GENERAL TRAINING ONLY

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

You and your classmate just received a poor grade on a major school project. One
reason for your grade was that your classmate’s family member got very ill. Your
classmate was distracted and didn’t contribute as much as was expected.
Write a letter to your professor. In your letter
- Explain why you had to do most of the
work
- Describe how the illness of your
partner’s family member affected the
project
- Say what you hope your professor will
do
Write at least 150 words
You do NOT need to write any addresses.
Begin your letter as follows: Sample Response
Dear Professor Miller,
I am writing to explain the low grade that Michael and I received on the history project
we submitted last week. I do not wish to dispute the grade. However, I would like to
inquire about the possibility of making up or redoing some parts of the assignment.
I believe you may not be aware that Michael’s mother had to be hospitalized due to an
illness over the last four weeks. Naturally, this impacted Michael’s contribution to our
project significantly. He was very concerned about his mother’s condition, and he was
often unavailable to meet me to work on our project.
The result of this situation was that I had to complete much of the work that Michael
originally agreed to perform. I felt very bad for him and I wanted to help him. However,
in the end, it ended up being too much work for me to take on alone.
In retrospect, I wish I would have discussed all of this with you earlier. Nevertheless, I
would like to ask if it might be possible to receive some extra time to improve some of
the weakest parts of our project given this difficult situation?
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Ruby