Tera was my best writer in any class this summer. She was so good that I got her written permission to use two of her essays as examples of excellent student work. But she failed to turn in a required assignment that averaged as a zero, reducing her long string of As to a final grade of B. On Monday, when I received the last package of student work from the testing center and realized that Tera had not written the make-up essay to replace that zero, I alerted her by email that I needed the paper pronto. In Tera's case, the paper was a mere formality; if she just submitted something, I would have given her an A. But by the time I had finished posting grades on Tuesday, no essay had arrived, so I left Tera's grade a B and officially closed the summer semester.
Today [both a weekend and a vacation day, alas] I broke my rule, checked school email, and found a note from Tera:
From: tera.langley@_____cc.eduNo essay was attached to this email, so of course, no essay was ever written, and no essay currently exists on a disk. Tera is hoping I'll say, "Sure, it's not too late. I have nothing better to do over vacation than read your work. Bring me the paper!" Then she'll bother to compose it.
To: sparky.lightbulb@_____cc.edu
Date: August 6, 2005 6:29 PM
Subject: Re: Missing work!
I'm not sure what happened! I still have a copy of the essay on disk. Can I print it and bring a copy to campus? I see that grades are already posted. Please tell me it's not too late!
Tera
On the one hand, I could take that paper. Filling out a change of grade form is a pain in the butt, but Tera does have a "Get Out of Jail" or "Free Spin" card in that she did give me permission to use two of her essays as samples in the future. On the other hand, I absolutely despise being lied to and having students think I am some kind of moron who will believe anything. So right now, I am leaning towards a "Sorry, Tera, I needed it by 12 p.m. Tuesday" as my response.
To guarantee that I accepted the late work, Tera should have done one of two things: either send the suspicious "saved" paper with her email [I would have checked "Properties" to see when the document was created, but even if it had been written last night, I would have been so impressed that Tera had produced a paper potentially for nothing that I probably would have taken it.] Or Tera should have composed an email that said something like this:
From: tera.langley@_____cc.eduI would have been so overwhelmed by the refreshing honesty that I would have said, "Get it written, Tera! I'll still read it."
To: sparky.lightbulb@_____cc.edu
Date: August 6, 2005 6:29 PM
Subject: Re: Missing work!
Dear Professor Lightbulb,
I am such a butthead. I got really behind and didn't have time to write that essay or go to the testing center to do the make-up paper. I was holding my breath hoping that my average could take the hit, and now I'm kicking myself for not getting that work done. I screwed up, but please don't think less of me.
Tera
