Dive Brief:

• In a series of Tweets, author and Princeton creative writing professor Joyce Carol Oates takes issue with the characterization of Harvard awarding so many A's as grade inflation.
• Her argument in a single tweet: "Yes, but you have to get admitted to get the A. Try."
• She goes on to tweet: "'Grade inflation' a code term like 'affirmative action.' The disgruntled wanting to think that others' academic success is not earned."

Dive Insight:

It's worth noting that at least some of the objection to any Harvard "grade inflation" came from one of Oates' Ivy League instructor peers — a longtime professor at Harvard — not from anyone outside the university. Oates is scheduled to retire from Princeton in 2015. You can read a little more about her in this Princeton alum publication article, where a description of her as "sometimes frosty" draws a posting from Oates herself in response.