Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I received a grade of 72% on my final essay, which I do not believe reflects the work I submitted. My essay explored the impact of the Holocaust on views of God, in accordance with the assignment provisions to “write an essay about a topic of your interest in relation to the Holocaust”. However, my feedback by the TA states that my topic was “outside the purview of a historical essay” stating that the essay approaches theological questions rather than the Holocaust. This is completely irrelevant to my essay, as the essay completely revolves around the Holocaust, using theology as my own topic of interest to relate to the Holocaust. Despite the instructions telling us to choose a topic of our own, when I did this in the form of religion, my grade is punished despite significant focus on the Holocaust and the historical context. Furthermore, the TA suggests a series of alternative “questions” that could have been explored to put the paper in a “more historical context”, however the questions suggested by the TA are the EXACT questions explored in my essay, completing defeating the validity of her feedback and claims. For example, “where did debates about divine silence begin”, “did it exist during the Holocaust” and “How were they influenced by the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust”. These are quite literally the research questions of my essay. I seek to explore the influence of the Holocaust on traditional views of theology and God, and how these debates begin in the time of the Holocaust. As such, I am incredibly confused by this feedback. My grade reflected this negative feedback provided, yet the feedback is completely and utterly irrelevant to the work provided. Therefore, I argue that my grace should be appealed and changed to reflect the work submitted.