Revising an Extension Request: Grammar, Register, and the Missing Facts
The student drafts an email to a professor after missing a lab report deadline because of influenza. The syllabus says: "Late work is not accepted unless a documented emergency is approved in advance or within 48 hours." The student has a doctor's note dated the deadline day and wants a 48-hour extension. The draft reads: (a) "I am writing to ask you to extend my deadline." (b) "I could not finish the report because I was sick." (c) "Despite of my illness, I have completed most of the data analysis." (d) "I would appreciate it if you could tell me your decision as soon as possible." (e) "Please inform me about your decision." The professor replies in one line: "Come to office hours." The student must send one revision, and the revision must be shorter than the original.
1. Sentence (c) is ungrammatical and sentence (d) is grammatical but risky. Explain both problems and revise each.
Read the worked answer
(c) Grammar: "Despite" is a preposition and takes a noun phrase directly - "Despite my illness." The "of" belongs to "in spite of," so "Despite of" mixes two patterns. Revision: "Despite my illness, I have completed most of the data analysis." A cleaner alternative replaces the concessive frame entirely: "I have completed most of the data analysis."
(d) Register and pragmatics: "As soon as possible" is not rude by itself, but addressed to a professor it reads as a deadline imposed by the student. The grammar is fine; the pressure is the problem. Revision: "I would appreciate it if you could let me know when you have a chance."
The pair illustrates the difference the exam tests: (c) fails a rule, (d) follows every rule and still misfires. Fixing grammar alone would leave the email sounding demanding.
2. The one-line reply is not a rejection. Explain what it signals, and identify the facts the revision must supply that the draft omits.
Read the worked answer
"Come to office hours" signals a procedural step: the professor will not decide by email, and the documentation must be shown in person. Reading it as refusal would be a costly misread.
The draft omits facts the syllabus actually requires:
- the course number and section, since the professor may teach several;
- the assignment name and the original deadline date;
- the date the doctor's note was obtained - the syllabus allows approval "within 48 hours," so timing is the decisive fact;
- a specific proposed new deadline (48 hours from the original), not an open-ended request;
- what has already been submitted, if anything.
A revision that says only "I was sick" asks the professor to assemble the case. A revision that states dates, documents, and a concrete request lets the professor say yes in one reply - which is the real goal.
3. The revision must be shorter than the original. Name two sentences to delete entirely and justify each deletion.
Read the worked answer
(b) "I could not finish the report because I was sick" - delete, or rather absorb it into one factual clause: "I was absent with influenza from Monday to Wednesday." As written it is vague (which days? how sick?) and it duplicates the doctor's note without adding evidence. Replacing it with dates makes it shorter and stronger.
(e) "Please inform me about your decision" - delete. It repeats (d), and two requests for a reply in a five-sentence email reads as impatience. One request is a request; two are pressure.
What must not be cut: the dates, the note, and the proposed deadline. The rule for cutting is simple - remove anything the reader already knows or can infer, keep anything only the writer can supply. That test shortens the email and increases the chance of approval at the same time.