Pleasing Your Professor

Before beginning college I knew that quality within the Liberal Arts was relative: your grade truly depends on your ability to please your professor for a specific course. However, it didn’t occur to me that the grade would also depend upon the professor’s interpretation of the specific format as well.
I recently completed a course in Organizational communication that required the use of APA format. I bought the APA Manual over a year ago for my first APA course, and have yet to receive a poor grade for misinterpretation of the manual. However, the professor for my most recent course certainly had a different interpretation of APA than did I. Unfortunately, other than a respectful note pointing out specific examples supporting my case, I cannot change anything. My poor grade will stand, unless he sees fit to correct himself in front of a student (and what professor would do that?).
In any event, it just goes to show that throughout strict adherence to format rules (even before the “real world”), students will always find themselves in subordination to “the man”; the personal opinion of professors will always find their way into the grading system.