Well, it seems two
essays were due in on November 10. I knew about the literature essay
and I duly completed a critique of To Autumn by
John Keats and submitted (pleased with it, bar a typo). As
for the child lit essay, no. I would probably have known about it if
I’d been to Laura’s class in week 6 but as you may recall I went
to the doctor. I wrote to Laura to explain the situation at the time
and she wrote back and said Ok, thanks, enjoy reading week. But I
went onto Blackboard last night and saw that Laura had put an essay
assignment up. I don’t really have an excuse for not having gone up
there earlier except for Laura’ s reply to my email, which was
perfectly innocent, I’m sure, but I took to mean that all we have
to do is read in our week off. It’s just unfortunate but I'm sure by no means out of spite that she
didn’t say, Oh by the way in class I announced your essay, good
luck with it. In the case of the English lit essay it was impossible
NOT to know we had it. It was announced a month in advance and Alex
emailed us about it and it was mentioned in seminars. Hand on heart,
I never heard this child lit essay mentioned once in any of my
seminars with Laura and we weren’t emailed about it. It must have
just been mentioned once when I wasn’t there. Of course, strictly
speaking, I should have known it was coming anyway because there is
probably a module description somewhere that says we do an essay
mid-term.
So anyway, I
immediately emailed Laura asking for an extension and copied Alex
(head of English department) and Zoe (my tutor, though I hardly see
her) into the email. I then wrote to Zoe asking if I could meet her
next week. If they don’t already think I am an idiot they will now.
I’m going to explain that I was at the doctors for insomnia and
that I think it’s been affecting my short term memory and general
ability to keep track. And on top of that I’ll try argue that I was
absent on the day the essay would have been discussed in class and all what I've just told you. If my
request for an extension is turned down I assume marks will be capped
at 40%.
Now... all this
said, I’m at odds with the essay requirement because in my view it
doesn’t reflect what we have been doing in the seminars. But rather
than drag the module through the mud on the internet I think it’s
best to let off steam in private, which I will do.
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ReplyDeleteAnd this is the problem with everything being done online, everyone is assumed to have checked it and it means lecturers/tutors have less to do, or feel they have less to do. It was the same in my high school job that all some people ever did was send an email, never talk to people face to face, never make sure everything was ok or that the email had been read, not to mention understood. Hopefully if you explain everything in full there will be no problem in getting an extension. Your ability to turn in the other essay on time demonstrates your good faith, you're not trying any funny business
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