Petition Letter
To whom it may concern,
The reason for which I am writing this appeal is to change my grade in Psyc 398 to a credit standing. My reasoning has to do with the absence of feedback and instructions that I am entitled to receive in the interest of academic fairness. I have tried to deal with the professor but my attempts have thus far gone unanswered.
Firstly, there was no syllabus or outline given. Secondly, there were no assessments in the course before the academic drop date (November 6th 2015), so it was impossible to get a fair assessment of the course. However, I thoroughly understood course content and attended lectures which therefore lead me to believe that I would succeed in the course. The grading in this course consisted of one essay worth 50 percent due on November 27th and the final exam also worth 50 percent. Thirdly, in regards to the essay, a few weeks before the essay was due, my fellow classmate emailed the professor to seek instructional guidance from him (ex. length) as there were no instructions given in class or in the syllabus (which was non-existent). The only feedback the professor gave to us was that he wanted us to keep the essay under 20 pages in length. The professor did not host office hours and was very vague when asked questions about the essay. I wrote the essay with what little instructional guidance I had, and submitted it on November 27th. Lastly, since our final exam was not until the 16th of December I had expected that I would receive my essay mark before going into the exam, so I would know where I stood with 50 percent of the course. This was not the case and our entire class went into a 50 percent exam completely blind of what we had in the course.
After we wrote the exam, we received our final mark for the course on January 7th. However, there was no individual mark for either our exam or our essay. Therefore, I emailed the professor on January 8th to ask for my two individual marks and I also requested feedback as I was confused as to why my final mark was so low. He never responded to my email, therefore I sent him a follow up email on January 16th and have still not received a response to any of the two emails I have sent. Due to the lack of feedback and engagement by the professor throughout this course it is my hope that you will be able to grant me a credit standing, as I felt that this course was not structured in a way that promotes academic success.
Thank you for taking the time to review my appeal and I look forward to hearing from you. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Melissa Lowes
The reason for which I am writing this appeal is to change my grade in Psyc 398 to a credit standing. My reasoning has to do with the absence of feedback and instructions that I am entitled to receive in the interest of academic fairness. I have tried to deal with the professor but my attempts have thus far gone unanswered.
Firstly, there was no syllabus or outline given. Secondly, there were no assessments in the course before the academic drop date (November 6th 2015), so it was impossible to get a fair assessment of the course. However, I thoroughly understood course content and attended lectures which therefore lead me to believe that I would succeed in the course. The grading in this course consisted of one essay worth 50 percent due on November 27th and the final exam also worth 50 percent. Thirdly, in regards to the essay, a few weeks before the essay was due, my fellow classmate emailed the professor to seek instructional guidance from him (ex. length) as there were no instructions given in class or in the syllabus (which was non-existent). The only feedback the professor gave to us was that he wanted us to keep the essay under 20 pages in length. The professor did not host office hours and was very vague when asked questions about the essay. I wrote the essay with what little instructional guidance I had, and submitted it on November 27th. Lastly, since our final exam was not until the 16th of December I had expected that I would receive my essay mark before going into the exam, so I would know where I stood with 50 percent of the course. This was not the case and our entire class went into a 50 percent exam completely blind of what we had in the course.
After we wrote the exam, we received our final mark for the course on January 7th. However, there was no individual mark for either our exam or our essay. Therefore, I emailed the professor on January 8th to ask for my two individual marks and I also requested feedback as I was confused as to why my final mark was so low. He never responded to my email, therefore I sent him a follow up email on January 16th and have still not received a response to any of the two emails I have sent. Due to the lack of feedback and engagement by the professor throughout this course it is my hope that you will be able to grant me a credit standing, as I felt that this course was not structured in a way that promotes academic success.
Thank you for taking the time to review my appeal and I look forward to hearing from you. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Melissa Lowes