Hey everyone, I just need an opinion on this.
So my professor was nice enough to give us extra credit, and of course I took the opportunity to try it out. I figured I had to at least get some of it right, but when he emailed me back, he said it was incorrect, BUT when he gave me the correct answer, it was exactly the same thing he said. He didn’t specify what he was looking for on the extra credit, but I knew that I had to atleast been 75% right on the answer. After asking why I was completely incorrect, he only cited the first sentence of my PARAGRAPH and just automatically assumed I was wrong. I continued to explain that the answer he gave me was similar to exactly what I said through out the rest of the paragraph and why wouldn’t that count towards my extra credit, but he never answered back. I’m completely frustrated since I really need this and I took the initiative to at least try to get the correct answer. I would understand if he would have replied back to my email, but since he didn’t it really makes me mad that he wouldn’t even consider returning the email to explain why I was wrong. Since he won’t continue to assist me with the issue, am I able to go to anyone else? I believe he’s the course coordinator of this course so I honestly don’t know who else I would go to, but if I ever do find out who to go to, would this even be important enough to bring attention to? Thanks
Why can’t you talk to him in person?
Its an online course at the moment and i’m currently off campus
How long has it been since you emailed him? If it’s been a while, then you might want to try politely emailing him again. Sometimes, emails get lost, or he might be on vacation or out of town. He might have thought “I’ll reply to this later” and then forgot. He might have just not seen it. Professors get A LOT of emails, especially shortly after the course ends. He might be fielding a lot of grade questions, in addition to his other duties. It’s okay to remind him about it if it’s been a while or if it’s time sensitive, but just be really polite and gracious and non-accusatory about it. In other words, don’t make it sound like you think he’s ignoring you. Run it by someone else if you think your anger will come through in the email.
Are you asking for partial credit? Did he give partial credit for the extra credit? It’s possible that other students who wrote similar answers as you also didn’t get any extra credit.
The way one of my professors always explained it to us is don’t ask for more points for a wrong answer. If your answer is 75% correct, then it’s still wrong. Giving partial credit is at the discretion of the professor. They can choose to give nothing for the answer you gave, or they can choose to give partial credit. But it’s their choice. If another student in your class wrote the same thing as you and got more credit for it, then you might have a better case. But if you’re just arguing that you should get more points because you tried or got part of the answer, then all you can do is ask, and if the professor says no, then let it go. When I was grading college tests, sometimes writing something that was wrong cancelled out writing something that was right, and they ended up getting a 0 for that question even though they wrote something that was partially right. Also, the first sentence of your paragraph should indicate what your paragraph is going to talk about it. If that was wrong, it’s possible that he gave you a 0 because that’s a pretty big error to make, even if you managed to work out something that was right in the rest of the paragraph.