of my questions.  Is this because she simply hasn't gotten around to answering me yet, or is this the best I'm ever going to get from her?

Will I ever know?