Correcting professors' lecture notes

Question

One of my profs in college has (after years of students asking him to do so) put forth a syllabus with all the material for the class he is teaching.

With the help of 3 students from previous years (who did most of the writing), he made a neat 90 page syllabus covering what is taught during lectures.

My year is the first year that'll benefit from this as it was finished early September 2017 (currently in October 2017). However, as is to be expected, some typos still exist, and some little mistakes in formulas do too. I read through it and compiled a Word doc containing all the typos and mistakes I could find and was wondering if it would be badly received if I sent him an email with those. He has asked his students to tell him if they found mistakes, so I know I should probably let him know about those, but I'm not sure as to whether fixing typos will be seen as arrogant or even remotely relevant, since I'm probably the only one getting triggered by them because of my OCD.

Thanks !

Answer 1

I can only speak for myself, and I'm just a postdoc.

I would be indifferent if someone pointed out one or two typos; on the one hand that's helpful, on the other a bit pedantic.

However, if I received a "Word doc containing all the typos and mistakes [you] could find" in a 90 page document, I would be delighted and grateful.

_{As an aside, I'm currently working through a textbook to brush up my statistics skills. I'm trying to collect the mistakes that I stumble upon in order to send them to the author once I've finished the book, so he can correct them in the next edition.}

Answer 2

If you did this unsolicited, it might possibly be poorly received (though even then most people would be grateful, as long as you approached the issue in a polite manner).

However, given that the professor actually asked for this, I don't think you need to worry at all. You have done a great service, really.

Answer 3

I cannot speak for all professors, of course, but I'm my case I'd be delighted and I'm fairly sure that such would be the reaction of most professors.

Over the last two years I have circulated some lecture notes among my students and a few other persons, and I'm really frustrated by the lack of feedback on typos (or anything else, for that matter).

Answer 4

I would talk to them in private and, if they don't know about your ocd, let it come up during the conversation as you explain why you made the effort - they are sure to ask...

I once spent a whole weekend doing a massive differentiation based proof to see the result was as stated ( you've seen those in maths / engineering where it says : it can be shown that xyz from abc). Well the proof as shown was incorrect so after doing it several times and getting it checked I took it to the Prof and said I thought I was making an error and could he check it.

Next lecture I nearly fell of my chair when he started with "the proof you were given last week has an error in it, been like that for 5 years, anyway the correct proof is now available thanks to" and gave my name... Not asked for, not expected but a real surprise as he had not warned me either...

Answer 5

Yes, you should send the errata. (But, as others said, use a format that the authors can definitely read without going extra steps. PDF or text, for example; not docx.)

I have been recording errors in notes, books, papers and even forum posts since forever (I tend to read things very thoroughly, sentence by sentence, as my mind is otherwise tempted to skip the actually important parts and dwell on the easy bits; the list of errata comes out of this rather naturally). Most of the time, as long as I've discovered any mathematical errors (as opposed to just typos), I've notified the authors, and the notification has been either received positively (authors thank and often correct the errors) or ignored (i.e., no reply). In my experience, it gets ignored the more often the older the work in question is; after all a paper you have written 15 years ago could just as well be a paper by a different author to you. But if the work is recent or even currently in class use, then the authors are likely to be thankful and highly responsive. (Out of maybe fifty authors I've contacted, only 1-2 have been defensive, and one of these two was outside of academia.)

Mathematics isn't quite like open-source software where bug reports and community patches are actively encouraged, but it's getting closer (unsurprisingly, given the noticeable social overlap). That said, as an algebraic combinatorialist I am probably closer to computer science than the average mathematician.

Answer 6

As a professor I always welcome suggestions for improvement like these, as long as they are presented politely and respectfully.

If your professor has already made the effort to write down and publish his class notes then your should expect him to welcome whatever helps him improve the material. This is real work and any help is welcome (after writing, rewriting, reading and re-reading, it becomes harder and harder to pick up your own errors).

In addition, I would like to suggest that academia is a place where you should be more concerned about truth (and therefore quality of class notes) than personal feelings, be it of professors or of students. What matters is that the quality of education keeps improving and you can help make that happen.

Having an OCD student willing to do that work for you is a godsent for a professor, so go ahead and expect him to thank you for it!

(of course if he reacts negatively just let it go: that would only reveal a flaw in character...)

Answer 7

You need to stay firm , send him the doc state that's it's unaceptable for a university profesor have typos in any text he sends his students and offer to corect/mantain the document in exchange for creds