Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: TO: Associate Dean (Studies)

My name is Elizabeth Megan and I am appealing Dr. Tormann¿¿s assessment of a failing grade in MUSC 481; instead of a lesser sanction, in response to my breach of Academic Integrity standards on the final paper.
I would like to begin by sincerely apologizing to you and Dr. Tormann for my gross inattention to detail and my failure to fully proofread my MUSC paper prior to submitting it to Dr. Tormann for grading. It was very unlike me and I take full responsibility for these oversights, which led to my submittal of a paper that lacked complete citations of my sources and, thereby, amounted to plagiarism. Please understand that I never intended to pass off someone else¿¿s work as my own or to otherwise attempt to lead Dr. Tormann to believe that the inadequately cited portions of my technical paper reflected concepts that originated with me. It was my inattention to detail and failure to proofread my paper to ensure all citations were included, and not an intent to claim someone else¿¿s work as my own, that led to this plagiarism. I have never before failed to properly cite all of my quotations and paraphrased material in a paper. I normally am a very conscientious student who takes extra care to catch such careless errors.
However, I wrote this technical paper during a time when I was (and still am) recovering from emotional and mental strain and exhaustion caused by my brother¿¿s suicide and an exceptionally heavy end of term schedule. I was the firstborn of triplets; our parents homeschooled us and raised us in a tightly knit family. As homeschooled triplets, we were incredibly close growing up. On February 21st, 2018, my brother Dan committed suicide by shooting himself at our home in Florida. Dan, born Anastasia, was a transgender male who attended and was an honours grad of Queen¿¿s University, Commerce. The evening he died, my parents called me to Florida where I helped them arrange the details with Dan¿¿s remains, and mentally support them. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, they were not in the right mind to support me. I ended up taking a leave of class from February 22 ¿¿ March 4 (just shy of 2 weeks) to help my family and grieve for Dan. However, upon returning to class, I quickly became overwhelmed with makeup assignments and exam extensions, while also trying to stay on top of ongoing projects such as final exams and end of year papers.
In addition to this pressure, I found myself experiencing extreme mood swings, lacking motivation, falling into crying fits, and on several occasions having to leave class early due to my emotional state. At the same time, my parents¿¿ marriage began to seriously deteriorate due to their grief and struggles, and I began receiving distressing phone calls and emails from my parents at all hours of the day and night. I did not obtain professional grief counselling beyond two short (15 minute) meetings with my aunt, a retired hospice councilor, and a Queen¿¿s Support worker (no degree/non-professional) during this time. I simply did not have the energy or time to make counseling meaningful. My MUSC 481 technical paper was one of my last assignments to complete at the end of the year, and I had just pushed through completing my PSYC 100 final exams and completed a round-trip to Owen Sound to tour a college. I was physically and emotionally spent and wanted my paper to be over with and done. I had never before had to handle this much stress coming from so many sources at once. This made me careless and rushing to finish, and I completely forgot to double-check my technical paper to ensure I had properly cited my quotes and paraphrases, and the result was plagiarism.
I do not cheat or plagiarize; this is the first time in High School or University that I have been involved in any sort of Academic Integrity offense. I truly believe that, if not for the extreme extenuating circumstances of my compromised mental state at the time I wrote the paper, I would not have overlooked those citations. MUSC 481 is the last credit that I need to graduate Queen¿¿s University; a failing grade in the class will not only keep me from graduating this summer but it also will force me to return to Queen¿¿s in the fall to complete this or a similar course and thereby prevent me from attending Georgian College (where I have already paid tuition for the fall session). I wholly admit I made a mistake, and I agree that there should be consequences for this, but I do not believe that the sanction of a failing course grade fits the infraction (plagiarism due to sloppy and overlooked citations) given the exceptional circumstances I experienced this term.