misunderstanding on an assignment will cost me fifth my final grade

College Life
1

Hello,
This is my first post here, its quite long story but I had a frustrating situation today and I needed some advice on what to do next.

I’m a senior in college, as a degree requirement I must take English I and English II to satisfy my degree.
I took English I last year with a very organized professor who has a specific system on how to turn in major writing assignments. She basically lets you write an initial “rough” draft, come to class with your paper, exchange that paper with another student to do a “peer evaluation”, go home and edit your draft based on the peer comments, then turn in the final paper to her the following week. I worked great on that system, even though she was a harsh grader she was clear about expectations and by following her instructions I ended up with an A in that class.

This semester, I’m taking english II with a different professor, who is also a very nice professor with really interesting lectures, and who almost any person has taken a course with him told me that his class is an “easy A”.

In past four weeks, he gave out lectures on the use of logos, pathos, and ethos.
Two weeks ago and told us that our first major writing assignment (worth 20% of the final grade) is to write an evaluation of a website and how it sells a product using them. He said that two weeks from then we will bring our draft for a peer evaluation, and this was repeated in almost every lecture before the official peer evaluation lecture (which is today).

This was my understanding, today (which is the supposedly peer evaluation day) I came in with my rough draft, which is, well, really rough. A substitute professor was taking his place because he was taking a few days off to be at the basket ball season.

Once we were finished with our peer evaluations the substitute said the professor wants us to turn in our papers for grading. I felt it was a bit strange because in my though process I thought the class was supposed to go home and edit their drafts based on the peer comments then turn in the final papers but I brushed it off and though maybe he wanted to make sure we actually wrote the draft and didn’t come in empty handed.

I still had a weird feeling about it, so after class I left and sent him an email, to which I got an automatic reply that he wasn’t in office and if students have a question to feel free to text him on the number he gave first day of class (he wrote it on the board). So I texted him asking if I understood correctly and that today isn’t the due date for the final version, he replied saying the following

“I wanted your best effort, you may revise”

I didn’t understand what he meant by that so I replied asking if it would be ok if I edit my paper and email it to him, and how many points would I expect him to be taking off as a penalty for turning a draft instead of the final version, he replied with the following

“No. I will look at what you turned in. What is the point of giving me less than your best effort?”

Now i’m not stupid, he is pretty much implying that I did this on purpose because I wanted to slack off and turn in the paper later. I truly didn’t, he never ever mentioned that he wanted the final version, all he said is the word “draft” when describing the assignment, and today was a peer evaluation. What is the point of a peer evaluation If I cant use their comments anyway?

I feel angry at myself for not checking with him during last week to make sure I understood what he wanted, and I feel angry at him for not being clear about his expectations. My grades have been all A’s now except for a couple of B’s in science courses. And I truly believe that I could get an A in his course (regardless of him being an easy grader or not).

Like I said, this assignment is worth 20%, lets say he gives me a 50% (which I believe he won’t because he thinks I’m making excuses) I won’t get an A in this course unless I get full marks on the four remaining major assignments. Should I swallow it down, accept it and drop the course with a W and accept the financial and effort loss? or should I do something else.

Thank you

2

I would make an appointment to see him and go over this with him. I think that you’re on the right track in being willing to accept the consequences for what has happened (and for being mad at yourself.) and that it’s probably important to convey that to him. If everyone made the same mistake, he might be willing to blame himself for this, but if you were the only one – even though it’s an honest mistake – you really don’t want to go there with him! You could also let him know what lesson you’ve learned here. (What I’m getting at is that you have to be prepared when you see him to be fully accountable for what happened.)

If you can explain that the actual consequence will be loss of financial aid, perhaps you could ask how you can make it up. Additional work? I would think that if he heard you say “I blew it” and “I would like it if you can give me some way to make it up”, you might have some luck. It’s always hard to know, but it’s worth a try.

3

I am guessing the prof expected an honest effort that resulted in a good working draft for the peer review. If not, you are wasting the time and effort of the peer reviewer. By requesting it be handed in, the prof is preventing students form slopping together something in 10 minute for peer review in an effort to make it look like he/she has been working on a draft but really hasn’t. Perhaps not realizing that is what would be required, you slopped something together that you figured would be ok for peer review-as you could completely re-do it for the final draft. But then you did not want to have to hand it in because a prof would know exactly what you’d done. Naturally I don’t know for sure but did I get it about right?

4

No that is not the case here, he wanted the final version to be handed today right after the peer review.
The paper we handed today is the first and last thing we will ever hand for this assignment.

Also, I have been completely honest in this topic and if I was “slopping” I would’ve said so. The draft I handed did not include references, a picture of the website, and I still had the outlines in (Introduction, Body, Conclusion) and this is basically all I wanted to edit and send back to him if he had given me chance.

5

Right I understand that he wanted it right away, in contrast to your expectation but what I meant was that handing the peer review draft in allows the professor to see if you put an honest effort into it. Then usually the final draft is due sometime later. Then if the peer review was obviously not anywhere near a reasonable draft (in other words, if it were sloppy and done quickly to give the appearance of having a paper but being nowhere close to one you’d hand in) points would be deducted even if the final paper were outstanding.

And if it still included outlines you were wasting your peer’s time. The peer review process is only effective when a final copy is reviewed. Then the original author can accept some suggestions from the peer. For the peer to provide helpful suggestions, the paper has to be intact and complete.

My guess is that the prof wanted to take points off if people handed in drafts that were far from finished. Naturally it makes no sense to have a peer review if the author can’t change anything.

6

I understand what you are saying.
It too late to change what happened, and I’m not planning on begging him to throw more grades or anything.
Right now I’m trying to figure out the next step I should take.
Should I drop and accept the W? Or stay and prove myself by acing whats left? Last day to drop is April 1st and even if I drop now I won’t get a refund.
I know that I won’t have a problem in the future assignments since I know how his system works but I’m worried this assignment has damaged my grade anyway.

7
  1. See what the syllabus says.
  2. Immediately revise your paper and bring that with you.
  3. Go to prof. office hours and discuss IN PERSON
  4. Ask him how this affects your grade and what steps you should take
8

@bopper that sounds like excellent advice. Good luck @StarDust20. (Full disclosure: I’m a parent, not a student!)

9

Slight revision suggestion - don’t ask him how it affects your grade in those words. Professors are not fond of grade grubbers.

Instead, have an adult conversation about what his expectations were and how what you did didn’t line up with those expectations. Go in with a genuine desire to clarify for the next time. At some point in the midst of that conversation you might test the waters and ask a question about your grade, but the likely answer is that your paper will be graded as if it was the final draft you turned in (aka, if it’d earn a 50 then it’s getting a 50).

As for dropping the class - no, don’t do that. Why would you waste thousands of dollars just because you can’t get an A? A B is good. If you can still get a B in the class then stay in. A B looks way better than a W.

10

Don’t take the W as the last poster said. A B would be the best thing for you.

11

What happened?

12

@StarDust20 Do you have an update?