<p>My Son failed history class based on failing one final paper he wrote that was 50 percent of the class score. The professor failed him because he did not like one of the sources that my son used in his paper. The professor goes on to say in an e-mail to my son that the source is affiliated with a Italian gaming site. The professor goes on to say he caught it only because he speaks Italian and one of the words used in the site made him feel he should research it more.
What do you think, should I discuss this with the dean? It seems a little unreasonable to fail my son . It seems that the thing to do would be to ignore the source in question and use the other five sources my son provided for his paper.
Because of this my son will not graduate. No diploma and another 1000.00 for another class.
Your thoughts please.</p>
Does your son have an inability to speak for himself? If not, he needs to do the talking. He wrote the paper and he should defend it at this stage. JMO. Tell him to go fully prepared with all supporting documentation </p>
<p>1) that he relied upon in making his decision to use that source.
2) anything about the assignment setting out the rules he followed. </p>
<p>If he has nothing to back up his choice, I don’t think he’s in a very good position. I’m fairly sure the prof will disagree with the charectorization that he simply “didn’t like” the source. This was an academic paper and the choice of sources is an integral part of the research process.</p>
<p>Just making sure – this is a college kid? If so, then absolutely butt out of it. By senior year in college, he should be fighting his own battles.</p>
<p>This does not make any sense. What were the criteria for the paper in question? What was it about the site and source? And the professor says he would have passed if not for this particular reference? And you know this first hand, not through your son’s interpretation?</p>
<p>Why would your son not talk to his prof first, and then your son talk to the Dean? Why would you get involved at all? This too just doesn’t add up.</p>
<p>Yes, your son should go talk to the professor. I fear that parent intervention might have an adverse reaction. Does the professor know the outcome of the failure - that he will not graduate on time? Perhaps he will let him re-write the paper and average the grades so that your son can graduate if his grade was above average going into the final. But, your son needs to handle this absolutely…especially if he is a senior and this was a class in his major.</p>
<p>Yep… if this is a college kid (which I assume it is because of the use of the word, Professor), you absolutely have no business stepping in our kid’s behalf. I find it even odder that you are considering that this is your place to do so, when your kid is clearly an adult (unless he’s a doogie howser type).</p>
<p>And yes, it’s a history class. Which sources one uses is clearly relevant to the rest. If you were forwarded the email from the professor, you can advise your son how you MIGHT go about having the conversation if YOU WERE HIM, but at this point (and for the last several years), your son should be speaking on his own behalf. No Ifs, ands or buts.</p>
<p>As a professor, I have seen such things as this happen, but somewhat seldom. I might problem solve with your son first. Ask to see the course syllabus and make sure that what he is reporting with regard to the course grade composition is accurate and that he met the requirements of the paper.</p>
<p>I have also had students come to me with regard to their course/paper/test grades and upon further discussion, they often find that they were remiss with regard to criteria explicit on the syllabus. However, there have been times when I inaccurately graded something, misunderstood a students perspective, etc. In those instances, I have made changes.</p>
<p>Each campus has an individual designated as a student advocate. If after speaking with your son and after your son speaks with the professor, your son still feels he was treated unfairly, then I would suggest he visit with the student director (or campus equivalent).</p>
<p>And… if the F stands, it won’t kill him or his career. There is a good chance that if he was to retake the course, the F would be erased.</p>
<p>After talking to the prof, the next in chain of command might be the department chair, rather than the dean. But definitely, a senior in college needs to be handling this himself. As a third party, it is likely you’re missing at least some context.</p>
<p>Gotta ask…he failed the CLASS because of this one paper? Was this the ONLY graded requirement for the course? What other grades did your son have in addition to this one paper? Were there exams, homework, any other projects? How was his class attendance? Did he seek help via office hours with this professor IF he was having difficulty all along?</p>
<p>Sorry, but even using one illegitimate source on an academic research paper is grounds for failure, especially when it is as unreliable and frivolous as you have stated(Italian gaming site?!!). </p>
<p>If I was writing a professional report at work and my employer found one of my sources was an online gaming site or an otherwise unreliable/frivolous source, my report would not only be tossed into the trash, I’d be immediately fired for turning it crappy work which brought embarrassment to my employer and revealed me to be an incompetent employee. </p>
<p>Your son is just getting a taste of what would happen if he tried the same thing in the workplace. Resorting to the use of unreliable or even frivolous sources not only shows that your son took an extremely slipshod approach to his work, but calls into question whether he knows how to distinguish between reliable/relevant and unreliable/frivolous sources. </p>
<p>In short, by failing your son, that Prof is doing your son a favor in the long-term.</p>
<p>I wonder how this happened. On the face, it looks really stupid on the student’s part. I can sort of understand citing a source that looks like it might be reliable but isn’t. It’s not right, but I can see how something like that could happen. But an Italian gaming website? Unless he too speaks Italian, how would he even know how to find something like that? And if he doesn’t speak Italian, how does he know that he understood what the source was saying?</p>
<p>The usual procedure is: student (not parent!) approaches the professor during office hours, or after making an appointment, and explains the situation. If it’s merely a misunderstanding, then the prof may change his mind. However, if the prof’s criteria were clearly stated and your kid just ignored them, or if your kid did a sloppy job, the prof may refuse to change the grade. I very much doubt that your S was excelling in the course up to the last moment, and then suddenly found himself getting an F because of a single errant footnote. What’s more likely is that the sloppy citation was part of a larger pattern, or that it tipped what was already a marginal performance into outright failure.</p>
<p>If the prof won’t change the grade, the kid can either accept the F or appeal the grade to the chair of the department. The chair will interview the kid, interview the prof, look at the paper, and then make a decision.</p>
<p>I’ve had students appeal their grades to my chair a number of times in the course of my career. In all cases the chair sided with me. Of course, that may merely have been because I was right but at most schools there is a strong tendency to believe that experienced professors know enough to set the standards for their own classrooms and grading. So your S will probably be out of luck unless 1) your son’s prof is a beginner or part-timer whom the chair doesn’t trust, 2) the class was only a section of a larger course, and his prof’s grading policies violated a more general standard, OR 3) he can demonstrate obviously outrageous behavior on the part of the prof.</p>
<p>The OP said the paper was half the grade. If the prof gave him a zero, he’d fail even with an A for the other half of the grade.</p>
<p>S2’s middle school and high school spent time teaching students what was an appropriate source for an academic paper. Glad they had to write those term papers after all!</p>
<p>One thing a parent can do is sit down with (probably horribly reluctant) student and say “Let’s review the assignment blurb and do a post mortem so you and I are totally clear on where this project went off the rails. It’s a good exercise to do before you think about going to your department chair because it will help you lay out your thinking.” The parent isn’t being critical – but this bit of research may make the disaster clearer for the student. It may reveal where the student missed instructions or misinterpreted them. </p>
<p>It may not save this grade but it does show the student that adults do look back over a trail and decipher things logically as part of project management.</p>
<p>First, talk to your son and get to know what really happened.
Second, talk to the professor and ask if it’s fair to fail a student for such a reason.
Third, talk to the dean if you’re still not convinced.</p>
<p>Also, remember that your son has the right to appeal the grade he received on this course. He will need to fill a grade appeal form, though.</p>
<p>Judging by the OP, he already did step 1. From the information he has from the son, it is apparent that the son used an unreliable and frivolous source that was such that most Profs IME…and even some fellow classmates would be wondering “What was he thinking?!!”.</p>
<p>That was certainly my reaction…especially considering the son seems to be a college senior and presumably, has already taken freshman writing where the basics of how to determine the reliability/usefulness of sources for a given topic would have been covered. Moreover, if he majored in history or a related field, he would have had additional instruction in how to gauge the relevance/reliability of sources to be used in lower-division courses along with the course in question. </p>
<p>And that’s assuming he learned nothing about what is considered an appropriate source for academic papers in high school. I don’t know…but if I tried to use a non-scholarly source like a gaming website as a source for any papers i had to write at my urban public magnet high school, I’d be given an F and a good tongue lashing by the teacher…even in 9th grade. </p>
<p>In short, the Prof’s treatment of the OP’s son is not only fair, but IME…standard practice in most college classes. Especially considering the fact that as a college senior who has presumably fulfilled the basic freshman writing requirement, most college faculty IME would expect him to know better.</p>
but at most schools there is a strong tendency to believe that experienced professors know enough to set the standards for their own classrooms and grading. So your S will probably be out of luck unless 1) your son’s prof is a beginner or part-timer whom the chair doesn’t trust, 2) the class was only a section of a larger course, and his prof’s grading policies violated a more general standard, OR 3) he can demonstrate obviously outrageous behavior on the part of the prof.</p>