Dear Dr. Lee,
I feel that the “Bad Habit” video you assigned the Student Development 110 class, designed to reveal our worst academic study habit, is not an effective way to eradicate poor study skills. Although public shame could curb an unruly student in the 19th century, it is not relevant to today's 21st century students. Due to more relaxed societal rules, our generation has grown somewhat accustomed to being embarrassed in public. It doesn't affect us, as a population, nearly as much as it once did, especially when it comes to our academic habits. Some students even take pride in having the worst study skills, yet somehow still sliding through school.
Even though we may be consciously unaffected by it, embarrassment and guilt can still affect our body and mind. These emotions may heighten already existent conditions caused by bad study habits, such as nervousness and inability to concentrate, which can then lead to lack of sleep and poor eating habits, which lowers the body's immunity to infection. Thus, the humiliation of showing our worst habit will not have the power to induce us to do better consciously, but will affect out subconscious in the worst way, merely perpetuating the bad habits. Please reconsider this assignment.
Thank you,
Dottie Bateman
This is a wonderful way to address the issue you're facing. I like how you explained the reasoning behind your argument. It makes it a lot stronger. Maybe you can consider giving your professor ideas on how to change the assignment so he (she?) would be more willing to conform to your suggestion.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I will definitely add that to my revised e-mail. It's true; a letter complaining about something is not nearly so effective as a letter pointing out a problem and offering a solution.
ReplyDeleteWow, this was a great email. Before clicking on this blog, I thought I could predict the reasons you would use, however, you had some very good points that I liked a lot. I think if you added some stats on sleep deprivation or something like that it might help. It's up to you.
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