What do you think about this reason for a grade?

[wishNhopeNdreamN]

Okay..this is probably more of a vent then a question, but I turned in a small 500 word paper in my online interpersonal communicatiions class. I got an 88. Now, I realize this is a decent score. I still have a solid A in the class. However, his comment threw me. He said I needed to send my paper through spellcheck before I sent it to him.

Well..I did. MS spellcheck found 1 error! the error was pseudolistening. This is the way it was written in the textbook, so I left it alone and sent it.

The lowest score I have gotten in this class on a paper until now was a 98, the last paper I got a 100!

So...I send him an email and ask him to be more specific about what the errors were. he emails me back and says . Well my spellchecker found 6 errors.

What!?!

He doesn't even give me what the errors were!!

Do you all think I should pursue this or just let it go? I certainly don't want to make him mad, or have him think I am a troublemaker.

What would you all do?

[sirI, MSN, APRN, NP]

I would. I would want to know exactly what those errors were. Just saying that he found 6 errors w/o allowing you the opportunity to correct these in the future does not provide a learning experience.

[santhony44, MSN, RN, NP]

Not only that, but spellcheck is not 100% reliable. It may not "get" the difference between "two" and "too," for example.

Its vocabulary tends to be limited, as well.

[santhony44, MSN, RN, NP]

BTW, if your spellcheck picks up an "error" like pseudolistening and you're not sure it's really an error, look it up elsewhere. If it's actually a word, you can add it in to your dictionary. If it's not, you can use it as is in a direct quote with [sic] behind it. The use of [sic] denotes that you recognize a misspelling (or, perhaps, a foreign spelling) but are quoting exactly.

[SparklyGirl]

I would stand up for myself. I would make sure I only have one misspelled word and then I would email him back.

[wishNhopeNdreamN]

I emailed him back asking him to be more specific on what exactly the errors were. I'm waiting to hear back from him. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for advice!

[justme1972]

Request that he marks the errors in red and e-mails the paper back to you.

[AirforceRN, RN]

Honestly...in my opinion...I don't see the big deal. You still got an A, life isn't fair sometimes, we all know that. Is the extra 6 or 7 % really worth all this time and effort? Are you going to get some sort of prize for the highest mark?

If it were me, I'd suck it up. Marks aren't everything, obviously the body of the paper was good or you wouldn't have received the mark that you did...I think you are fighting a "how come Billy got more Ice cream then I did?" kind of fight.

[jasonNZ]

Have you got your grammar check turned on? It could be that your Professor is seeing a whole lot of green lines and is just referring to it as his spell checker?

[ssnva1]

Get the grade you deserve, be polite though, I suck up to all my professors. I know that sounds bad but I have a 4.0 GPA!

[Serlait]

Get the grade you deserve, be polite though, I suck up to all my professors. I know that sounds bad but I have a 4.0 GPA!

ACK! I have a 4.0 also, but I earned it. Sucking up to professors for grades seems disingenuous to me. While I definitely agree with you that it is imperative to be polite when approaching a professor for clarification, or to dispute a grade, sucking up for grades is not something I'm willing to do or would encourage. Give yourself credit. If you have a 4.0 I'll bet you're one smart cookie....no sucking up needed! :nuke:

[BluntForceTrauma]

You should definitely find out what your errors were. Even though it may only be a few little points, those few little points could be the difference between an "A" and a "B" in the end.