Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: My name is Kristin MacDonald, and I am writing to express my concerns regarding the grades I received on two recent assignments in Introduction to Epidemiology HLTH 323 taught by Professor Eun-Young Lee. After careful review, I found the grading process needed to be revised and significantly deviated from the Assignment outlines and syllabus provided at the beginning of the semester.

The Assignment in question is Assignment 8, Epidemiology in the News.

Upon reviewing the Assignment outlines and the syllabus, I noticed several instances where the professor's grading diverged from the criteria and expectations clearly outlined in these documents. The deviations had a substantial impact on my final grades for these assignments.

I have already discussed my concerns with Professor Eun-Young Lee in an attempt to gain clarity on the grading decisions. However, the explanation did not sufficiently address my concerns. The grades do not accurately reflect the effort and adherence to the assignment guidelines.

In Question 1, the comment says the research paper based on the news article I used must be cited. However, I sourced information exclusively from the news story and did not consult the research paper. As described in the Assignment outline, the Assignment is only supposed to consult the article, and no further research is necessary. Based on the criteria, I did precisely that by adequately citing the news article and going above and beyond by finding two additional peer-reviewed sources to further my answers.

Question 2 says there needs to be more clarity about my explanation of how the news story was newsworthy; however, my explanation was relatively straightforward. I explained how the health issue addressed in the story is newsworthy because it could affect public health policies, urban planning, and individual behaviour.

In Question 3, I explained the research findings and how they were appropriately captured in the news story. The comment said I did not include risk ratios or odds ratios, but as noted in the syllabus, this was not a part of the criteria.

Regarding Question 4, the question was,