Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Committee,

I am writing to request a review of a recent decision on the two final assignments in the class GNDS 311 taught by Professor Srivastava. The final assignments were a final essay (5 pages in length) and an annotated bibliography for that essay.

The descriptions of these assignments as stated in the syllabus are as followed:

a. Short Essay (25)

Choose a social or political concern or issue or current event and explain how feminist theory may be applied to framing, understanding, and/or acting on this concern. E.g. sexual harassment, reproduction, family, democracy, sexual assault, the body, sexuality, war are general examples, but you are also encouraged to pick a specific current issue or event that is in the news. This essay should not be based on your group presentation; pick another issue.

b. Annotated Bibliography (10)

Your annotated bibliography should include a detailed summary and discussion of a minimum of 4 key sources. Three of these sources must be ¿academic¿¿ ¿¿ i.e. scholarly journal articles or scholarly books. The rest may be from any other source ¿¿ magazines, newspapers, blogs, fiction, film, etc.

The professor also included this outline of how to construct an annotated bibliography in the outline:
http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/writing/annotated-bibliography


I followed the guidelines for both assignments and received an 18/25 (B) on the essay and a 6/10 (C) on the annotated bibliography.

After many emails with Professor Srivastava where I have clearly asked for feedback on the assignments, I still have not received adequate or clear reasoning for the grade.

For example: On May 10th 2015 Professor Srivastava attempted to justify my grade on the essay assignment in an email:

Sarita Srivastava
Sun 10/05/2015 11:47 PM

¿¿Papers that received an 'A' had a focus on the thesis of the article, and had a well-written, detailed, succinct and elegant elucidation and discussion of the author's argument and evidence¿.

After referring to the original outline for the final essay criteria stated above, the feedback she provided including ¿¿...discussion of the author¿¿s argument¿ does not makes sense vis a vis the original direction given by her. There is no reference to analyzing any ¿¿author¿¿s¿ argument in the original criteria of the final essay, but rather we were instructed to choose a social or political concern or issue or current event and explain how feminist theory may be applied. (Professor Srivastava has the final hard copy version of this essay, however I have a PDF version available upon request).

Secondly, Professor Srivastava¿¿s feedback for receiving a 6/10 on my annotated bibliography assignment is:

Sarita Srivastava
Wed 06/05/2015 10:59 AM

¿¿Unfortunately your annotated bibliography entries do give a preliminary overview but do not follow the requested method/approach as outlined in the syllabus --- please see the syllabus which links you to a site that gives good examples of an academic annotated bibliography. Thus it received a grade of 6/10.¿

However, I did follow precisely the outline that she provided in the syllabus when constructing my annotated bibliography:
My annotated bibliography is available upon request (Professor Srivastava has the marked hard copy with her).

The criterion for the Annotated Bibliography is as follows: (directly taken from: http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/writing/annotated-bibliography)

Annotation
Generally, an annotation is approximately 100-300 words in length (one paragraph). However, your professor may have different expectations so it is recommended that you clarify the assignment guidelines.
An annotation may include the following information:
¿¿ A brief summary of the source
¿¿ The source¿¿s strengths and weaknesses
¿¿ Its conclusions
¿¿ Why the source is relevant in your field of study
¿¿ Its relationships to other studies in the field
¿¿ An evaluation of the research methodology (if applicable)
¿¿ Information about the author¿¿s background
¿¿ Your personal conclusions about the source


APA style format
¿¿ Hanging Indents are required for citations in the bibliography, as shown below. That is, the first line of the citation starts at the left margin, and subsequent lines of the citation are indented 4 spaces.
¿¿ The annotation is indented 2 additional spaces, as a block.

This was the criterion provided for the annotated bibliography; therefore please refer to this when evaluating my assignment grade.

To conclude, when I emailed the head of undergraduate studies for the Gender Studies Department, she stated that she could not review the grading of another professor:

Jane Tolmie
Wed 06/05/2015 11:20 AM
To: Emily Duncan

Dear Emily, I cannot regrade another professor's work. Sarita has raised your overall grade to a B. You have the option of filing an appeal, but my guess, based on experience, is that it would not go forward. best, Jane

It is due to the lack of assistance from the Professor and the Undergraduate Chair that I am submitting my official appeal letter. I had an A- in the course before receiving back these two final assignments.

Evidence for this claim is as follows:

Assignments for GNDS311:

1.Reflective essay on feminist theory and feminism 20
My Grade: 17/20 (A)
2. In-class weekly writing assignment 20
My Grade: 14.5/20 (B-)
3. Group Presentation: 25
My Grade: 84 (A-)

Therefore, my grade before the two final assignments: 81.5 (A-)

Final two assignments (topic of my appeal):
4. Annotated Bibliography for your final essay: 10
5. Short Essay: 25


After many emails, Professor Srivastava agreed to improve my mark from a B- to a B as a final grade. However, after considering the evidence I have presented, I am not content with the B grade as a final mark as I have yet to receive sufficient justification for the low marks on the final assignments. I request that my final two assignments be re-graded by the department head. Professor Srivastava has both of my graded assignments currently with her.

The major issue is that I have a B grade as my final grade in her class. My primary concern is that the final two assignments were not graded based on the criteria she provided. Due to the lack of justification for the grades on the final two assignments and the inconsistencies in Professor Srivastava¿¿s emails, my hope is that my final grade in the course GNDS 311 be changed to a B+.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Emily Duncan
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