? ? ? doctor/professor/etc

[James C Stalker]

Over the years I've noticed that graduate students now tend to ask how I
should address them.  In the past, they simply chose professor or doctor,
usually the former, and that was that.  When the question comes up, I tell
them to address me whatever form they arecomfortable with. I then use the
question as a way to talk about the pragmatics and sociolinguistics of
address terms.  Many students choose the first name option.  But quite
frequently, many choose professor or doctor, and explain that they do not
feel comforatable with first name address.  They perceive our relationship
as a student-teacher one, an academically unequal one.  When asked how they
feel about instrucotrs who insist on first name address and whether it
encourages a collegial, friendly, equal relationship, they generally say
that it doesn't.  Because the teacher has the power, the teacher can order
you to use whatever address term the teacher wants.  The teacher-student
relationship is never one of equal power.

Interestingly enough, no one has mentioned the zero address option, the one
my undergrads probably use the most.  They never use a term of address.
After class for example, they will wait until I attend to them and ask them
what they want, or they will begin the conversation with something like,
"about the test. . . ."  Occasionaly an undergrad will ask about my
preferences in address terms, and I tell them to choose whatever they are
comfortable using.  They are usually the ones who wind up choosing "Jim."

Jim


James C. Stalker
Department of English
Michigan State University