Wednesday, October 17, 2007

How to argue your way to a better grade

I give a version of this presentation every semester on the day I hand back the first batch of projects. That's because some students are always stunned by their grades and tend to confront me immediately after class with the same old arguments:
  • I worked really hard on this!
  • I need an A in this class or I'll lose my scholarship!
  • I don't think this comma error is really an error. Can you raise my paper a letter grade?
  • You commented on my draft and I corrected everything, so I expected to get a perfect grade. What's wrong with you?
None of these arguments is particularly strong, so I have been trying to head them off by describing how to argue one's way to a better grade. Now I've finally committed it to presentation format. Comments welcome.

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