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Dr. Coffelt -
This is Lawrence Vanderpool. I was in your ENGL2210 class this semester, Ancient World Literature. I met with you during office hours this semester to discuss my grades in the class and to see where things would stand when the final was done. I have a few things to talk about.
Firstly is that my TA couldn't open my Othello composition and I deleted the file before I found about this. I asked him to email me the file back and I'd change the file format. I absolutely have to have this grade, as you may remember, several of my compositions were late or not turned in and I was severely worried about that destroying my grade. Please, see if he still has this file, I can't not have that grade.
Then the next part of this email. This may be a bit long-winded so bear with me.
Your course was wonderfully informative. Having already taken it once, and failed it due to attendance, I made an extra effort to come to all the classes. My attendance therefore was fine. I love the literature - as I wrote on the test today, Dante's Divine Comedy is a work that has always captivated me since first exploring it in my high school course. Gilgamesh has been something that I've written about extensively both for classes and in my personal writings which I publish on a blog. (I know, every amateur has a blog these days!) I don't think that the Renaissance period should be included in Ancient World Literature but I like to think of this class as Ancient World Literature, with a focus on comparison to Renaissance writings. I once heard my music theory teacher say that Haydn is the ears through which we listen to all music - meaning that he was the inventor of modern music, the standardizer of our classical ideas, the father of instrumental music, truly. Mozart and Beethoven may be the most well-known composers but neither would have existed without Haydn's teachings and influence. The same I think, goes for Ancient World Literature; the Greek and Roman epics, the Chinese poetry, the Middle Eastern tales, these are the eyes through which we read all literature since. I am fascinated by the evolution of literature.
The point of this email is not to give my opinion on your excellent course. It is instead to ask you to exercise discretion when you submit final grades. I know - the numbers tell the story. Or, rather, we assume they do. Do they really? My TA's didn't agree with my style of writing... it is very stream-of-thought, conversational, and poetic, rather than academic. That's because I'm a musician, and I'm very very used to exercising that part of my brain. I think my papers are written beautifully, with an emphasis on the idea behind the idea. I feel that, in group classes, people become so focused on getting the answer correct that they forget that we aren't hear to learn the correct answers. We are instead there to learn the concepts behind them. We're there to think critically and not learn the literature, but learn how to learn literature. I'll draw another parallel with music here, in that my private lesson teacher is not teaching me repertoire, he's teaching me to learn repertoire. If it weren't for this difference, we'd graduate this university and be completely lost with no idea how to continue.
What I'm trying to say with this is that I learned how better to think critically about literature. I tried, during group discussion, to provide ideas that nobody had thought of yet; the whirlwind in Dante as symbolic for the power of literature rather than to be taken so literally; the Apple as the fruit on the Tree of Knowledge being influenced by Newton (I did a little research later and embarassingly realized that Milton was actually dead before Newton published his ideas on the theory of gravity.. oops!) I didn't answer your question, I answered the question behind the question.
Is this not what this course was designed to do? Have I not then, succeeded at this course? My test grades are fine, my only failure is that I would realize a day late that a paper would be due, I'd forget to turn them in after writing them. I'm easily distracted and very forgetful. This sin, I think, shouldn't outweigh my participation in the classes and my success in learning both the material and in learning how to learn.
I appreciate your time reading this email, it reads much like my papers, stream-of-consciousness and straight from the heart, unedited, unproofed. I'm asking you to exercise your discretion. I know - the numbers tell the story. But your discretion and your understanding of me and my performance tell the ideals behind the story, they tell the moral and the meaning. I have to pass this class, if even with a D, to remain in school. My GPA would suffer horribly with an F and improve moderately with a D. I'm not asking for a miracle, and I don't believe I'm asking for a grade I didn't earn. I'm asking for a D, a barely-passing grade, my successes with content and understanding balanced with my failures with responsibility and memory. Please, exercise discretion when you submit the grades.
Thank you for your time. If you'd like to meet me at any time to discuss this, please let me know.
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Well, what do you think?
  
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Professors get like 100 emails a day. Be more to the point and don't waste his time.
I appreciate your time reading this email, it reads much like my papers, stream-of-consciousness and straight from the heart, unedited, unproofed.
Your professor is going to see thru this and know that you're just a really lazy individual. It doesn't help that you have a history of being lazy in the class either.
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Sounds good, but don't forget to slip in $200.
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On December 16 2009 11:28 Chef wrote:Professors get like 100 emails a day. Be more to the point and don't waste his time. Show nested quote +I appreciate your time reading this email, it reads much like my papers, stream-of-consciousness and straight from the heart, unedited, unproofed. Your professor is going to see thru this and know that you're just a really lazy individual. It doesn't help that you have a history of being lazy in the class either.
I'm not a lazy individual. They might -think- that I'm a lazy individual, but they won't -know- it, there's a distinction please.
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I think you sound incredibly lazy trying to bullshit your way into a better grade
not to mention how ridiculously pretentious the entire thing was
next time put some effort into the class and maybe you won't have to beg the professor for a better grade
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I think you should have spent this time getting a better grade.
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It took me 5 minutes to write, that 5 minutes wouldn't have done me any good getting a better grade; it was one of those bullshit blended half-online classes where they post the essay assignments late, and the blackboard system of online classes is fucking retarded, doesn't live up to any web standards, is incredibly difficult to navigate and operate, and half the time I just wouldn't realize there was a paper due because we haven't had class in a classroom for two weeks. Fucking stupid class designed for failures.
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expect a "i'll look into it" and then a failing grade
just wondering, why do you not plan, edit, proof or hand in your papers in an english class >_>?
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On December 16 2009 11:35 JeeJee wrote:
expect a "i'll look into it" and then a failing grade
just wondering, why do you not plan, edit, proof or hand in your papers in an english class >_>?
Cause they're more REAL that way, bro. u gotta skate.
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On December 16 2009 11:35 JeeJee wrote:
expect a "i'll look into it" and then a failing grade
just wondering, why do you not plan, edit, proof or hand in your papers in an english class >_>?
cause I'm a fucking music major and don't have time for that shit. And we're not allowed to 'hand-in' papers, it HAS to be submitted online in EXACTLY this format and it's fucking stupid.
my papers are excellent, they address excellent ideas and are laid out well. I've always been a great writer. The TA's don't like it because it doesn't conform to their silly little 5th grade rubrick.
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On second thought, saying that you deleted your file after you submitted it doesn't sound very believable. No one does that. I think you need to come up with a better excuse. What does your TA know about this?
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I thought it was ok, might be abit over the top since you're arguing for a D. I mean honestly, if D is what you're shooting for, all those things you said about how you appreciate the class just doesn't seem as believable. And I'm not sure if you should tell your prof that all your compositions were unedited and unproofed, not sure if that leaves a good impression...
Oh, I hate blackboard too, piece of crap can't do anything and loads 40x slower than ccnet.
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You sound like a douche. I could not make myself read the entire thing, and that is uncommon to say the least. I guess you have a special talent.
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honestly i thought the pretentiousness in the letter was just your way of sucking up and trying to bullshit some good grades
but damn you actually believe that stuff
im amazed
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haha i did something similar, but my e-mail wasn't as long
my prof. sent me back an e-mail saying "we'll take it into consideration" and i passed the class
gl~
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On December 16 2009 11:37 Mekhami wrote:Show nested quote +On December 16 2009 11:35 JeeJee wrote:
expect a "i'll look into it" and then a failing grade
just wondering, why do you not plan, edit, proof or hand in your papers in an english class >_>? cause I'm a fucking music major and don't have time for that shit. And we're not allowed to 'hand-in' papers, it HAS to be submitted online in EXACTLY this format and it's fucking stupid. my papers are excellent, they address excellent ideas and are laid out well. I've always been a great writer. The TA's don't like it because it doesn't conform to their silly little 5th grade rubrick.
sorry
did you say you're lacking time because you're a MUSIC major?
there's nothing wrong with submitting papers online (it's uhh way more convenient), and how hard is it to save it in a specific format (which i'm pretty sure is either pdf or doc, a la the most common ones)?
just for the record, you would have a hard time convincing anyone that an unplanned, unedited and unproofed paper is "excellent". and even if it is, what good is it if you don't hand it in?
sorry, just trying to show you the prof's point of view here..
but good luck either way in your endeavour 
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My dad's a prof and when he gets such a long freaking mail from guys like you he just goes /delete.
Gl
What i'm trying to say is, if you don't want to piss him off more with your bullshit, just keep it short and to the point.
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turn your papers in on time ffs. maybe the professor would agree if you had any sort of justification for being lazy and thoughtless and "easily distracted," but you kind of just throw it out there and hope that he'll be okay with you not turning in shit on time.
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When I read it, I got this "plz don't fail me I'm better than the TAs think I am" vibe. I don't know, I think the prof may read it and think "Oh, another arrogant little punk that doesn't know his place."
I personally don't think you should send it
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Go buy a style guide. You have no idea how to write. This is the sort of e-mail college professors forward to the whole department to laugh about.
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EPT
