Chapter 2: You and Your Education

17

An academic appeal is a student’s opportunity to officially disagree with a grade they received. There are a number of reasons you may want to appeal a grade, but the common three include:

  • You were going through extenuating circumstances and you don’t want it to reflect on your transcript
  • You don’t agree with the grade you received
  • You feel you were treated unfairly

What counts as “extenuating circumstances”?
While each postsecondary institution will have its own definition of extenuating circumstances, it is important to understand what is and is not considered under that term. Typically, any major life disruption (injury, illness, death of a loved one) outside of the control of the student is considered under this umbrella term. Of course, other instances may also be included under this term too (that’s why they are extenuating). The point is, typical life issues (minor illnesses, financial stress, holidays or events) are not usually part of this. Speak to your academic advisor if you would like to know if your circumstance is considered extenuating.

Moving Forward

Once you decide to move forward with the appeal, you may be asked to write an appeal letter/email. Let’s review some dos and don’ts.

Do Don’t
  • use plain English
  • be upfront and provide an accurate account of facts
  • indicate how extenuating circumstances directly affected your academic performance
  • include relevant policies of procedures
  • include supporting documentation
  • write a story or include unnecessary details
  • conflate or over-exaggerate the truth
  • include irrelevant documents/information
  • feel the need to disclose personal or sensitive information
  • assume anything about your reader; i.e., don’t assume your reader thinks you are lying

Please see Seneca’s Academic Appeal Policy website and the Academic Appeal Service Hub website for more details.

Writing an appeal letter can be daunting and may dissuade you from wanting to appeal the grade.

 Tips on writing a good letter:

  1. 500-800 words maximum
  2. have a clear introduction
  3. include a description of extenuating circumstances
  4. include a timeline of circumstances
  5. explain the impact of circumstances on performance
  6. steps you took to deal with the circumstances
  7. plan for achieving future academic success

Knowing your rights and what you are expected to do is your best bet to a successful appeal. Regardless of the outcome, it is important to learn from the experience. Consider what happened to lead to this, the result and the appeal; what can you take from this experience?

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

E.Y.E.S. at Seneca Copyright © 2024 by Michael Buzdon; Seneca Polytechnic Accessible Learning Services; and The Regional Assessment and Resource Centre (RARC) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book