Remember last week I talked about how to (probably) get on your professor’s good side? Sometimes you can do that by appeasing their ridiculous demands (and I shared an example that I had to deal with this semester as a graduate student), and other times you have to prove them wrong. There’s something about me that certain professors should know (and I joked that they might put a note in my school record along these lines): Don’t tell me I’m wrong when I am very clearly correct. Unless it’s two weeks from the semester ending and I don’t think the point is worth the extra effort, I will not let professors deduct points for something I am correct in doing.

About halfway through my other class this semester, my professor suddenly decided to deduct points. Why, you may ask? I was writing on American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) college suicide rates. AI/AN college suicide rates are four times higher than any other ethnic group. And that is an example of why my professor was upset. She told me that the abbreviation AI/AN was incorrect APA format. I responded by asking her what abbreviation she would prefer me to use. She responded that it had to be correct APA format.

Talk about a non-answer. What’s about to follow could have all been avoided if she had just given me an abbreviation that she preferred, so keep that in mind.

I knew I was correct, I had gone through four other classes that required APA format and not one of them complained about my abbreviation. So I did what any diligent homeschooler would do. I read the entire APA 7^th edition book (talk about boring). The only thing I saw regarding abbreviations was to define it first, exactly as I had done in the example above. So I figured I would try one more thing, although I wasn’t sure it would work. I reached out to the APA Style Editors themselves and described my predicament. I didn’t think they would respond to such a trivial question.

But they did. And they said I was correct.

So, with a smile on my face, I responded to my professor with the APA manual sections that my abbreviation aligned with and sent a screenshot of the email (because she absolutely refused email communication…some people are so strange).

She responded by saying that my exact example was not in the APA guide and that the writing center just referred me to the text. She told me, again, that my abbreviation did not align with APA format.

Some people have trouble opening images, apparently. And remember, this could have been avoided if she had only given me her preferred abbreviation.

This had occurred over a week, and I had submitted my next assignment with AI/AN abbreviations (as I was correct, so I had no need to change them). When she deducted points, yet again, I sent her my “nastiest” email. Now, when I say nasty, I just mean I was not nearly as polite as I usually am. I was still polite, but I was a lot more direct. And I forwarded the APA Style Editor’s email, with a note saying that I knew she preferred I did not contact via email, but that she needed to view the response from APA.

In line with my post on how to argue with your professor, I was going to give her a chance to respond. Then, I would go above her and straight to her boss. But I was going to give her a moment.

Within 10 minutes of me sending that email, she responded saying that I was correct with my abbreviation (obviously) and that she would restore points. About two minutes later I got another email saying how I was a diligent student and she appreciated all the effort I put into her class. About five minutes later, she asked me if I had any tips I would like to share with the class on how I was doing so well in her class. All of these emails just made me laugh. I wanted to send a link to Back To Stable Hill, but I knew she would be making an appearance and didn’t want to upset her (although the class is over by now…with an A).

You are able to respectfully argue with your professor, as long as you have one key piece of information: that you know you are right (or at the very least, that your professor is wrong). You need to have ground to stand on when you start this argument, because you want to be sure that if you escalate the matter to the dean, that the college will not side with the professor.

Now, was this a stupid hill for me to die on? Maybe, but I was correct and I don’t like having points unfairly deducted. I know it may seem scary, but you are able to argue with your professor, and the times I have, I have done it successfully. The key thing you need to have is proof that you are in the right and to always be respectful in your communications.

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