Public Service Announcement

Dear Students,

If you are going to come complain to me about your grades, please do the following first.

  1. Read the syllabus for the course so that you know how you are actually being graded.
  2. Remember that if you don’t like the policies in the syllabus that you could have dropped my course during the first week. Now you are going to have to live with them.
  3. This applies, in particular, to the late work policy … and any other policy you may not like very much right now.
  4. Look at the comments I made on your paper that explain the reasons for your grade before you start arguing with me about why it should be higher.
  5. Remember that if I made a mistake, I will always be happy to fix it.
  6. Remember that I get a lot of complaints about grades at this time of the semester, and this gets really old really fast.
  7. Remember that being a pain in my ass is not going to improve your score.
  8. Last, keep in mind, I don’t give grades. I report what happened. You earn what you get; no freebies.

To those of you who accept your grades with grace and dignity, even though the outcome may not have been what you were hoping for, thank you. I hope you know I may not have wanted to record that grade any more than you wanted to earn it, and I am grateful to not have to argue with you about it too.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jinx