so frustrated!

You have my sympathy, but I fear there is no cure for it. Unfortunately, if you give any power to small unimportant people they really take advantage of it.

I had a humanities teaching assistant who was a self-proclaimed Communist and wouldn't accept any essays that did not reflect his Communist belief system. I wasn't about to write a pro-Communist essay and put my name on it and he wouldn't accept any essays from me. So there went my grade point average.

Complaining to the professor did no good. He'd turned his teaching responsibilities over to his TA and that was the end of that.

If your grade point average is really critical, like you are trying to get into Med school, then drop the class and wait until you can take it from a different teacher.

Note: it is possible that it was a B paper. Just because you skate in high school doesn't mean you can get A's for less than A quality work in college. Suddenly, nobody cares whether you graduate or not. So you have to work.

 

set up an appointment to talk to the professor, and ask for specific guidelines as to how you are graded.

for example, some teachers are big sticklers for using certain "formal" writing styles (MLA is one), where even though your papers may be well-written for general purposes, they may not follow the guidelines set forth by the specific system. nitpicking sentence structure makes me think that this may be what's going on. so ask the professor WHY you're being graded harshly, and see if you get an answer that makes sense. if she can't give you a good reason, drop the class - if she's using a strict system, learn the system.

 

I definitely got marked for any perceived changes in sentence structure, and it helped me become a better writer. There were two occasions I disagreed with, so I argued my case. It is really hard to comment on why you are getting the grades you are without seeing your papers. I have no idea how well you support your statements or structure your papers. I have certainly had teachers who graded according to their beliefs (ie. one thought humans had a physical organ called a soul that animals lacked...), but they have been few and far in-between. I've written some papers and arguments that solidly went against the teachers beliefs, but they were argued in a concrete manner that assured I was not docked for it. I would, as someone else suggested, first talk with the teacher about what their specific grading structure is, and what specific changes they would like to see being made. If nothing else, this will give you more input as to whether they have a logical grading system, or if you are being singled out (ps. I have also had profs say that they graded me harder than other people in my class when asked about a paper grade, because they 'expected more from different students'. It's up to you to state whether that is acceptable or not). If that doesn't pan out, but you are sure you are receiving an unfair grade not based upon acceptable criteria, then it is time to go higher up.

 

For starters the professor isn't supposed to share what others in the class make. That violates a major federal privacy law.
Secondly, you have the right to see the rubric the professor is using to grade you. Theoretically she can't just arbitrarily assign grades. Ask for a copy of the rubric or for a copy of your graded rubric.
If the professor cannot answer questions about how she is grading, then go see the chair and the dean. Both positions should have open door policies for student access. If that doesn't work, you have the right to see the provost. Be aware that going to see the chair/dean/provost is going to tick your professor off. You will likely get a rotten grade on the final if it is another paper. But, you do what you have to do.

Good luck. Sometimes academia stinks.

 

sometime and I know this from experience teachers will not give A's no matter how well written the paper is. This teacher may be one of those.

Good Luck.