Extension policy—F. Grady

Assignment deadlines are designed to help structure the semester’s work, and it’s best to keep to them. But I recognize that sometimes circumstances make meeting the course’s deadlines impossible, or difficult to the point of compromising the quality of your work, and I’d always prefer to read a better essay a few days late than a lesser one that comes in on time. Therefore I will generally give extensions on essay deadlines of one to four days, with no questions asked on my part, no penalties levied on the grade, and no hidden black marks against your name in a secret notebook.

There is a catch, however: to receive an extension, you must ask for it at least 24 hours before an essay is due (and receive an email confirmation from me in reply). Such timely requests help to reassure me that you’re practicing good time management and that you‘re taking the assignment itself—and not just the due date—seriously. Late papers without an extension will be penalized 1/3 of a grade (i.e., a [+] or a [-]) per day.

As with most things in college and the classroom, communication is key. If you’re in doubt, ask. If you think you may be in doubt, ask. If you just want to be safe, ask. If you want to leave open the possibility of an extension but still hope that you’ll be able to get the essay in on time but would like to maybe reserve the right to ask for an extension at the last minute but of course not later than the 24 hour deadline, just ask for the damn extension. It’s better to be safe than sorry, it’s better to be clear than ambiguous, and it’s better to be in touch with me than to be silent.

Note that while I do my best to return essays with grades and comments within a week of receiving them, that rule does not apply as strictly to essays with extensions.

I use the standard UMSL letter grading scale, including +/- grades. Numerical grades on exams convert to letters grades as follows:

A: above 92 / A-: 90 - 92

B+: 87 - 89 / B: 83 - 86 / B- : 80 - 82

C+: 77 - 79 / C: 73 - 76 / C- : 70 - 72

D+: 67 - 69 / D: 63- 66 / D- : 60 - 62

F: below 60