text:
Writing the perfect question

Please note: this blog post is not a suitable place to post a development question. You should probably be doing that on Stack Overflow – after reading this post, of course. I’ve received a truly astonishing number of comments on this post which are basically misplaced questions. Such comments are simply marked as spam – they don’t belong here.

TL;DR: If you don’t have time to read this post fully, I have a checklist version. I’d strongly encourage you to read this post fully though, when you have time.

I’ve added a tinyurl to this post for easy reference:
http://tinyurl.com/stack-hints. Nice and easy to remember :)

A while ago, I wrote a blog entry on how to answer questions helpfully on sites like Stack Overflow. Recently I saw a meta question about bad questions and thought it would be worth following up with another blog post on asking questions. For the sake of convenience – and as Stack Overflow is so popular – I will assume the question is going to be asked on Stack Overflow or a similar Stack Exchange site. Most of the post doesn’t actually depend on that, but if you’re asking elsewhere you may need to tweak the advice a little.

There are plenty of similar resources around, of course – in particular, Eric Raymond’s How to Ask Questions the Smart Way is a perennial favourite. Still, I think I can bring something to the table.

The Golden Rule: Imagine You’re Trying To Answer The Question

If you don’t remember anything else from this post, remember this bit. Everything else follows from here. (And yes, this does smack somewhat of Matthew 7:12.)

Once you’ve finished writing your question, read it through. Imagine you were coming to it fresh, with no context other than what’s on the screen. Does it make sense? Is it clear what’s being asked? Is it easy to read and understand? Are there any obvious areas you’d need to ask about before providing an answer? You can usually do this pretty well however stuck you are on the actual question. Just apply common sense. If there’s anything wrong with the question when you’re reading it, obviously that will be a problem for whoever’s actually trying to answer it. So fix the problems. Improve the question until you can read it and think, “If I only knew the answer to the question, it would be a pleasure to provide that answer.” At that point, post and wait for the answers to come rolling in.

Obviously this is somewhat easier to do if you have a certain amount of experience answering questions, particularly on the forum where you’re about to post. So, what should you be looking out for?

Question title

When a reader first sees your question, they’re likely to be scrolling down a list of snippets. The most eye-catching part of the snippet will be the title – so use that text wisely. While you can include language or platform information, you should only do so naturally – not as a sort of “header”. For example, this is bad:

Java: Why are bytes signed?

But this is okay:

Why are bytes signed in Java?

Of course, you should also include this information in tags, as it will help people who pay particular attention to specific tags.

Ideally, a question title should be a question – but frankly that’s not always feasible. I would recommend favouring a short, descriptive title which captures the theme of the question without actually being a question instead of really trying to crowbar it into the form of a question when it really doesn’t want to be. That’s not an excuse for laziness though – it’s usually possible to come up with a good title which is genuinely a question.

It’s important that the question title is specific though, and has at least some meaning with no other information. A question such as “Why doesn’t this work?” makes absolutely no sense without the rest of the question. Likewise a “question” title of “Please help” is unlikely to do well.

In most cases, anyone answering the question will need to know what language and platform you’re using. The basics should usually be communicated through tags, but it may very well be worth providing more information:

  • Language version (e.g. C# 4)
  • Platform version (e.g. .NET 3.5; note that this isn’t always implicit from the language version, or vice versa)
  • Operating system, if it could be relevant (e.g. particular permissions issues)
  • Any other relevant software (e.g. database type and version, the IDE you’re using, web server you’re connecting to)
  • Any other constraints. This is particularly important. It’s really annoying to give a perfectly good answer to a question, only to be told that you’re not allowed to use feature X or Y which provide the obvious solution.
    • If you have unusual constraints, it’s worth explaining why. Not only does this answer the obvious follow-up comment, but it also gives more information about what other solutions may not be applicable.

Describe what you’ve already tried and the results of any research. (You have searched for a solution to your problem before asking it, haven’t you? Stack Overflow isn’t meant to replace basic search skills.) Often there will be other people in a similar situation, but the answers didn’t quite match your situation. Just like the above point about unusual constraints, it saves time if you can point out differences between your situation and other common ones. It’s even worth referring to other related questions explicitly – particularly if they’re on the same forum. Aside from anything else, this shows a certain amount of “due diligence” – people are generally more willing to help you if can show you’ve already put some effort in.

You should absolutely make sure that you tag the question appropriately. If you’re not sure which exact tags are appropriate, see what gets auto-suggested and look at samples for each one. If that sounds like a lot of work, just remember how much time you may be able to save yourself in the long run. It gets easier over time, of course.

Problem statement

Make sure it’s obvious what you’re trying to get out of the question. Too many “questions” are actually just statements: when I do X, something goes wrong.

Well, what did you expect it to do? What are you trying to accomplish? What have you already tried? What happened in those attempts? Be detailed: in particular, if something didn’t work, don’t just state that: tell us how it failed. If it threw an exception, what was the exception? (Don’t just give the type – give the error message and say which line threw it. If there’s a nested exception, post that too.)

If at all possible, write a sort of “executive summary” at the start of your question, followed by a more detailed description. Remember that on the list of questions, the first few sentences will appear as a snippet. If you can get a sense of the question across in that snippet, you’re more likely to attract views from people who can answer the question.

One trap that many posters fall into is to ask how to achieve some “small” aim, but never say what the larger aim is. Often the smaller aim is either impossible or rarely a good idea – instead, a different approach is needed. Again, if you provide more context when writing your problem statement, we can suggest better designs. It’s fine to specify how you’re currently trying to solve your bigger problem, of course – that’s likely to be necessary detail – but include the bigger goal too.

Sample code and data

I may be biased on this one. I’m a huge believer in sample code, both for questions and answers… and I probably use it in an unconventional way. I usually paste it into a text editor, and try to compile it from the command line. If that’s not likely to work (and the problem isn’t obvious by inspection), I’m unlikely to bother too much with it. Firing up Eclipse or Visual Studio and finding an existing project I don’t care about or starting a new one is going to take much more time.

That means if you want me to look at code, it should:

  • Be standalone. Don’t try to talk to a database unless you really have to. (Obviously for database questions, that’s kinda hard :) If you use sample XML, provide a short but complete XML file for us to reproduce the issue with. (And the same for other file types, obviously.)
  • Be complete. If there are missing imports or using directives, that’s really annoying
  • Actually compile (unless the compilation error is the reason for the question). Don’t give me code which is “something like” the real code but which clearly isn’t the real code, and may well not exhibit the same symptoms by the time I’ve fixed it so that it compiles.
  • Ideally not bring up a UI. Unless your code is about a UI issue, don’t bring one up. Console apps are simpler, and simplicity is a huge benefit when trying to hunt down a problem.
  • Demonstrate the problem. You should be able to say, “I expected the result to be X, it’s actually Y.” (You should actually say that too, so that we can check that we get the same results.)
  • Be as short as possible. If I have to wade through hundreds of lines of code to find the problem, I’m doing work that you should be doing. Often if you work hard to reduce the problem to a short but complete program, you’ll find the issue yourself. You can absolutely do this without knowing what the problem is; you should be looking to the community for their expertise, not their willingness to spend time on your problem doing the work that you can do yourself.

Yes, this is a relatively onerous list. It doesn’t all apply to every problem, but it does apply in a great many situations. While I get put off by reams of irrelevant, badly formatted code, some of which clearly won’t compile, the inverse is true as well: if I can tell by looking at the question that the code can go through a copy/paste/compile/run cycle really quickly, I’m much more likely to pay the question significant attention.

In data-oriented questions, it’s very often helpful to give some sample data. Cut out anything irrelevant (if your real table has 50 columns, you only need to include relevant ones) but make sure that you give enough sample input for it to be meaningful. For example, if you’re trying to group some data by a PersonID column, it’s pretty useless if there’s only one PersonID given, or if each PersonID only appears once. If you are giving examples of expected input and corresponding output, make sure it’s clear why that’s the expected output. Often I see questions which give a small number of samples, and there are various ways they could be interpreted. This is one area where it’s particularly important to reread the question from a stranger’s point of view: while a brief summary of the desired results may well make sense to someone who already knows what your app is trying to achieve, it may be gobbledygook to those trying to answer your question.

Spelling, grammar and formatting

I know not everyone speaks English natively. My own command of non-English languages is lamentably poor – I’m incredibly lucky that my native tongue happens to be the lingua franca of the technical world. However, if you’re trying to communicate on an English-language forum, you owe it to yourself to make an effort to write at least reasonably correct English.

  • Please use capital letters where appropriate. It really can make a big difference in the readability of text.
  • Please split your text into paragraphs. Imagine this blog post as one big paragraph – it would be almost impossible to read.
  • Please write actual words. There are undoubtedly some abbreviations which are acceptable to most readers – IMO, IIRC etc –  there’s no reason to switch into text-speak with “gr8”, “bcoz”, “u” and so forth. It’s unlikely that you’re actually writing your question on a phone with only a primitive keyboard; show your readers respect by writing properly. It may take you a few more seconds, but if it means you get an answer quicker, it’s surely worth the extra effort.
  • Most browsers have built-in spelling checkers these days, or at least have plug-ins or extensions available to check your text. Technical text often creates a lot of false positives for checkers, but if your spelling isn’t generally great, it’s worth looking at the suggestions.

Having said all of this, you’re not trying to create a literary masterpiece. You’re trying to communicate your question as effectively as possible. If you’re faced with the choice between an unambiguous but ugly sentence, or a phrase which stirs the soul but leaves the reader confused about exactly what you mean, go for the unambiguous option every time.

One way a huge number of questions can be improved with very little effort is simply formatting them properly. Stack Overflow’s markdown editor is very good – the preview below your input box is almost always accurate in terms of the eventual result, and you can always edit the question later if anything doesn’t quite work. The exact details of the markdown is beyond the scope of this article – Stack Overflow has a detailed guide though – if you’re new to the site, I’d recommend you at least skim through it.

By far the most important kind of formatting is making code look like code. Within a text paragraph, simply surround the code with backticks `like this`. For blocks of code, just indent everything by four spaces. If you’re cutting and pasting code, it may already be indented (for example if you’re copying code within a class) but if not, the easiest way to indent everything is to paste it, select the whole code block, and then press Ctrl-K or the “{ }” button just above the editor.

One of the important things about code formatting is that it means angle brackets (and some other symbols) are preserved instead of being swallowed by the markdown formatter. In some cases this can mean all the difference between a question which is easy to answer and one which doesn’t make any sense, particularly in terms of generics in Java and C# or templates in C++. For example, like this

Why can’t I convert an expression of type List<Apple> to List<Fruit>?

makes no sense at all if the type arguments are removed:

Why can’t I convert an expression of type List to List?

Often experienced members of the site will recognise what’s going on and edit your question for you, but obviously it’s better if they don’t have to.

Making a good impression

Leaving aside the main body of the question, there are a few simple ways to get the community “on your side” and therefore more likely to give you a useful answer quickly.

  • Register as a user and give yourself a meaningful name. It doesn’t have to be your real name, but frankly names like “Top Coder” or “Coding Guru” look pretty silly when you’re asking a question which others find simple. That’s still better than leaving yourself as “user154232” or whatever identifier is assigned to you by default though. Aside from anything else, it shows a certain amount of commitment to the question and/or site: if you’ve bothered to give yourself a name, you’re less likely to be an “ask-and-run” questioner.
  • Keep an eye on your question. There may well be requests for clarification – and of course, answers! If you receive an answer which wasn’t quite what you were looking for, explain carefully (and politely) why it’s not suitable for your purposes. Consider going back and editing your question to make it clearer for subsequent users.
  • Don’t add your own answer unless it really is an answer. Often users add extra details in an “answer” when they should really have just edited their question. Likewise editing your question is generally a better idea than adding a long comment to an existing answer – particularly if that comment contains a block of code (which won’t work well in a comment). If you do change the question in response to an answer though, it’s worth adding a comment to the answer just to let the user know that you’ve updated it though… you may well find they quickly edit their answer to match the revised question.
  • There’s no need to include greetings and sign-offs such as “Hi everyone!” and “Thanks – hope to get an answer soon” in the question. These will often be edited out by other users, as they’re basically a distraction. Greetings at the start of a question are particularly useless as they can take up valuable space in the snippet displayed in the question list.
  • Above all, be polite. Remember that no-one is getting paid to answer your question. Users are giving up their time to help you – so please be appreciative of that. If you’re asking a homework question, explain why you’re asking for help with something that traditionally you’d have to answer all by yourself. If a user suggests that your general approach is wrong and that there’s a better way of doing things, don’t take it personally: they’re trying to help you improve your code. By all means disagree robustly, but don’t start into ad hominem arguments. (This advice applies to answerers as well, of course.)
  • (Somewhat specific to Stack Overflow.) If an answer is particularly helpful or solves your problem, accept it by clicking on the tick mark by it. This gives extra credit to the person who provided that answer, as well as giving more information to future readers.

Conclusion and feedback

Stack Overflow is an amazing resource (along with other Q&A sites, of course). The idea that you can get a good answer to a wide range of questions within minutes is pretty staggering… but there’s an obvious correlation between the quality of a question and the likelihood that you’ll get quick, helpful answers. Put that extra bit of effort in yourself, and it will probably pay for itself very quickly.

I’m hoping to keep this blog post up to date with suggestions received – if I’ve missed out anything, over- or under-emphasized a specific point, or generally gone off track, let me know either in the comments here or mail me (skeet@pobox.com). If this document ends up elsewhere, then that copy may end up being the “canonical” one which is edited over time – in which case I’ll indicate that here.

80 thoughts on “Writing the perfect question”

  1. Great post as always. This’ll definitely be a helpful guide for the “send me teh codez” people. I admit I was one of those for a long time.
    Many people I know use SO with realizing that their questions are being answered by genuine pros, spending their valuable time and effort.
    Personally one the problems I face as a relatively new SO user is that I sometimes find it difficult to decide whether a question should be Community wiki or not, I’m almost always wrong. A little advice on that would be helpful.

  2. This is a very helpful post. I have to question one assertion though. You say: “You have searched for a solution to your problem before asking it, haven’t you? Stack Overflow isn’t meant to replace basic search skills.”

    I don’t know if I necessarily agree with this. I think the more relevant statement would be, “You have searched for a solution to your problem *on StackOverflow* before asking it, haven’t you?”

    Certainly most questions are already answered out there on some old message board, stuck down on page 3 of a long thread. That doesn’t mean the question shouldn’t be asked again and answered on StackOverflow, where the right answer will appear as the top answer right under the question. Then the next person who has that same question won’t have to do as lengthy of a search.

    Of course, nobody wants a lot of repetition on StackOverflow itself…

    Liked by 1 person

  3. @Scott: I think if I’d already found an answer via a normal search, I wouldn’t post it as a normal question on Stack Overflow. I might post it *with an explicit explanation that I was going to post the answer myself*. Usually I don’t think I’d bother though, unless it had been a really tricky process finding the answer.

    For example, questions such as “what’s the singleton pattern” are easily answered by wikipedia… I don’t think there’s any need for Stack Overflow to have a copy of *every* software-related piece of information in the world. Ditto questions which are easily answered by looking at MSDN or JavaDocs. Of course if people look but don’t find the relevant information even though it’s there, that’s fine… but that’s a different matter.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. I find
    using System;
    using System.Windows.Forms;
    in code samples mostly unnecessary – unless you’re using some less common namespace – and think they have a high noise-to-signal ratio.

  5. @configurator: I don’t know, it can be annoying to have to compile several times before you’ve “got” all of the necessary using directives. You can fully qualify the names yourself, of course, but I do think there’s value in copy/paste/compile/run with no changes required.

  6. Maybe I don’t care about them because I’d usually paste the code into my EmptyApplication (which is true to its name and always kept empty), which has the ‘using’s already.

    By the way, I can’t see the captcha images here unless I open them in their own tab (I’m using Chrome), but I don’t suppose you have anything to do with the blog software.

  7. Sadly, the people most in need of this advice would not only never invest the time it takes to read the article, they would be offended that anyone would suggest that they do. :(

    But, good article anyway. Thanks for writing it (it goes well with your web site articles about code examples, complete and incomplete).

  8. @Peter: Fixed, thanks. And yes, I’m aware of the “those who need it won’t read it” problem. At least with a memorable tinyurl link it’s easy enough to suggest to people.

    @configurator: I doubt that many people permanently have an extra copy of Eclipse / Visual Studio up just on the off-chance. I still think it’s better to make it complete. It’s usually only a few lines.

  9. Hi Jon,

    Very interesting article ! However I’m surprised you didn’t say anything about the title of the question : I think picking a good title is very important to attract viewers. There are so many questions with useless titles like “Problem with C#” or “Help me plz”, I usually don’t even bother to read them…

    As for testing the code posted in a question, I usually run it in LINQPad. It’s much quicker than starting a new VS instance and creating a new project, and much more convenient than Notepad + csc.exe: you get syntax highlighting, autocompletion and automatic resolution of missing usings (if you paid for the autocompletion feature of course)

  10. @Thomas: I’ll update it for the title (and CW) in the next couple of days.

    LINQPad is a solution for C# of course – although I think the command prompt and a text editor (jed in my case) is still faster in some cases :) It’s also easier to use on Linux…

    But the more general point is that for *any* language, if you produce a short but complete program, it’s easy to reproduce the problem. If you leave bits out, the reader is going to have to work out what you’ve left out.

  11. Nice article, but a bit naive I think. I find laziness is the root of many poor questions. And I don’t think lazy people are motivated to research how to ask better questions. Perhaps the phrase “preaching to the choir” applies?

  12. @Oorang: I’m not expecting people to find this independently… at least not on the blog. But it’s useful to have somewhere to direct people who’ve asked a question poorly, or perhaps to link to from an obvious place on Stack Overflow itself.

  13. Nice post. A lot of these tips are also very helpful for end users writing bug reports. Not the technical details of course but the essence of trying to explain to someone else what your problem is.

  14. Excellent article, Jon.

    I would add, along the lines of omitting greetings and sign-offs, that it’s not necessary or useful to comment on *every* answer with something along the lines of, “Thanks for the answer.” That just clutters the page with useless text. Thanking your answerers are what the up-vote and accept buttons are for.

  15. Jon, may be it will be helpful if you even post a blog about how to answer questions on Stack Overflow. I have seen that many posters are really snobbish and particularly those who have high reputation.

  16. Ohh dear. How did I miss that? Usually I tend to skim through the blogs which are very long unless they are tech based. So I might have missed that you have already written a blog on that.

  17. That last sentence, before the conclusion:

    “I certainly wouldn’t suggest accepting answers just to get your accept rate, even if they didn’t help you.”

    “Even if” makes it sound like not being helpful is an added incentive to accept the answer. Possibly rewrite the sentence, or at least substitute “especially if” in its place.

    A subtlety, for sure, but you said the writeup might get wide distribution, so it’s worth picking nits.

  18. Great article. One thing that sometimes annoys me on SO is that when people accept the first answer that doesn’t really answer the question. Then when you write a better answer to the question, there’s no way to get to be the accepted answer.

  19. @Sander Rijken: IIRC you can change an accepted answer to another one. I believe i’ve done that before in the past.

    @skeet: I can’t see the captcha image using chrome either. If I right click it and view it in a new tab it works though

  20. A small feature request for this very useful article: could you add anchors to the sections so that they can be linked to? A poster whose questions have one kind of flaw will usually suffer others, but sometimes we may want to point them to a specific section. We’d need to use the full URL when linking (tinyurl doesn’t pass fragment IDs through to the target URL), but I, for one, would still find it handy.

  21. I send people here often because I think you have a very strong position to make these suggestions, and the post here is very well written.

    However, I think historically this page was located at http://tinyurl.com/so-hints (you can verify by looking at a google search). If I use that url, I end up with an error page because it goes to http://msmvps.com/blogs/jon_skeet/archive/2010/08/29/writing-the-perfect-question.aspx . Is there any way to set up some sort of redirect there to prevent broken links?

    1. Unfortunately I can’t set up redirects – I don’t have any control over msmvps.com. That’s one of the aims of putting everything into jonskeet.uk-based URLs from now on… I’m in control of my own destiny.

      There’s a new tinyurl now though: http://tinyurl.com/stack-hints
      (It’s a shame we can’t update old tinyurl links – I might check out whether there’s some way of fixing that…)

  22. Nice post, but on the very last bullet point, accept rate hasn’t been shown on Stack Overflow for a while now. I’d actually forgotten all about it until I read that.

  23. Great article. …Just a thought: Matthew 7:12 and Hillel’s Golden Rule appear similar? Hillel articulated his sentiment prior to Matthew, right? …Kind of nit picking I guess but I do appreciate me some Hillel.

  24. There’s no need for such a detailed article on something like “how to ask a question.” One would expect such a detailed article on a news article, an encyclopedia entry, etc. – something you can actually learn something useful from and that’s not simply someone’s opinion. And Stack Overflow isn’t such an “amazing” resource. In fact, if you want a good response to your questions, you should ask someone with some knowledge for help, not go to a forum.

  25. In the section about formatting, you’ve written:

    Within a text paragraph, simply surround the code with backticks like this

    without any literal backticks visible, which I assume is a mistake. Wild guess: there were once literal backticks visible but after you moved your blog to a new platform that supports markdown they started formatting “like this” as code instead?

    Feel free to nuke this comment after resolving the issue if you don’t want the noise around, Stack Overflow ‘obsolete’ flag style. :)

  26. Pingback: Quora
  27. Excellent, full of useful specifics. I hope that those need it do get (or are made) to read it. One comment, on what in my mind is critical for people with a genuine desire to post good questions. The “Golden Rule” says “Imagine you were coming to it fresh, with no context other than what’s on the screen.” This is indeed golden in my opinion, but how to detach yourself from the depths of what you’ve pondered? It continues, “You can usually do this pretty well however stuck you are on the actual question. Just apply common sense.” I don’t know. It’s usually not easy for me to introduce things to the uninitiated. And I have experience, with such communication and with teaching. It just takes work (for me). I am not complaining, what you say is fair — and I don’t know of a good “recipe.” Perhaps emphasize that this is hard and tricky? Mostly I mean to say that this is perhaps the key obstacle for those who do put the effort into writing a good question.

    1. I don’t think I’ll change the text, although I’ll ponder on it. Despite the title of the post, questions don’t actually need to be perfect – I would argue that in the vast majority of cases, simply the act of attempting to read your about-to-be-posted question from the perspective of someone without context is enough to spot most of the problems. Doing this really well is hard – but doing it reasonably well is mostly a matter of being aware that it needs doing, I think.

  28. Yes, that is right — it is the bulk of it that matters, the big picture. Questions are often really poor where a thoughtful read-over would’ve made it much better. I didn’t really mean to suggest that a change is needed, it is a clear statement of what matters. I mostly meant to bring it up, as I believe that it is perhaps the most decisive part of any presentation. And … sorry about the wall of text (speaking of writing good posts). Thank you for response :)

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text:
it goes likes this, the fourth, the fifth.

I am tired. My friend Andy came to town on Sunday evening to record some stuff with some other Nashville folks. He’s crashing on my couch/floor. We’ve watched the first three discs of season one of Lost. I keep falling asleep during the episodes. Last night, after I woke up after the forth episode we watched, I asked Andy what I missed “on the ship.” I meant to say “on the show,” but obviously it didn’t come out as such. Andy was really confused and now thinks I’m on coke.

Last night it thundered, no storm, just thunder. I don’t know if it’s rained at all today. But today would have been a good day to rain, and I would have stayed in my pajamas and in bed all day. Except I have to work. I’m taking next week off and going to Ohio. Andy and I are driving back overnight after I get off work tomorrow evening. He’s going home to go to Alive with his family. I’m going home to work at Alive. It’ll be nice to have a week off from my real jobs. I’m packing up some of my apartment as well, just a couple of boxes of things I know I won’t be using in the next three months.

I need a nap, my head hurts.

One response to “it goes likes this, the fourth, the fifth.

  1. hey so how bout you sneak me into alive and then we hang out?? whaddaya say? =)

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College Math Teaching

December 22, 2015

Multi leaf polar graphs and total area…

Filed under: calculus, elementary mathematics, integrals — Tags: , — collegemathteaching @ 4:07 am

I saw polar coordinate calculus for the first time in 1977. I’ve taught calculus as a TA and as a professor since 1987. And yet, I’ve never thought of this simple little fact.

Consider r(\theta) = sin(n \theta), 0 \theta \ 2 \pi . Now it is well know that the area formula (area enclosed by a polar graph, assuming no “doubling”, self intersections, etc.) is A = \frac{1}{2} \int^b_a (r(\theta))^2 d \theta

Now the leaved roses have the following types of graphs: n leaves if n is odd, and 2n leaves if n is even (in the odd case, the graph doubles itself).

So here is the question: how much total area is covered by the graph (all the leaves put together, do NOT count “overlapping”)?

Well, for n an integer, the answer is: \frac{\pi}{4} if n is odd, and \frac{\pi}{2} if n is even! That’s it! Want to know why?

Do the integral: if n is odd, our total area is \frac{n}{2}\int^{\frac{\pi}{n}}_0 (sin(n \theta)^2 d\theta = \frac{n}{2}\int^{\frac{\pi}{n}}_0 \frac{1}{2} + cos(2n\theta) d\theta =\frac{\pi}{4} . If n is even, we have the same integral but the outside coefficient is \frac{2n}{2} = n which is the only difference. Aside from parity, the number of leaves does not matter as to the total area!

Now the fun starts when one considers a fractional multiple of \theta and I might ponder that some.

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An interview with Jenn LeBlanc, Photographer, Author, and Media Maven

©2010 Barry Gutierrez

I first met Jenn LeBlanc while getting my Bachelors of Arts, at Metropolitan State College of Denver.  She was sitting at a desk, pouring over images so intently that she didn’t even look up when the rest of the students entered the classroom.  Through our first class together, and many additional classes, I came to know and respect Jenn as one tough cookie, and an amazing artist.  As we made our way through college, Jenn took on the job of editor at the college newspaper, The Metropolitan, where the paper won several awards.  We graduated, and started looking for jobs, and Jenn created The Iris Photo Agency, consisting of seven hand picked photographers, coming together to collaborate and grow.

I will never forget the day she told me that she was going to write a book.  We were watching our daughters play at a local Water Park, and discussing our enormous student loans.  Jenn, true to her word, has written an amazing novel, complete with beautiful photographic illustrations.  The Rake and The Recluse has broken new ground in the world of romantic literature.

Jenn has established her brand on-line, and consistently maintains an incredible presence.   She and I chatted about her success, and how she’s gotten to where she is now. is an example of hard work and dedication.  You update your site on a regular basis, and you regularly blog.   You’ve managed to brand yourself quite well.  Can you talk about getting to the point where you are now, and how you manage to stay on top of your online presence having the busy life you have?

It isn’t easy. When I was building my brand I blogged at least once a week if not more. Now that I am secure in that branding and what I hope to accomplish with it my blogging is a little more sporadic, it is determined by my projects, instead of necessity. I share nearly every studio session I do, and try to include some insight into the shoot, what happened, where it went well, where it could have gone better. Little insights to entice my readers, bring my work closer to the viewers.

How have you gotten away from a group of readers/followers that are mostly friends, family, acquaintances and earned the following of people outside of your immediate circle?

Reaching beyond ones immediate social circle is never easy. You have to discover and develop your audience carefully. You determine what they are interested in, besides your work, and share that with them. You never push yourself on people via twitter or facebook. You want to be seen as an authority on a particular subject, then have people come to you about your work specifically. It’s important to know the tools as well, hash tags are your best friend. They are how your audience finds you when they have no relationship with you or your circle. They serve another purpose, they serve to show your personality. For example, as a writer my followers expect a bit of sass and snark. Some of my commonly used hash tags include #thatsWhatHEsaid and #thatsWhatSHEsaid #inappropriate and #alwaysProfessional. I’m also known for more eccentric tags like #edwardCullenInTheCornerWhileYouSleepCreepy and useful tags like #CastingPerry and #trainerDerek.

You have to not merely develop a brand but a persona to go with it, it will help with the tone of your posts when people understand how it is meant to be said or taken.

I also do blog tours. The job of any blogger is inherently master of social media, by providing them with content you are allowing them to promote you to their networks. It is an effective relationship in which both users can benefit a great deal.

What platform is your blog built on, and when you designed your blog, what widgets, plug-ins, or other tools did you find helpful to include on your blog, and why?

My blog is a WordPress site. The only widgets I use are Twitter and Facebook. My author site has a few more widgets, including Goodreadsand other marketing widgets since the purpose is to drive people toward sales avenues. But I don’t like too many bells and whistles. I like it to be clean and simple, as little as possible to get the idea across. Like a photograph. One image, a million ideas.

Are you on or I will be upgrading to at some point this year.

As a photographer I have a million ideas for blogs.  I have started and failed many times.  It’s a trap that I see many photographers or creative people fall into.  We get excited about something new, and work towards that goal and then get distracted, what helps you stay focused?

Focus is difficult, particularly for a creative brain with ADD. I think I keep my focus because I have several things going on so when I have a craving for reality I can shoot some freelance or documentary journalism, when I get a wild hair I can go to the studio or location and shoot something that isn’t paid or contracted and when I need to illustrate I can do that as well. But each facet provides the whole of who I am as a photographer and without one the others aren’t as strong. I need to be able to concentrate on the different aspects of photography at different times. Documentary keeps me grounded and honest, the illustration feeds my creative, controlling brain and the art lets me fly.

What are the biggest mistakes you see other photographer bloggers make? And in addition what mistakes do you see that other photographers make when creating an online portfolio.

I think consistency is a big faux pas in blogging of any kind. Consistency goes along with branding and once you figure out your audience and your voice you need to stick to some semblance of that because that is why people are following you. People follow David Hobby because he is the strobe master. People follow Vincent LaForetbecause he is innovative and has stunning video work. People follow my photo side for industry information and snark and they follow my author side for sass and sexy imagery.Online portfolios need to be concise. The mistake is when a portfolio is more broad than your brand. For example, mine is much too broad right now. My focus has narrowed considerably this year, but my website hasn’t kept pace because I haven’t had the time to update my site.

At this point my site should have three areas: Studio, Documentary and Art, the rest, while impressive, is extraneous. It only serves to confuse the viewer because I have left these things to the wayside. These specialties can still be found in my blog, and that is completely acceptable with a blurb of explanation about why it is here, but they shouldn’t be highlighted on my home page.

What social media platforms are important for photographer/artists to be a part of in your opinion?

The ones you are the most comfortable with. I use Facebook and Twitter because I am completely comfortable with them. They are the industry standard. I have attempted to work with Google+ but I don’t have the time to expend energy in figuring out exactly how to use it to my benefit in an efficient manner. That being said, whenever a new site starts up I reserve handles so that in the future, should those sites take off my brand is secure and I am already a part of it.

What about sites like flickr, and picassa?

I have never used picasa, and I used flickr pro for a year but did not renew. They are time consuming and provided no benefit to me. I think it depends on your particular business model. Flickr would be useful for uploading images that clients could use and download for free, that was my primary use for it last year, but I have moved away from that particular endeavor. The majority of the people contacting me through flickr simply wanted the rights to my images for little to no compensation. It’s a great site for sharing images, but it is not a great site for marketing a business, for the most part. I know some photographers have made it work, but it just didn’t work for me.

As you transition from to, you will be venturing into a different type of design experience.  What are you doing to prepare yourself for the transition, will you design the site/blog yourself or hire someone to design it for you? What do you see as possible benefits and downfalls to each scenario?

As with the majority of my endeavors I will be doing it myself. It poses a few challenges, but I do have a few WordPress gurus up my sleeve. I haven’t done it yet because I haven’t had time for it, you see that’s a theme right? When you do everything yourself it all comes down to time. I worked with a designer last year on both of my websites and my author branding and overall was extremely happy with the outcome. If I’m in need of professional assistance again she’ll be the one I turn to.

You mentioned your site should be a bit more streamlined, do you have ideas in mind for your own site as you move forward that you are willing to share,  and or advice to those creating creative online portfolios?

Most of my ideas for streamlining my site include simply deleting the extraneous information. I already refined my site for SEO and user friendliness, so all I have to do to keep up with my changing focus is simply un-publish certain pages, or alternately design pages to fit with new projects.

Where can we find you online?

I am on twitter as @JKLeBlanc as a professional photographer and @JennLeBlancas an author. They are very different personas. My websites are: for photography and IllustratedRomance.comfor writing.

One more note about Facebook. My facebook account is personal, I don’t friend random people and very rarely accept friend requests from people I have not met in person. It is my personal space for me to be a goof and celebrate my victories with my friends and family and not worry about who might see what. I recommend you do the same. I also recommend that you lock it down in the privacy settings. I have two pages where I interact with the rest of the web, those are sufficient for acquaintances and marketing. These are my Facebook pages: Photo and Author.

I love to help people but have limited time, there are many ways to contact me, ask questions or just socialize on the web, I have given you plenty of inroads should you be interested. I love to chat with other photgs, and with my readers and fans. Use the media that is suited to what you are interested in knowing.

ALL IMAGES in this post ©Jenn LeBlanc unless otherwise noted.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED NO COPYING, DOWNLOADING, or REPRODUCTION without the express permission of the owner.

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About Rachel C.

2 responses to “An interview with Jenn LeBlanc, Photographer, Author, and Media Maven”

  1. Kathy E. Gill says :

    Wow! Thanks, Rachel!

  2. Rachel C. says :

    Thank you, and an even bigger thank you to Jenn LeBlanc!

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Application Delivery (ADX)

Occasional Contributor
Posts: 5
Registered: 11-02-2012

802.3 ad Bonded Mac Server

Hello Everyone!

I have a mac server 10.6 I am trying to configure my brocade switch to bond with the mac server, I have tried to setup lag on the switch and it complains of no partner.

Former Brocadian
Posts: 100
Registered: 01-13-2009

Re: 802.3 ad Bonded Mac Server

Hi Nicholas,

Sorry about the delay in responding.  Are you still experiencing this issue?  If so, you didn't mention which switch model you were working but I'm going guess it's ADX.  Did you see the following rules/caveats?  Both sets apply for 802.3 ad.

Trunk group rules

• You can configure a maximum of eight ports in a trunk, port members of the trunk do not need to be continuous.

• You can have a maximum of 32 trunk groups.

• The port with the lowest port index will act as the primary port of the trunk group.

• You cannot configure a port as a member of a trunk group if 802.3ad link aggregation is also enabled on the port.

• You cannot combine fiber ports and copper ports in the same trunk group.

• You cannot combine Gigabit and 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports in the same trunk group.

• All the ports must be connected to the same device at the other end.

• All trunk group member properties must match the lead port of the trunk group with respect to the following parameters:

• Port tag type (untagged or tagged port)

• Port speed and duplex

• QoS priority

To change port parameters, you must change them on the primary port. The software automatically applies the changes to the other ports in the trunk group.

• If the hardware-based multicast switch feature is enabled, there is an impact on trunk load balancing. For details see “Additional trunk group rules for multi-slot trunk groups” on page 44.

• Make sure that the device at the other end of the trunk link can support the same number of ports in the trunk. For example, if you configure a five-port trunk group on the ServerIron ADX and the other end is a different kind of switch; make sure the other switch can support a five-port trunk group.

Additional "rules" for dynamic:

• You cannot use 802.3ad link aggregation on a port configured as a member of a static trunk group.

• When the feature dynamically adds or modifies a trunk group, the show trunk command displays the trunk as both configured and active. However, the show running-config or write terminal command does not display the new or changed trunk group configuration.

• If the feature places a port into a trunk group as a secondary port, all configuration information except information related to link aggregation is removed from the port. For example, if port 1/3 has an IP interface, and link aggregation places port 1/3 into a trunk group consisting of ports 1/1 – 1/4, then the IP interface is removed from the port.

• If you use this feature on a ServerIron ADX that is running OSPF, the feature causes these protocols to reset when a dynamic link change occurs. The reset includes ending and restarting neighbor sessions with OSPF peers, and clearing and relearning dynamic route entries and forwarding cache entries. Although the reset causes a brief interruption, the

protocols automatically resume normal operation.

• You can enable link aggregation on 802.1q tagged ports (ports that belong to more than one port-based VLAN).

Occasional Contributor
Posts: 5
Registered: 11-02-2012

Re: 802.3 ad Bonded Mac Server

Thanks for the response, I solved the issue by using dynamic lag not static lag.

Join the Community

Get quick and easy access to valuable resource designed to help you manage your Brocade Network.


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Data Center

It is with great excitement we stuffed our booth (#321) at EMC World 2015 joint EMC and Brocade solutions.

We have the new Brocade 7840 extension switch on display, which is now enhanced to support IP, as well as Fibre Channel, delivering high throughput storage replication between data centers - the equivalent of local replication performance - over long distances with strong encryption to address security and disaster recovery requirements.

New Education Information
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2 Replies Latest reply on Jun 24, 2014 7:53 AM by paintchic42

    Container for HTML Based Content

      We have some HTML based documentation (i.e. a bunch of .html pages structured and linked together) that I'd love to put on our external community.

      Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this? This documentation is usually sent directly to the customer, so it's not actually hosted anywhere on the internet.


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0 Replies Latest reply on Sep 10, 2015 2:14 PM by justinthompson

    Finding information about using Jive app with Good security?

      Does anyone else use the Good access/app for their company and/or does anyone else in the community have documentation or steps of how they've utilized the mobile apps in tandem with Good security protocol?


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0 Replies Latest reply: Mar 21, 2017 9:54 AM by Deepak Tibhe RSS

    Deepak Tibhe

      Dear experts,

      I am using 2 charts for fulfilling my requirement can you please suggest what kind of changes shall i make in my app so that chart for >1 year value should look uniform with my original chart.


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The Blog’s Author: David Christopher Loya

David Christopher Loya* (IMDB Profle) is a multiple, award-winning filmmaker-director who has created hundreds of commercial and episodic productions that have either aired on national and broadcast cable networks; or have served as successful marketing, training, PR, and fund raising films for Fortune 500 companies and numerous international non-profit organizations.

As a director-filmmaker, David specializes in creating “conscious media” with meaning. Over the past decade commissioned productions (written, directed and edited by David) have successfully been used by educational institutions, national and international non-profits to raise over $1 billion dollars in donated revenues.

David’s focus on authenticity in performance and execution has been successfully registered through the U.S. Patent and Trademark office as the “Conscious Filmmaker®” approach to production. David is the only filmmaker in the United States who holds the Conscious Filmmaker registered trademark.   His works are powerfully distinguished by a one-of-a-kind authenticity that deeply reflects what it is to be a Conscious Filmmaker®.  As a director David does more than tell a story. He delivers an “experience” that raises the consciousness of the viewer and motivates action.

A partial list of his many awards include 20 Silver and Gold Tellys, a Finalist honor at the New York Film Festival and a nomination for best television series pilot at the Banff World Television Festival. David currently has over 300 productions to his credit and has directed, produced, written and edited nationally broadcast dramas, reality segments, commercials and acclaimed documentaries.

David’s portfolio includes hundreds of projects that have aired on broadcast and cable networks that include CBS, NBC, PBS, Nickelodeon, the Bravo Channel, the History Channel and the A&E Network. As a documentary filmmaker, David has directed and produced the acclaimed PBS special  THE BIG ONE: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SAN ANDREAS (New York Festivals’ Finalist and Telly Gold Award Winner); served as line producer for the A&E Series  FIRST FLIGHTS WITH NEIL ARMSTRONG; produced and directed JOURNEY OF LOSS… DISCOVERY OF HOPE (Telly Gold Winner); and directed and produced the multiple award-winning NFL sports documentary THE MOSS METHOD focusing on New England Patriots Wide Receiver, Randy Moss. On the new media front he has produced and directed VOICES – ROCK AND ROLL’S INVISIBLE INSTRUMENT, an award-winning, interactive multimedia exhibit for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that toured across the United States.

In addition, David is an award-winning commercial director whose portfolio also includes productions for Sprint International, TCI, World Vision Int’l, Aramark, Mercer, Prudential, National Medical Enterprises, The Salvation Army,, Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis, Beckman-Coulter, and The University of California, Los Angeles.

David is curently attached to several motion pictures in late development as both a director and producer.  See his IMDB profile to learn more: CLICK HERE.

Additionally, David is President and Founder of 2SenseWorth International – a U.S. 501(c)3, tax exempt, public charity whose mission statement is to create positive global transformation by providing children with all the resources needed to attain their highest human potential.

The clip below is a brief, high energy, fast moving compilation of select works from David’s large portfolio.

*(David Christopher Loya was also known David Christopher Bojorquez.  He adopted his late mother’s surname in her honor.)

Note:  ANY advertising placed on any of these blog pages is not controlled by the author; nor does it necessarily reflect his opinion or ethos.

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Who Knew U.S. Airways Had Standing Room Only Tickets?

Okay, so the airline doesn’t actually sell standing room only tickets, but they might as well have for one passenger who was forced to stand for most of a seven-hour flight — and who only received a $200 travel voucher for his troubles.

The passenger, who wrote of his troubles to consumer advocate Christopher Elliott, says that on a U.S. Airways flight from Philadelphia to Anchorage, the airline seated him next to a passenger who weighed more than 400 pounds.

“His size required both armrests to be raised up and allowed for his body to cover half of my seat,” the passenger tells Elliott.

He says he notified flight attendants right away, but while they were sympathetic and admitted that the gate agent should have required that the other passenger book a second seat, they could do nothing for him.

Writes the passenger of his situation:

It did not allow me to use my seatbelt during takeoff and landing as well as required me to stand in the aisle and galley area for most of the seven-hour plus flight.

The passenger later reported the incident to both the authorities and the airline, which eventually responded in an e-mail that apologized for his “regrettable” experience. He was offered a $200 voucher for his troubles, which the passenger says is less than 1/4 the price he paid for the ticket.

Even Elliott, who has been known to have some luck with getting airlines to sweeten their offers, was told quite bluntly that U.S. Airways “had made its last, best offer.”

Neither he nor the passenger were able to get the airline to address the safety concerns of having someone standing in the aisles for an entire flight.

Passenger forced to stand for a seven-hour airline flight [Elliott.org]


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Celebrating Love

My tea table

Hey there!

I’m sorry, again, for not updating as often as I would like. I just got back from the beach, this time Hua Hin! And I’m very sun burnt! I’ll tell you more about the yummilicious food I had there later, but in this post I would like to share with you all some of the pictures from the afternoon tea party I threw on Thai Mother’s Day (Aug 12th.) It was also the day that my sister announced her engagement to all our relatives, so I wanted to make the event extra special and spent hours after hours trying to put things together, despite only having one day to plan and half a day to execute! I didn’t think I would have to pull (almost) an all-nighter so soon after college, but it went smoothly and their smiles made it more that worth it. =)

Since I had very little time, I couldn’t bake everything myself. I only managed to make the apple turnovers, the berries tartlets, the caramelized nuts tart, the chicken sandwiches, and the tuna vol au vent. The rest of the stuff, I was saved by the dear Siam Paragon gourmet floor aka my second home. I bought some scones from the Mandarin Oriental bakery, some pretty little cupcakes from Cupcake Carousel, some cygnes from It’s happened to be a closet, and some cold cuts, and assorted cheeses. I also bought a delicious caramelized onion quiche and assorted macarons from Dusit Thani hotel. Without these places, I wouldn’t have been able to bake everything in time. So, thank you!! haha

After some minor troubles here and there (such as my dog stealing a whole plate of parma ham,) I managed to put everything together with the help of my family just in time for the guests’ arrival. I must say, it was a very close call! Please take a look at the pictures below. Enjoy!

(P.S. Please, if you want to take my pictures out, credit me =) Thanks!)

3 Comments Add yours

  1. Suphot V. says:

    Oh how wonderful to have a nice sister like you to prepare such an
    afternoon tea engagement party like this. It is more valuable and
    precious than what will be done in the hotel. The host and
    relatives may appreciate so much . All the desserts look great and
    make me feel hungry especially the Chateau Margaux 1986.

    How about your tune ? Hope the party will be greater. May I be one
    of your guests, just kidding.

    1. Thank you 🙂 My turn? Maybe in 10 years..hahaha and if you still read my blog (and if I still have a blog) at that time, then you’ll definitely be invited!

  2. Suphot V. says:

    It is my great pleasure , I am looking forward to be inviting then.

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Cool Aid Endowments have been established at the Victoria Foundation and the Vancouver Foundation, for those wanting to make a gift that keeps on giving in perpetuity, such as with a bequest or planned gift. The Endowments are carefully invested and the dividends support Cool Aid programs flexibly and forever, returning about 5% per year.

The two “Cool Aid Housing, Health, Shelter & Community Services Funds” support the work of the Victoria Cool Aid Society, whose mandate is to advocate for and provide emergency shelter, supported housing and community health services to adults who are vulnerable and marginalized in the Greater Victoria area. The Cool Aid Endowment Fund’s vision is to help end homelessness and improve the quality of life in the Capital Region by working in partnership with others to build a community where:

  • No one is forced to sleep on the street or go hungry.Street dog
  • Everyone who needs supportive housing is getting it.
  • Integrated health care service is provided to treat illness and promote wellness.
  • Integrated services are provided to those with mental health and addiction issues.

A special Pets In Need (Carl Young) Endowment has also been created at the Victoria Foundation, thanks to a special estate gift from the late Carl Young, in memory of his beloved dog Turbo, who passed away with Carl in a tragic car accident in March 2015. The Pets In Need Fund will be used to help with pet food, health care and other expenses for our clients’ pets in need.

Gifts of securities (stocks) are also accepted and are a terrific tax value for a donor or estate, and are processed through the Victoria Foundation. Donations from the USA can receive a US tax receipt when processed through the Friends of the Vancouver Foundation. Anonymous donations can also be received through both Foundations.

To learn more, contact:

Do you want to talk about a possible endowment gift? Please give one of us a call — we would love to hear from you.

  • Alan Rycroft at 250-414-4781 or
  • Cheryl Dalwood at 250-414-4799 or


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Monthly Archives: August 2013

Rumours revisited – and a great presentation by the Introverted Presenter

Do you remember Rumours by Fleetwood Mac? I’d forgotten how good this classic album is until I heard it again (on cassette no less) en route to the WinBiz networking group at Nailsworth, Gloucestershire the other morning. I was struck by how good the album sounded after nearly 40 years (yes, it was recorded in California in 1976). It got me thinking about how enduring the best copywriting and other business advice is. Then I sat down to breakfast and listened to IntrovertedPresenter, Richard Tierney expound the principles of great presentations in 10 gripping minutes.

‘Think ABC,’ said Richard: Attention, Benefits and Credentials. This is a timeless structure for a powerful presentation (or, methinks, effective copywriting) and not a million conceptual miles away from the classic Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action (AIDA) model that has served us copywriters since time immemorial.

Start at the end, Richard added, with the idea you want your audience to take away – or the message you want your copy to convey. Then open strongly, tell your story and end with that single powerful thought. Remember what former US president Bill Clinton said: ‘If we say two things we haven’t said anything at all.’ And the guiding principle adopted by ITV News journalists down the years, the idea of a ‘Hey Doreen!’ attention grabber…

By then, Richard’s 10 minutes were up, but his message had stuck, which is why I can remember it two weeks later as I start to plan my 10-minute presentation for this week’s WinBiz meeting – that’ll be on client case study copywriting, in case you’re interested.

Oh, how the strongest ideas and principles are often the simplest. They’re the ones that endure over the decades and still reward. Rather like listening to that old Fleetwood Mac cassette the other morning.

For more of Richard Tierney’s wealth of presentation skills expertise, visit his business presentation skills website. And please say I sent you.

is an experienced Gloucestershire based copywriter specialising in Marketing, Web/SEO, technical and PR copywriting.


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Mud, mud, inglorious mud!

One thing about Epping Forest is, you need to know what to wear in what weather. Same goes for the Lea Canal towpath. On Sunday I took a ride up the bridlepaths from the Chingford end up towards High Beech. I discovered that seven kilometres of the paths have been resurfaced over the past few months. The new surface might be good on the horses’ hooves, but the soggy month of February has turned those paths into rivers of mud. Not ideal conditions for cycling.

And the path south of Dobb’s Weir was just as bad. You would have thought the canal had burst its banks, but the last time that happened was ten years ago.

Mud has its place and it’s not underneath my feet or my bike’s wheels. My experience today won’t put me off Epping Forest or the River Lea, though. I’ll just have to choose a drier day for it.

28 days later

It’s been a whole lunar month since my crash and only yesterday did I venture out on my bike. I cycled from Stansted to Epping. An exhausting ride — the weather was just the same as it was on November 13th, cloudy with an unremitting south-west wind blowing against me the whole way.

Today my journey was the very same route I took that unfortunate November day but the weather was sunny, day and quite mild for December. And not surprisingly my mood was just the opposite of what it was four weeks ago, or 28 days or 672 hours ago.

And my collar bone is knitting together, though my left arm is still not 100% functional.

I’m having a pot of tea in “Gossip” cafe in Broadway Market and then it’s my weekly stint in the Charity Shop…

I’ve seen it for myself. It’s every inch the dump people tell me it is. The residential districts surrounding Harlow aren’t so bad and there’s plenty to be said for Harlow old town. But the centre of Harlow is a hotch-potch of the ugliest, most featureless concrete boxes to be built in the 1960s. When I cycle into towns I usually have classical music or happy, upbeat rock running through my head. Here I was haunted by the sounds of Depeche Mode and Gary Numan. So you can understand why I hastily whizzed back to Waltham Abbey.

Stansted Airport

There are several ways to get to Stansted Airport, by car, by coach, by train or you can cycle there! That’s what I did today. I cycled from Epping, through a maze of quiet minor country roads via Toot Hill, Moreton, Matching, Sawbridgeworth, Hallingbury and Takeley. The journey took four hours. And, yes, I’m a loony! I must have looked rather out of place with my fold-away bike among all the tourists, but I didn’t care! I just had a snack at Costa and cycled back to Walthamstow.


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Time could be running out for Cornish primary school with only 12 pupils

Posted By on 15th June 2017

15th June 2017 By Rashleigh MacFarlane Pupils could have only a few weeks left at St Martin-in–Meneage primary school  before the bell rings and it closes its doors for the…

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Student Services and Accommodation Officer

Closing date for applications: 31 March 2017

Job Description

The Central London centre is one of six Embassy year round EFL schools in the UK and of eighteen schools globally. The school has a year-round capacity of approximately 300 students and offers a wide programme range.
Embassy is the language education arm of Studygroup, a global leader in international Education.
The Embassy Executive Management Team is based in New York, and Admissions are dealt with by our team in Brighton.

This is a fixed term contract until September 2017
Salary up to £25k pro-rata

Key Responsibilities

  • To promote the highest standards of quality, efficiency and customer care in all matters relating to student services
  • To place Embassy students in comfortable, caring homestay accommodation
  • To work with the Welfare Manager to ensure all safeguarding policies are administered according to company policy
  • To assist in the planning and running of regular activities for the social programme, including creating risk assessments, and ensuring sufficient group leader to student ratios
  • To support in maximising the capacity of the student residence(s) and ensure students are happy and comfortable in the residence
  • To support in the provision of homestay options

Job Content

  • Process requests for placing students with homestays rapidly and effectively, making use of internal systems as appropriate and in liaison with all relevant departments in the school and Head Office.
  • Ensure the school database is accurately maintained and ensure all documentation is completed and records updated in compliance with British Council, ISI and Study Group guidelines.
  • Deal directly with students regarding accommodation and welfare problems, requests and queries regarding homestay accommodation.
  • Provide welfare and pastoral support to students including, where necessary, registering students with the NHS, booking medical appointments.
  • Offer consistently high standards of customer care and deal with problems or complaints promptly and effectively, whilst communicating with Head Office, agents and staff in centre as appropriate
  • Liaise with all relevant parties internally, in particular the Student Services Manager, in order to ensure maximum efficiency and work constructively as part of a team.
  • Develop and maintain appropriate, reliable and updated filing systems and complete all relevant procedures for purposes of accurate record keeping.
  • Take regular turn on 24 hour emergency phone rota
  • General administration and duties that may arise as appropriate to the needs of Embassy.

Key Measurable Aims

Efficient and effective performance of duties and high standards of customer care will contribute directly to general levels of efficiency and satisfaction on the part of students and agents - which are measurable by the following means:

  • Relevant return grades on student End of Course Questionnaires
  • Inspection reports from industry accreditation bodies – British Council and the Independent School Inspectorate (ISI) as well as Embassy Internal Reviews
  • Satisfaction rates with residence and homestay
  • Residence beds capacity levels
  • Social programme engagement levels and student satisfaction

Organisational Compliance

The position holder must comply with Study Group policies and applicable laws including those in relation, but not limited to: Occupational Health and Safety; Anti-Discrimination and Harassment, Anti-Bribery and Corruption and those specifically relevant to the position and authority of the job holder.

Please send Covering letter and completed application form to Cornelia Okello.

Application deadline 12 noon Friday 31st March