Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: My name is Chaehong (Julia) Shin, and I am a first-year Health Science student. I am sending an appeal regarding the grading of an assignment in my IDIS173 class and potentially for the late penalty. Here are the details regarding my situation.

On October 22nd, I accidentally submitted assignment 1 in the assignment 2 onQ Dropbox, but I was unaware of it until it was marked on October 31st, and I received a 7% grade on it. On October 31st, I immediately contacted the TA and was informed on November 2nd that I could get it remarked if I resubmitted the real assignment, but a late penalty of 14% would apply since it had been 7 weekdays since the due date. The deadline policy on that assignment was 2% per weekday late. I submitted the correct assignment on November 2nd after that email. In case Dr. Butler, the professor, would be able to reconsider the late penalty, I spoke with him after class on November 4th. He asked me to email him with an explanation of what happened, along with the version history of the document, which shows I did not make any edits since the due date of Oct 22nd. I sent this email immediately after class on November 4th.

My email had no response until I sent a follow-up email on November 10th. On the morning of November 11th, before class, Dr. Butler responded that he would review the situation later that afternoon.

On November 17th, I sent another follow-up email and got a response that afternoon saying that he had marked it. I received a 63% after the 14% deduction due to late submission.

At first, I felt a bit disappointed, but I accepted the grade. However, when I checked the rubric, I noticed that I received exactly a 75% on every part of the rubric except the citations and quality of writing. I found that a bit strange since normally when previous assignments were marked, every part of the rubric had a different grade, since I am stronger or weaker on specific sections of the rubric. There was no feedback since it was considered a remark and was submitted late.

I still wanted feedback for that assignment, so after class on November 18th, I politely went up to him and asked him if he had any feedback since he marked it the previous day. He told me that he does remember marking it, but does not remember anything about my assignment, and told me that I did very well on it. In addition, he told me that I should have worked harder to submit it on time, referring to my time management, which made me think he did not read my email regarding the submission mistake. I tried to reexplain what happened again, but he was in a rush to leave. He then told me, he is not required to provide feedback, but he might provide feedback if I attend his office hours later that week, which I was planning on doing; however, he has not hosted any office hours since that class. I do not recall everything he said, but after that conversation, it felt like he did not read my essay or emails, and that made me feel upset and disappointed.

On November 25, I had a virtual meeting with an academic advisor who recommended me to send a grade appeal.

Additionally, I have been working very hard in that class, making sure to do all the assignments on time, asking questions to make sure I am meeting expectations, and consistently earning 90+ on all other assignments. As well, this assignment was the one I put the most time and effort into, and I genuinely felt confident about the work I submitted. I understand that my own confidence may not always align with the professor's evaluation, but I am still feeling quite upset. It is difficult to accept that a small mistake I made on my part of uploading the wrong file has had such a big impact on my grade and seems to overshadow the effort I have put into this class overall. After estimating my final mark after putting this assignment into account, it will be very unlikely that I will be able to finish with a 90%+ despite all other assignments being greater than a 90%.

Furthermore, although I accept that submitting the wrong file in the assignment Dropbox was my mistake, I believe applying the full late penalty is disproportionate. The delay was due to when the assignment was marked, and if the assignment had been marked earlier, I would have submitted the correct assignment sooner, reducing the late penalty. It is also unlikely that a past submission would be rechecked after the deadline without knowing about a mistake. As well, a version history that demonstrated no additional edits to the document after the deadline was asked for and provided to the professor, but was overlooked.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter. If you require any documentation, I will be happy to provide it.

Best regards,
Chaehong (Julia) Shin