Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,


I am Xinyi Xie, currently a student at Film and Media, with student ID 20322786.

My petition letter is for requesting a review of the course instructor’s decision on grading of the Winter Semester Reading Journals of the course Dram100. Currently, the instructor's decision against me relates to the Plagiarism and Facilitation of Academic Integrity. Please allow me to explain to you separately what I did.

Firstly, it was about my behavior of using some internet sources for content in the Journal that I wrote. In fact, I didn't know that using internet sources was not allowed until after I first received the allegation. Before that, I never received any email or notification about the academic requirements of this Journal. I only knew that there were video materials of related topics being provided. But due to my limited English and academic abilities, I found those video materials hard to understand for me. After I watched the first few videos many times, I found that there was really no way for me to understand the topics through the videos, and I couldn't learn the knowledge, not to mention to write the Journals. Therefore, I searched for internet sources of related topics which are easier to understand. After that, I found that this learning method is more suitable for me. Although I didn't watch the whole video, sometimes the information I picked up and learnt would deviate from the topic of the video. But for the topics and internet sources that I've looked up, I could assure you that I've studied them carefully and understood them deeply. As my mother language is not English and my English ability is very limited. I also caused some misunderstandings when I expressed my own ideas. In this regard, I have realized my shortcomings and mistakes. In the future study, I will make more efforts to overcome the language barrier and study the materials provided by the instructor. And I will also pay more attention to the references in any assignment.

Secondly, regarding Facilitation, based on my first written response and the instructor's reply, I am indeed the original writer. And as you can see from my WeChat chat history with another student, I did not actively allow her to copy my work, nor was I at all willing to assist her. I was plagiarized when forced to do so. You may wonder why I didn't seek help from my tutor or school in the first place when I suffered something like this. But I hope you could feel it on behalf of my character. I was alone in a foreign country, without the company and help of any relatives and friends. I was afraid she would hurt me if I didn't follow her ideas. As a matter of fact, she has attacked me verbally many times and I have had mental breakdowns so many times due to her attacks. And the heavy load of courses and schoolwork has left me with no other time or energy to resolve this matter properly. When I was temporarily unaffected by her, I was trying my best to finish my studies despite the content of the program being difficult for me. Also, at the time, it is impossible for me to have absolutely no contact with her because we were in the same program. Therefore, I was afraid that if I asked for help from the school or my tutor and she knew about it, she would do something even worse. Certainly, I now realize that it was wrong to tolerate such a situation all the time, resulting in receiving allegation that were misunderstood as academic misconduct. Perhaps after that, if I encounter the same thing again, I will have a better way of solving this. But this does not mean that I have actively committed any academic misconduct in the past.

Although the marks for this assignment are only 10% of the course, but I, as a student who has always been very serious, really don't want my efforts to be neglected due to these misunderstandings. From the time I received the allegation until now, I have been extremely frustrated. Even though I know this Level I findings will be destroyed upon my graduation, it still makes me remorseful and shameful every time I recalled it. In conclusion, I implore the school to consider the above explanation and give me an opportunity to be marked regularly or resubmit the Journal.

Thank you for considering my appeal. I eagerly await your favorable response.


Yours sincerely,
Xinyi Xie