Reaching out to an expert

I get loads of queries and questions about things ancient usually by e-mail, from requests for suggestions on what to visit in Rome, to follow-ups on what I have written in a book. I try to answer all of them (if I havent answered yours that is pure inadvertence/absence of mind, so send it again). In fact all kinds of friendships have been struck up that way, but even if that wasn't the case, I find it hard to see how one could justifying encouraging people to buy one's book, but not answer a question that the book raises... or for that matter encouraging people to watch your tv programmes, but not tell them how they could visit some of the places you went to on screen. (I dont mean by that, that I think I am a quick answer to wiki. If you want to know the date of the battle of Cannae, google it -- dont ask me!)

And I am almost always very happy to answer questions from school students. Partly I am genuinely interested. Partly we are still just about in the same state joined-up education system, and responding to questions from kids at school feels like part of my job.

Almost always? Well, just occasionally, but it's on the increase, you get an email that runs like this.

"Dear Miss Beard, I am doing a project on ....... and as part of that my teacher has said that I should reach out to an expert. So could you please tell me why you think the Roman empire fell/why you think the Greeks discriminated against women/wheher you think Alexander the Great was a good thing. Thanking you in advance..."

I did use to reply briefly to those as best I could. But I often felt a bit of a mug.

More often than not I would discover that all my colleagues had had the same email too. Why reach out to one expert when for very little extra effort you could reach out to 40, or -- including all the uni classicists in the country -- 400? Suppose that half of those replied, at an average turn around time of 10 minutes, that adds up to about 33 person hours to answer what was a rather dopey question in the first place.

And sometimes if and when you had answered there would be no thanks. Reaching out to an expert obviously didn't include thanking her. Now and again, if I hadnt heard in a week or so, I would write and say "Just checking you got my reply".. in about 50% of cases, no more, I would get a rather sheepish, "o yes".

I have recently changed my tune. And to that kind of email, assuming it is from a sixth-former, I now reply saying that I am very happy to help, but that first they must tell me what they have READ on the subject, proper research being rooted in reading etc etc. About 30% never get back. The ones that do, get a much better reply.

I dont blame the students entirely. Somewhere out there (and it may be the A level specification) there is something or someone telling them that 'reaching out to an expert" is an important research skill.I'm not sure it is.  But, anyway, please remember lads and lasses, if you want the best out of THIS expert: don't do a vast mail shot (we only find out and it annoys); do some reading and ask some questions on that basis, show you have put some work in; and do remember to say 'thank you' ( a complicated reply can take a lot more than 10 minutes to put together and it feels like a slap in the face to hear nothing).

The majority, of course, are doing all that already... but not all.

I wonder if anyone else has developed some workable strategies on this?