To ask for it to be remarked?

[QuestionableMouse]

I collected an essay yesterday and I'm really not happy with the grade. I've been given 55% and a '3' (needs to seek help with English) which I don't feel is fair.

Reasons why I was marked down:

• titles formatted wrong. Well yes they are but I was following an incorrect guide that the university had posted and the lecturer had referred us to.

-he's changed some of the words I've used. I used great at one point. He's crossed it out and scribbled good. Something being great or good is a matter of opinion surely? This has happened more than once.

• he's disagreed with my use of semi colons. I'm 100% sure I've used them correctly.

There was a couple more things like that but I can't remember them. I don't feel like he's looked at the content at all (there is only one comment on it out of half a page) and had marked me down for one mistake then style choices.

Does anyone have any experience with this type of thing?

I would be picking up 'great' and suggesting alternatives such as 'effective' prior to degree level.

Sprinklestar believe me, I would absolutely love it if my students could use semi-colons correctly. But I had to have a special ‘common grammar and stylistic errors’ feedback session for my THIRD years this year, revolving largely around semi-colons, comma splices, and fragmentary sentences. More than 50% of these students made frequent such errors in their essays. This is not uncommon across my department and across my sector - humanities department.

Feel free to disregard my experience, borne of many years teaching of course, and extrapolate solely from your own individual circumstances, though...

I agree with previous posters re the use of the word great. It's more slang unless used to refer to something large or extreme (e.g. Great wall of China, great difficulty). I would suggest using another, more formal or academic, term in any writing submitted to me. I lecture in a STEM area so grammar and use of language would not be as important as in an English assignment.

It's unlikely you will be able to get is remarked as there is usually a very limited number of circumstances where that is possible. Howeverd, if it's not clear to you why you were awarded the mark you received, you most definitely should speak to your lecturer. The whole point of feedback is to learn from your mistakes and improve future work.

It sounds rather colloquial. "Great" in that context is not really appropriate use of language for example. Perhaps if you adopted some of the suggestions the lecturer would be willing to to review it and see whether you have understood correctly what you need to do to improve your grade next time. So not an official remark but as a learning exercise.

The thing is, I'm fairly sure I used semi colons in my language assignment too and weren't told they were incorrect for that one. I won't be home until about nine so will post examples then (if I remember).

I think you're focusing too much on the semi-colon issue. My feeling on this is that a student who uses "great" in the way you have described is unlikely to have submitted a well-written, critical, piece of work. I accept I may be wrong, but my opinion is based on my experience correcting many, many student assignments.

While good writing skills are important to convey your argument in any field, in an English assignment, they are vital, and form part of the assignment in a way they wouldn't in another field. For example, I would not mark my students down for poor writing skills per se, but if they are not able to argue their case because of poor expression, they will not receive a high mark. In an English assignment I would expect poor writing skills to be marked down. Perhaps that is why they weren't mentioned in your language (I'm presuming it's a foreign language) assignment?

Post your examples and we can tell you.

'Great' is too informal for an academic style. Read a book of critical essays; no published writer of discursive essays will be talking about how 'great' something is.

I am a student too and understand how easy it is to take your mark personally. At this level, however, the score matters less than the actual feedback. What was the essay task? It seems a lot of marks to lose for semi colons! Have you been given any feedback on the actual argument itself at all? I would definitely follow up on that!

From your posting style here I'd say your lecturer perhaps has a point. Especially so if your course is English.

Soupy - it’s somewhat ironic that your own post contains grammatical errors

A very similar thing happened to me in my first year, before I’d got a handle on academic language. It can be quite a jump from school essays. I got a very low mark, rewrote it, did much better. You might just need to take this one on the chin.

Universities differ, and their tolerance may vary. I am speaking only as someone who marks work for undergraduates in my department at my university.

If you asked for coursework to be remarked in this university, then unless it was something of a scale and significance in the overall course that it would substantially affect your degree classification or your progression then you would be politely refused whatever your grounds. If it did affect classification or progression, it would probably have been dual-marked anyway.

Even if you did manage to convince someone to remark it, then unless the grade previously given was manifestly unreasonable it would stand. The test would be whether any competent marker could possibly have given that mark; not "would I have given the same mark?" but "would anyone competent have given this mark?" Otherwise it would stand under the general heading of "academic judgement".

Getting into an argument with a lecturer about grammar and lexis in an English department is not going to end well, particularly when as others have pointed out you're arguing against long-established views on the adjective "great".

Take the feedback. Ask if the lecturer would consider giving you feedback on a second draft which fixes the things to which he has objected. If he's not happy with your use of semi-colons then ask for advice, or just write without them; they're badly taught in schools and too many people just use them as a "strong comma". If you use a semi-colon in a place where a full-stop doesn't work, then there's a strong chance it's wrong: a semi-colon is more akin to a "weak full stop" than a "strong comma" as it separates independent clauses.

And anyway, 55% is a good 2(ii).

Sprinklestar posting on an Internet forum is not equivalent to submitting an assessed essay for a degree. HTH.

posting on an Internet forum is not equivalent to submitting an assessed essay for a degree.

I'd also be interested to know what infelicities Soupy is being accused of. I suspect that Sprinkle has an animadversion against "But" starting a sentence; reputable sources can be cited (and reality, too) to say "of course it can".

blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/01/05/can-i-start-a-sentence-with-a-conjunction/

@CuboidalSlipshoddy What the fuck are you on about? Can you rewrite that in clear English?

I think you mean there were a couple more things, not was a couple more things. Maybe your English isn't as good as you think.

Op, your first port of call is to talk to the marker. Some universities do allow remarks but the vast majority of concerns like this are resolved when talking to the marker. I agree that great isn’t the best word but that and a couple of grammatical errors don’t equal a mid 2.2. It’s unacceptable that there isn’t feedback on the content.

It's it's your first year u wouldn't worry about it, it's just a pass or fail so doesn't go towards your final grade, will u have this teacher again in year 2 and 3?

I just dug out my trusty copy of Fowler & Fowler: fine to start sentences with But. No prohibition on that.

Fowler & Fowler's big thing is clarity (also keen on specificity & removing redundancy and simple grammar rules). But, clarity is the over-riding principle. Another problem with 'great': it was imprecise which reduced clarity.

Go on Sprinklestar - don't leave us in suspense!

Don’t forget Sprinklestar said errors (plural). I suspect one is the typo in ‘borne’, although I have a feeling ‘borne’ is also acceptable (albeit slightly archaic).

It sounds like the criticisms are to do with it not being appropriately academic in style, rather than poor English per se. Does your university have a course on academic writing, or a support department or something? It might even just be a question of getting a good style guide specifically for academia.

Another one agreeing that "great" is entirely improper in an academic essay. Correcting it to "good" is not much better as it's non-specific when it should be about analysing the effectiveness of word choice/metaphor, etc.

I teach in secondary, and don't accept its use except with very junior book reviews, the rest of the time, out comes the red pen.

Don't worry too much about this single mark. Marking can be a bit subjective but unfair reviews of your work are something you have to deal with in the real world and in academia so don't let it get to you. It sounds like you don't understand what the problem was so get some advice from the lecturer - don't challenge the grade, just say you would like feedback on how to reach higher grades and be open minded. Another option is to read a classmate's work if you know of someone who did well in the assignment, and consider how theirs differed from yours.

Don't take it personally, just try and learn from this. You will feel great when you get a high mark next time!

To all those suggesting content is much more important than correct, accurate, clear English - have you stopped to think that the content cannot be expressed effectively without the correct English?