<p>I'm currently a sticky (yet not too sticky situation). This is my situation:</p>
<p>Last week, I was to submit an essay in Chinese. However, from Thursday night till the rest of the weekend I was in New York visiting a sick aunt. The essay was due on Friday, so I submitted it Wednesday night.</p>
<p>However, during the time of my flight and before I could find internet access, my teacher had provided additional instructions that changed the nature of the prompt.</p>
<p>With these altered criteria, the essay I had spent a considerable amount of time finishing early (that nearly everyone else, I might add, earned an A on) earned a C because it "didn't follow the instructions". I had told her in advance that I would be gone during those days, so do I have grounds for arguing for a higher grade/opportunity to rewrite the essay? If so, how can I do so without being overly confrontational? Finally, is it worth antagonizing my teacher over this?</p>
<p>This is really stressing me out, so I appreciate any advice. Thanks!</p>
<p>just be honest. say you submitted it early since you were going to visit your sick aunt who has cancer and then the instructions were suddenly changed and you are the innocent victim.</p>
<p>“just be honest. say you submitted it early since you were going to visit your sick aunt who has cancer and then the instructions were suddenly changed and you are the innocent victim.”</p>
<p>How did you come up with that?</p>
<p>Honestly though, just tell her what happened in a matter-of-fact manner, it’s a perfectly reasonable story.</p>
<p>She essentially reassigned the essay on Thursday? If you only had one day to do it, then it shouldn’t count that much towards your final grade. I’d suggest talking to her about it without trying to push too hard, especially if it is only a small part of your grade.</p>
<p>I would suggest recognizing first that if you aren’t in class, you are responsible for finding out what happened. And if there is a course website that you are supposed to check every 24 hours or you have been instructed to check your email nightly or whatever, you are also responsible for finding out what was communicated there.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter that you already turned in the assignment, it doesn’t matter that the professor knew you would be visiting your aunt, and it doesn’t matter that you had a very good reason for visiting your aunt. If the professor communicated the information in some way such that you would ordinarily be responsible for getting it, then you are responsible for getting it. Period. And if you didn’t revise your essay so that it followed the new rules, and if the professor wants to use the new rules in grading your essay, then the C is the grade you earned.</p>
<p>That means that you are now asking for a favor.</p>
<p>Keep that in mind, and I suspect you’ll manage to be non-confrontational.</p>
<p>Personally, I think that since you turned in your work before she changed the rules, the professor ought to give you a chance to revise your work according to the new guidelines. Depending on what the original rules were and what the new rules are and so on, I think it’s possible that the professor ought to grade your paper according to the old guidelines. But she doesn’t have to, and depending on all sorts of things like her personality and how obnoxious other students have been about this assignment and the way you “told her in advance” that you were going to be gone, she might not.</p>
<p>And if you go in there conveying, both in the words you use and the way you carry yourself, that you understand that she doesn’t have to and that you are asking for a favor, I suspect you’ll do a lot better than if your attitude suggests that you think that because you told her you weren’t going to be there she owes you something.</p>