Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Due to my mental health, I have a letter of accommodation that my professor is completely understanding of. I experienced a great deal of anxiety before the mid term exam. I emailed her and informed her of this and she told me to come in to speak with her about whether or not I was in the right mental state to write the exam. Together we decided that I was not capable in my current state to complete the exam and that a different form of evaluation would be more suitable. She informed me that I would receive an email from her soon after with my new task of evaluation, an essay question which would be contained in said email. These were the contents of her email on October 29th 2015 at 4:45pm:
Hi Monica, As we discussed in my office, I am sending you this essay topic for a take-home exam for you. Below please find the Question and the instruction. TOPIC: COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE POSITIONS OF ROBERT AUDI, ALFRED STEPAN, AND LORI BEAMAN REGARDING THE PLACE AND ROLE OF RELIGION IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE.INSTRUCTION: WRITE AN ESSAY OF MAXIMUM 3 PAGES, TYPED AND DOUBLE-SPACED. IT IS DUE NO LATER THAN MONDAY MORNING AT 10AM. PLEASE BRING A PRINTED COPY TO THE DEPARTMENT, SLIDE IT UNDER MY OFFICE DOOR.
Forough Jahanbakhsh
Associate Professor
School of Religion
Queen's University
Though I thought this one sentence of direction was quite insufficient, I wrote the best essay I could with so little information of guidance. I thought to have answered the question/topic rather well. After grading my paper, the professor returned it to me in a very grim way stating that she was not usually this generous. Hearing this affirmation, I assumed to have received a decent grade but upon looking over the paper as I exited the classroom I saw that I had received a 49 (17.5 out of 35). I feel this to be quite unjust as I followed the instructions given. If the professor had elaborated on what her expectations were, I might have been able to write a paper that satisfied her to a higher degree. I truly feel that this mark is not an adequate representation of my efforts and would greatly appreciate if it could be looked over once again more thoroughly.