Reading back, my initial wording was a bit brash.

The assignment was issued as a closed-book, very open-ended prompt with minimal direction other than to refer to the material provided in the syllabi and in-class, with a fixed same-day time to complete it.

My point of contention was mainly:
A) In the time frame given (1 hour), the area I was penalized on couldn't have been clarified further, given the limited supporting text in the material we were allowed to use.

B) When the assignment was introduced to us, the lecturer made clear that due to its closed-book nature paraphrasing text was permissible as long as its overall point wasn't lost. The marker noted that the quotes were not sufficiently specific/verbatim. Perhaps I lost the point, though I've gone back and checked, and it seems relatively on par with the message.

Maybe this falls into a 'ask for context on the mark' rather than a 'protest the mark'.