Friday, July 01, 2005

A Recent Class

Hello,

I am a rather new student at National University in
the Masters of English program. I need to talk to
somebody about my recent class taught by Dr. Bonner.

In my other two classes, there seemed to be a set
rubric of points for each and every assignment. When I
missed something, the instructors were very specific
as to what I missed. I felt I learned something from
those assignments and was able to use the knowledge on
the final paper. I received feedback on everything I
wrote. Grades were also up to date and the My Grades
page accurately reflected everything that was going
on.

My last class on Literary Theory was subjective and
arbitrary. On each of my tests, I received a grade but
then no indication on exactly what I missed. I'm not
talking one point, but several points out of 20, which
as you know starts to really affect the grade. I
received no criticism as to why some of my answers
were insufficient. I asked once in an email but the
response was that I only didn't answer it fully
enough, and something about a conclusion not being
strong enough. No specifics, just generalities. How
could I take this information and apply it towards my
final paper? I had a really hard time on that final
paper. As of yet, I have not received my grade on the
paper or the final grade. But I am afraid that a grade
will just be given on it with no feedback whatsoever,
positive or negative. The My Grades page is still not
correct today. I felt that all the grading was
completely subjective.

I received two A's in my other courses. This class was
tough, and I agree that I didn't get an A. The real
problem was that I couldn't get an A because I got no
feedback along the way of any of my applications of
the material learned in class. I had such a wonderful
experience in my other two courses that I had to
express my concern on this class. I felt that I simply
read a book and wrote into a journal on it.

Thank you for your time and for listening. I can send
you any electronic writin or correspondence that was
sent to me if you would like to look at it.

Sincerely,

Matt Butcher

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