<p>My daughter has started her freshman year at a small liberal arts college. We live in a very small town and her graduating class consisted of 96 students. She graduated with a 3.96 GPA and was ranked 11th in her class, 1-10 had 4.0. She has always excelled at her schoolwork and was always very self-motivated. She is majoring in English while minoring in Creative Writing. She took CAP English her senior year with a VERY tough English teacher and always received outstanding grades on her papers, and also won several awards for her writing in Creative Writing contests. She is attending college almost entirely with scholarship money she received from the college. This first semester she has one professor for two classes she is taking (History and Wittsems). Her very first paper she received a 14/20 with a comment from professor on her "unusual writing style" I told her that she would have to approach the professor and ask what she needed to do to improve and understand what was expected. She did this and got the response "read the prompt" She then went to a resource the college has in a Writing Center to ask for advice and they looked over her next paper and helped her correct a couple grammatical errors and said the rest was fine. Next I receive a crying phone call from my daughter when she got a 32/40 on next paper. I replied "Honey that's not a bad grade" and her response was "It's horrible" She is getting very upset and doesn't know what this professor wants. She went to her again with the same response "read the prompt" I am doing my best to keep her spirits up but I am also disappointed in the lack of caring from this professor. We were assured in all the pre-college appointments that the professors were very caring and maintained a close relationship with the students. I am hoping my daughter will overcome this obstacle without it clouding her self-esteem in her abilities. Any advice? I could use it!!</p>
<p>‘Read the prompt’ suggests to me that she’s not addressing the topic in the way the professor has requested, not necessarily that her writing is bad. I know that my son, who is an excellent writer, occasionally falls in love with his own prose and doesn’t stay on topic and has ended up with a less than stellar grade or two. Normally, professors rave about his writing but some are more interested in how well the question was answered, not how well it was written.</p>
<p>ETA: I do think it’s very hard on a student who is use to getting perfect grades to run into this sort of thing at college. College professors often have different expectations of their students than HS teachers. It might be good to explain to her that sometimes even when we do our very best, we still don’t get the A and that’s okay. It’s just part of life.</p>
<p>She should rewrite one of the assignments she has gotten back, and ask the profesor if it is closer to what he or she wanted. She should also ask if she can turn in a draft of the next assignment for feedback before it is due.</p>
<p>What is a wittsems class? Are there TA’s for either of these? Anyway, this will happen from time to time and she can probably get more feedback by taking mathildamae’s suggestion of asking for feedback before the assignment is submitted, either by taking the draft to office hours or emailing it the prof. She could also ask the writing center if they have student tutors who have had this prof…next year she’ll probably know enough people at the school that she can just ask around informally. But you’re right in telling her not to sweat it too much. Are either of these classes graded on a curve? Does she know how her grades are stacking up against others in the class?</p>
<p>Sometimes it just takes a while to “get” particular profs and figure out what they’re looking for–it can be frustrating. Any chance she knows others in the class well enough to ask to read some papers that got better grades? That could be enlightening.</p>
<p>I am certain my daughter can adjust and excel in her writing for this class. She is so hard on herself that I have never had to push her in anyway concerning her academics. I have explained to her that college is a big adjustment for every incoming freshman, and she needs to understand that she might not always get the perfect scores she is used to receiving. I am a little disappointed in the response from this professor when a student approaches her with a concern though. I would like to think that with this being a very small university the professors would be more attentive to a struggling freshman student.</p>
<p>Your daughter is going to have to be aggressive and when the professor says “read the prompt” your daughter should simple say, “I did read the prompt and I felt I addressed it properly. Can you specifically address with me where you feel I failed to convey that?” If the professor is worth anything, he or she will give your daughter specifics to what he/she feels the paper lacked merit.</p>
<p>On another note, what she did in High School simply does not matter anymore. And having an unusual writing style may not be a negative. It makes her unique and that can be positive. Failing to address the prompts as expect seems to be the issue. Is you daughter close enough to any other student who might be willing to share their paper (hopefully who received a higher grade) so she can get a feel for what is expected?</p>
<p>If she feels uncomfortable addressing the professor in person, a detailed email from your daughter to said professor can at least start a paper trail that she is trying to learn from her “mistakes”.</p>
<p>Wittsems are topical courses required of all first year students. Wittenberg seminar classes are an introduction to core matters of academic inquiry at Wittenberg. My daughters class is Viewing Deadly Beauty and is based on Cleopatra.</p>
<p>Does she have a peer mentor as part of the wittsem program?
Has she asked them for advice?</p>
<p>[The</a> WittSem Peer Mentor Program | Wittenberg University](<a href=“http://www5.wittenberg.edu/academics/wittsems/peermentor.html]The”>http://www5.wittenberg.edu/academics/wittsems/peermentor.html)</p>
<p>I always tell my daughter to email the professor with detailed questions if she’s too intimidated to directly speak to the professor.</p>
<p>D1 took an upper level art history because she love the topic. On her first test (mid term), she got a C- even though she thought she knew the material. She went to see her professor about her grade, why she took off so many points for each essay. The professor told her that she is in college now, when she makes comparison she needs to show more than 2 examples. D1 said to me, “Comparison to me is 2.” Of course, all other students knew about it because they had the professor before. After that, D1 parked herself at the professor’s office, even though the course was an elective to her. She went over her topic for her paper with the professor, showed the professor multiple drafts before she submitted. She ended up with a B or B+ for the course, and it is one of her lowest grades. After that, she was much better at picking her electives.</p>
<p>Oh I really like the idea of emailing the professor!! My daughter is a little backwards when it comes to approaching new people so this would be a good route for her. Thank You!!!</p>
<p>My 2 cents. I think it is important for your daughter to build a relationship with her professor. When it comes to writing, it is not so black and white as math problems, it maybe hard for the professor to explain over an email why your daughter didn´t do well on her paper(s). To be frank, I don´t know how your daughter is going to be able to phrase it in her email without coming across as being whinny and complaining about her grades. At work, I often encourage people to have face to face discussion because something said with a smile could sound a lot different than without one.</p>
<p>I think it is different if your daughter´s question is more objective than subjective, then an email would be a good route to go.</p>
<p>Update on my daughter!! She called me at work Tues to inform me that she got a 76 (C) on midterm but was also the highest grade in class!! I think that made her feel a little better but she is not willing to settle for a C grade. I told her to just keep approaching Prof. and let her know that you really want to improve your grade and would like some input on how to achieve that. I am hoping she will take my advice and just keep asking Prof what she can do to improve</p>
<p>Welcome to the world of the college curve! I do agree with other posters in that she needs to–esp. at a small LAC where supposedly one of the benefits should be the one-on-one relationships between professor & student–ramp up the EMail dialogue with the professor, or even visit him during his office hours. I’ve told both my D’s when they were having problems with an instructor or professor, to seek them out and find out why. That’s why they’re there, that’s what they get paid for. But the student needs to definitely be pro-active about it.</p>
<p>May I suggest that when your daughter speaks with her professor not to bring up her grade as the problem, but her understanding of the material.</p>
<p>I agree with oldfort and some of the others here: Your daughter needs to visit the prof regularly during office hours with her writing in hand for advice on how to make it stronger - before the paper is due. Emails just don’t do it and at a LAC, should be unnecessary. She should also be prepared to do multiple drafts and ask if the prof would be willing to look at a rewrite (not for a grade, but to get feedback on whether she has addressed the problems that the professor identified). Profs appreciate it when a kid is clearly working hard to address a deficiency and building that relationship could be crucial to her future within the dept.</p>
<p>I realize this must be very tough on your daughter. First semester freshman year is hard enough without feeling like the one thing you think you are really good at, isn’t good enough. It shakes your confidence. If she realizes that she is not the only one (as the mid-term clearly demonstrated), it will give her some perspective.</p>
<p>For future reference, she might want to check out ‘rate my prof’ .com for comments on her profs before she signs up for a class. The feedback there is sometimes (not always) helpful in identifying a prof’s particular strengths and weaknesses and give her some ideas on what to expect.</p>
<p>My son graduated with an IB diploma which his h.s. counselor told him would be excellent preparation for his LAC. In many ways it was but he has also found that he has to adapt to a different style of learning. Last year as a freshman, he learned that his method of writing English papers didn’t work as well in his college classes as in h. s. This year, his problem is world history. In I.B history, they spent a full year concentrating on 3 major issues—really in depth. His college class has a much different focus and pace.</p>
<p>Last year, his difficulties in English certainly contributed to his somewhat rough adjustment in college. Like your daughter, he was accustomed to getting top grades and his merit scholarship requires a 3.0. I will admit that I was worried that his city public school hadn’t prepared him (which is silly because he did well on standardized tests and the IB exams). I didn’t know about the problem until after he has worked things out so I didn’t have the opportunity to tell him to go to office hours. Somehow he managed to figure it out. I was surprised that he talked about this year’s problem with history since he still doesn’t talk much. At least this year he has a cushion with his grades if he does have a problem with one class.</p>
<p>Remember, too, that your only have your child’s report of what the professor said.</p>
<p>I’d encourage her to set aside the concern over the grade and embrace the opportunity to learn to write. No matter how rigorous her high school, that is not the place where kids really learn to write. She needs to meet with the professor before the papers are due and talk over how she is approaching the assignment, especially the hypothesis, argument, organization. She should get way out ahead of the curve and be as proactive as possible. Start the next paper early, get a draft, meet with the professor, revise, meet again, revise. She has to learn that writing at a high level is not about listening to one’s muse but being willing to work like a dog.</p>