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Student grades ex-lover's apology letter, Twitter gives him an A

Commentary: A student in Florida posts a letter -- with his comments and grade attached -- sent to him by a former lover who wants him back.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


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Harsh critic?

screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

What becomes of the broken-hearted?

Do they get letters from the one who hurt them, apologizing?

Do they then look at the letter, make comments in red all over it, grade it, send it back and, for good measure, post it on Twitter?

This is what Nick Lutz decided to do.

A student at Stetson University in Florida, Lutz received a long, occasionally rambling letter from his ex. It clearly moved him. Moved him to correct it, that is.

He began with the first page. "Too long of an introduction. Lots of repetition," he noted. He worried about the lack of indents too.

This sentence written by his ex might be familiar to many: "you know the saying 'you never know how much you had till it's gone'? that's how I feel. I took you for granted."

She added: "I ended up falling on my part."

"How?" Lutz wrote in red in response. "Need Reasoning here."

Oh, Nick. This is love. Reasoning plays no part.

You'll be wondering why these two split up. There might be a clue in her sentence: "There is one thing I never did to you no matter if you believe me or not -- I never cheated on you."

To this, Lutz offered a big, red question mark and the words: "Strong statement. No supporting Details to support your hypothesis."

And so it went on, until Lutz gave her 61 out of a 100. A grade of D-.

Somehow, Twitter's eyes fell upon this and it flew about the site. Currently, it's enjoyed more than 100,000 retweets and 300,000 likes.

Many Twitterers came to his defense, some choosing to point out mistakes that Lutz had missed.

"ok should have failed her," wrote Dr. Petty Spaghetti. "You missed that she listed 'a lot' as one word in her intro."

Rachel Green noticed something else: "misspelled that so I say they should get a 58." If we're going to be picky here, in the section Green mentioned, "aperson" was just one word.

Naturally, Lutz was also propositioned. "I think you're a little young for me, but this makes me want to date -- not cheat on -- you," purred Fresh Faced Splendor.

To which Lutz cannily responded: "age is just a number."

Lutz didn't immediately respond when I asked him whether he'd heard back from his ex. I wondered whether she thought she'd at least deserved a C.

Perhaps this will incite a bigger trend on Twitter.

Instead of writing heated, nasty tweets in reply to things you don't like, why not just write back with an academic critique and a grade? Wouldn't that improve the tone of the Twitter neighborhood?