Dear Students,
As the new semester approaches, might I offer some sound advice. Please, don’t do this. We know. We always know. Just please don’t…
My notes in italics…
original message - Sent: Sat, 20:47:53 PST
Hi Jo, (really, Jo?)
I hope you are doing well and having a great weekend (uh huh). I am just curious (curious, are you really?) as to why I received a D grade on the most previous assignment despite that I handed in the assignment prior to the dead line? If you could please get back to me at your earliest convince (spelling, sigh) that would be greatly appreciated thank you (buckle up, I’m gonna tell ya).
Kind regards,
xxxx xxxxxx
And my response…
xxxxxx,
Happy to break things down...
Assignments are due at the beginning of class. The timestamp on your submission is 9:58pm on the 18th, a full 5 hours after class ends. Technically, you're late.
Assignments should be presented during class for discussion, as we've done each week for the last 12 weeks. Participation is 20% of your grade. Additionally, your zoom camera was off for the entirety of class. As per the rules, I should have marked you absent. Students are required to have their cameras on to be marked present for class.
Your submitted images for this assignment are either grossly underexposed, or wildly over edited. Either way they read as quite dark, and not at the technical level that I would expect this late in the course.
The timestamps on your individual images submitted range from 12:51:04pm to 12:52:00pm, which tells me that you spent, quite literally, less than one minute shooting this assignment.
You have checked all the boxes in terms of minimum requirements for the assignment, and that earns you the grade of a C. Given the submission was late and not presented for discussion, you were marked down a full letter grade to a D. The grading criteria is quite clear, and was discussed on the first day of class, as was my policy on late assignments.
If all this seems heavy handed I apologize, I just want to be overwhelmingly clear. I understand you are not a photo major, and that photography may not be your area of interest. And while I keep things quite lax and informal in my class, I can assure you I take this course and the work quite seriously. You can continue to submit the bare minimum for the assignments, and you'll likely pass, but you should not be surprised about your grade.
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Respectfully, your instructor, who is completely fed up with your BS…
~Joseph