Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom it May concern,

This letter is to formally request a review of my submissions for grading in RELS 131 summer term. According to the Faculty of Arts and Science website, every effort should be made to address the matter informally with the instructor/TA. I have made every attempt at informal resolution. I am requesting that the following assignments be evaluated by an independent party: 1) Discussion Forum posts 2) Podcast Reflection 3) Essay 2. I have attached copies of all original submissions, which are also verifiable through moodle if needed.

I initially encountered a problem in RELS 131 when I noticed I was failing my discussion forum posts, after which I promptly emailed the TA and the Professor for an explanation. I received vague replies that I questioned, and this was responded to with answers that negated the circumstances of my work such as not posting an obvious enough question or late Sunday night responses even though the syllabus clearly states no specific timeframe for the response posts, I attempted to meet every deadline possible. I was discouraged but I persevered and worked diligently on my first essay assignment and my mark, while lower than what I expected, was adequate.

My second assignment, a podcast reflection with no rubric or criteria for marking, was subsequently failed. When reviewing the grading for this assignment, I felt the comments were overly critical of my sources and my material, despite the fact I had used course material and course approved sources. When I emailed my professor asking if she would take a look, she encouraged me to take it up with the TA. I implored the course professor to review it; but to no avail.

The third assignment was a longer essay, and given the history of grading in the course, I put tremendous effort toward the assignment. As such, I initially put my assignment on Moodle with the option to edit a rough draft of my paper, in order to step back and reflect prior to the formal submission, however, when I returned to my computer to reassess my work and edit the rough draft I had put on Moodle, I found that my TA had marked the paper. This submission was the clearly identified as a draft and I still had over eight hours before the paper was due. The paper had been marked in its rough draft form instead of waiting for the final copy to be posted.

I emailed the professor immediately explaining that the TA had marked the draft paper before the deadline, but she responded with hostility and doubt towards my complaint. I am happy to provide copies of the emails, if required ¿¿ along with screen shots verifying my submission time and the time stamp on the marked paper. It took several emails with my Professor before I could convince her to read my paper and perhaps reassess it but I still have not had a response and my confidence in an unbiased grade is diminished. I feel that I have little hope of an unbiased outcome given my past experience in this course.

I am grateful for the consideration of this request.

Thank you,
Fraser Grimes