{"id":"study-email-professor-after-family-emergency","audience":"college","category":"writing-emails","technique":"context","track":"study","level":"intermediate","free":true,"title":"Email your professor after a missed midterm and a late notice","task":"You missed Tuesday's midterm because your grandmother was hospitalized, and it is now 60 hours later, past the syllabus deadline. Write the email you, Jordan Reyes, send to Professor Whitcombe tonight. Plain text, under 110 words. Start with a line \"Subject: ...\". In the first two sentences, say why you missed the exam and own that your notice is late, without blaming anyone. Say you have her hospital discharge paperwork and can send it tonight. Ask for ONE thing: a make-up midterm. Offer to come to office hours on Monday, 2-4. Leave out the scholarship, your grade worry, any medical details about her, and anything about the TA. No begging, no demands.","materialLabel":"What you have (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"ECON 201, Prof. Whitcombe. Midterm: Tuesday, Oct 27, 9:00 am. It is now Thursday night, Oct 29, about 9 pm.\n\nSYLLABUS: \"Make-up exams are given only with written documentation submitted within 48 hours of the exam. Documentation submitted later is accepted at the instructor's discretion.\" Office hours: Mon and Wed, 2-4 pm, Hale 312.\n\nWHAT HAPPENED: Monday night my grandmother, Rosa Reyes, was rushed to the hospital in Tucson with a bad infection and a heart scare. I drove three hours home and spent Tuesday in the ER waiting room with my phone at 3%. She was discharged Wednesday and is recovering at my aunt's.\n\nWHAT I HAVE: her hospital discharge paperwork (admission Oct 26, discharge Oct 28), photographed on my phone. I do NOT have a doctor's note about me. I wasn't sick myself.\n\nTA REPLY (Priya, Wed 4:12 pm): \"So sorry to hear that. I can't approve make-ups, and the 48 hours is in the syllabus. Prof. Whitcombe decides on late paperwork, so you'd need to email directly.\"\n\nMY NOTES TO SELF: I'm panicking. I never emailed anyone Tuesday. The midterm is 25% of the grade and I need a B in this class to keep my scholarship. I want to tell her how awful this week has been and that I'll lose everything if she says no. The TA was kind of cold about it.","rules":[{"type":"maxWords","max":130},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Burying the late notice","why":"The AI opens with a long story and skips owning the missed 48-hour window.","fix":"Add: \"In the first two sentences say why I missed the exam and own that my notice is late.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Oversharing the emergency","why":"The AI adds the infection, the ER, and how awful the week was, or calls the paperwork a doctor's note.","fix":"Add: \"Say I have her hospital discharge paperwork. No medical details, and don't call it a doctor's note.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Guilt and a pile of asks","why":"The AI mentions the scholarship, begs, or offers several options at once.","fix":"Add: \"Ask for one thing: a make-up midterm. Leave out the scholarship and my grade worry. No begging.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI writes a long email with bold text and bullets.","fix":"Say \"plain text, under 90 words, 5 short sentences\".","checks":["maxWords","plainText"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Says who it is for and what happened","patterns":["professor","whitcombe","grandmother","hospital","midterm"]},{"label":"Owns the late notice","patterns":["late","48","own","past the","deadline"]},{"label":"Names the documentation","patterns":["discharge","paperwork","documentation","not a doctor"]},{"label":"Asks for one specific thing","patterns":["one (ask|thing|request)","make-?up","only ask"]},{"label":"Leaves out what hurts the email","patterns":["leave out","don'?t (mention|include|beg)","no (begging|demand)","scholarship","medical"]}],"hint":"Professor Whitcombe reads this between a hundred other emails. Say what happened and what you own, name the paperwork you really have, make one specific ask, and say what to leave out.","mission":"Email Professor Whitcombe tonight, with the paperwork and one clear ask.","musts":["Own the late notice in the first two sentences","Name the paperwork you really have","One ask; no scholarship talk or begging"],"rubricLabels":["In its first two sentences after the subject line, the email says Jordan missed Tuesday's midterm because a grandmother was hospitalized and owns that the notice is late (for example, \"I know this is past the 48-hour window\"), without blaming the TA, the syllabus or the phone battery","It says Jordan has the grandmother's hospital discharge paperwork and can send it, and does not call it a doctor's note for Jordan, does not say Jordan was ill, and gives no diagnosis or illness details (infection, heart)","It asks for exactly one thing, a make-up midterm, and offers office hours on Monday 2-4; it does not mention the scholarship, needing a B, losing everything, the TA, or any other option such as reweighting the final"]}