Not sure what to do with my graded story...

[Mouse5]

A while back I ask for help on proofing a short story before I sent it in to be graded. I just got it back and I'm not sure what to think. I'm frustrated with the fact that the instructor says I didn't proof read it. Plus this same person was trying to change words in it that didn't fit in the story at all.
I got points taken away for not using enough comma's, which is very possible, but when I looked this person had the story littered with comma's. And some of them put in odd places.
What is really throwing me for a loop isn't so much that but the score I got for the format. The paper said that 10pts goes to typed, double spaced, title, margins, page numbers and header information and 5 points to length. I was only give 4 points. Which I don't get at all. I had it typed out and spaced correctly, with all the rest of it exactly the way they wanted it.
I did got top scores on the opening, narrative structure, dialogue and theme.

I feel as though this person didn't like my story so decided to find something wrong with it and marked it as low as they could. I'm considering calling the school and talking to someone about this because something just doesn't seem right about the way this was graded. My grade isn't a bad one, but I don't think it is accurate either. Do you think I am being to sensitive about this?

[lynnmosher]

Hey, Mouse! I think I might go to the instructor and ask...nicely, of course...for him/her to explain to you where you were wrong and explain the positioning of the commas.

[Tarin]

Hmm... are you certain the place you sent your story to was a reputable? Smells just slightly fishy to me.

[Timber Wolf]

A while back I ask for help on proofing a short story before I sent it in to be graded. I just got it back and I'm not sure what to think. I'm frustrated with the fact that the instructor says I didn't proof read it. Plus this same person was trying to change words in it that didn't fit in the story at all.
I got points taken away for not using enough comma's, which is very possible, but when I looked this person had the story littered with comma's. And some of them put in odd places.
What is really throwing me for a loop isn't so much that but the score I got for the format. The paper said that 10pts goes to typed, double spaced, title, margins, page numbers and header information and 5 points to length. I was only give 4 points. Which I don't get at all. I had it typed out and spaced correctly, with all the rest of it exactly the way they wanted it.
I did got top scores on the opening, narrative structure, dialogue and theme.

I feel as though this person didn't like my story so decided to find something wrong with it and marked it as low as they could. I'm considering calling the school and talking to someone about this because something just doesn't seem right about the way this was graded. My grade isn't a bad one, but I don't think it is accurate either. Do you think I am being to sensitive about this?

I know when I spoke to instructors in the past, a lot of times I got a hire grade - not always, but at least they could explain why they gave me such a low grade.

Also, having been a PT math/computer instrutor I do know that yeah, being human, and having certain students behave a certain way does sometimes affected how I graded. But basically it was not a matter of trying to find ways to give them as low a grade as possible. I may just not have been as willing to look for ways to raise their score.

Students always had the opportunity to come and talk to me about their grades, and never did. I even had one whose mommy called the president's office, which meant it was handed down to my dean, which meant I had to go talk to him about the student's past poor performance.

I would STRONGLY suggest not going and talking to "someone at the school" about it until you have talked to the teacher. Just ask him if he can give you a clearer understanding of his grading. Does your school have a teacher feedback form? Sometimes they are useful, sometimes not. Mine were usually 50-50, which reflected the % of persons who put in the energy to do the work, vs those who did not. (I remember my first yr in college they told us "Look around you, more than likely the person on your right and left will be gone next yr. - I'd say that was about accurate at my alma mater).

As far as being sensitive - we are all writers, of course we're sensitve.

[Timber Wolf]

OH, I just read Tarin's remark about the place being reputable. Is this a correspondence deal? I thought you were in college taking classes, and this was an assignment.

I would check out the place you are dealing w/ if it is not a local CC, or such.

[Mouse5]

Yes it is correspondence and I have checked out the school. Everything checked out okay.

I can contact the instructor, but I usually only get a teachers aide. My guess is they are so busy that they can not address everyones problem so they have to enlist in help.
The thing is if I am told to resubmit it the highest score I can get is a 70% which is just barely passing. Right now my score is a 78%. I'm thinking it would be best to just leave it alone.

I was very irritated when the instructor wrote "no editor would look at this". I've written worse stuff than that and had it published.
I'm almost done with the course and I'm to the point where I just want it finished so I don't have to worry about it anymore.

Thank you for your responses everyone.

TW - there are times when I am way to sensitive and I act before I think which is why I was asking for some input on this. I didn't want to act rashly.

[Timber Wolf]

Wait one cotton picken minute. They're telling you if you resubmit you go DOWN from a 78% to a 70%? I could see if you had gotten a 60 then maybe being able to get a 70 by resubmitting, but going down a full grade! Ridiculous!

This sounds like a fly-by-night operation for sure. They don't have any CC where you can take a night / weekend course?? I'd be thinking about taking a second look at this place. Are you supposed to be earning college credit for this? or?????

Well, I hope things get better.

TW

[Mouse5]

Yes I am getting college credit for the course. I'm not sure why this particular school grades the way they do. This is the first problem I've had with them other than the fact that the instructor that graded my last assignment lost the last page and gave me a bad grade for not including it. I was able to resubmit it and get a decent grade because it was their fault part of my assignment was lost. *shrugs* I'm not sure what to do in this case except to just leave it be or call and raise a stink... in a nice way of course. ;)

There is a community college just up the road actually. There's a couple of problems with me attending though. So that is pretty much out. :(