In my intro to my major 101 My professor has been very rude to me. I haven’t had here before and she only talks to 3 people in the class who she has taught and acts condescending to everybody else. Our first paper was to describe our career goals in 500 words and i turned it in on time. She gave me a C with no marks, and I asked her about it during her office hours. I asked Dr.X could i have some feedback on why I earned this grade on the paper. She snapped and said she was never so insulted by having a freshmen in a one credit class challenge her judgement. She said she controlled my destiny in this major, and that kind of disrespect would get me nowhere. This course was only a 8 week course and on the final day she put finished assignments on the table along with a new assignment. I forgot to grab the new assignment which is due in may. I emailed her the next week saying this Dear Dr. X I was in class however i forgot to grab the assignment. Could you please send me the assignment? I was afraid of going to her office hours to ask. However its been a week and no response what should i do
Ask one of you classmates.
Go to her office hours (or see if a friend has the assignment paper that you could get a copy of).
When you ask a prof about grades it’s best to be extra careful to phrase it in a way that couldn’t be interpreted as grade-grubbing. “I would really like to improve my writing, are there any tips you can give me for how I can improve on the next assignment…”(in a polite tone). If there was an error in her grading, she’d catch it when explaining what’s wrong. Asking why you received a grade implies that you think her grading was wrong and could be interpreted as “challenging her judgement.” It’s usually best to ask in person about papers/grading. She may just be a hard grader. Apologizing if you came off as challenging might not be a bad idea - while it shouldn’t matter grade-wise, having a prof angry with you usually isn’t a good thing.