ENGL393 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Kelly Cresap ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/15/2024	Kelly Cresap is an excellent instructor and one of my personal favorite professors. Writing isn't too bad and with weekly classes he often enabled a bit of leeway. Each week you'll have a peer review of an upcoming assignment and a due date for a current assignment. What's helpful is if you are swamped you can always just save the peer reviewed assignment for next week. They're not technically due until then anyways. Additionally, I had class from 6:30 to 9:10 PM and not once did we have class that went until the technical stopping point. Usually it ended between 7:30 and 8:00. Grading is fair, although the other reviews are correct in that you can't see what your current grade is in the class, he simply comments the grade under each assignment's submission. Cresap is very friendly and soft spoken, but clearly cares about teaching his class.
Ann Mason ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/01/2024	DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. I thought this class was gonna be easy and just like 1-2 hours a week or less. This class has more work than my 400 lvl engineering classes combined. I had this class aysnc and online, but she seemed nice over email and announcement. Her assignments are long and time consuming and there are three writing exams that last 2 hours. There are a lot of peer reviews and discussion questions.
Michele Mason ENGL393 Expecting a B Anonymous 10/24/2024	Hard to get an A in her class for the average person as she takes off points for no reason or unnecessarily.
Kisa Lape ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/15/2024	Professor Lape is hands down the best professor! Like other students said she is so sweet and understanding. Her feedback on coursework is so helpful and you really would gain something from taking a course with her. Communication, Communication, Communication, honestly I cannot stress enough that reaching out to her on time can help both parties. There are a lot of assignments, but she does provide numerous resources to refer to.
Joan Mooney ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 07/23/2024	Overall not that bad a class. ENGL393 has absolutely no reason to be a 3 hr/week course, and I think any professor would have a hard time filling that space with meaningful content. The lectures were sometimes dry, mumbled, or meandering, but there was often in-class work to be done that effectively took up the time. She does sometimes give vague advice, but she is also very nice and willing to help if you ask. While there were a lot of small assignments, they weren't exactly difficult and most were done in-class. The final project can be a lot of work, but I didn't find it overwhelming. I think a lot of the issues stem from the course structure and requirements more than the instructor. 5/10 course 7/10 instructor.
Andrew Delfino ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/03/2024	Great asychronous summer course experience. Assignments are clear, grading is laid back, and a reasonable amount of time is given. Does not demand much time per week to secure an A, and unlimited resubmissions were allowed if you're unhappy with your grade on almost any assignment. Great caring professor, willing to work with students, and wants everyone to succeed.
Ann Mason ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/26/2024	If you're looking for a professional writing class that's an easy A take another person. I had this class aysnc and online so I never met her, but she seemed nice over email and announcements. But her assignments are quite literally all busy work except for like 4 main ones. She makes you do rhetorical analysis to stuff like your resume, which imo is unnecessary and a waste of time for this class. I got an A+ in ENGL101 and I was still getting grades in the 80's and low 90's for this class. I ended with BARELY a 90%. DO NOT RECOMMEND ANN MASON IF YOU WANT AN A. If you want to relearn rhetorical analysis and do a bunch random assignments go ahead and sign up.
Ann Mason ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/22/2024	Pros: - Asynchronous - Prof. is responsive to emails & questions Cons: - Way too strict for no reason, you could not use words like "is, was, were, be" etc. without losing points on assignments - Too time consuming for a gen-ed - Long writing labs that did not open until the day they were due and took forever to complete - Incredibly slow grading - Did not receive feedback from her in time to apply it to future assignments - If you are already a pretty good writer, this is not the class for you. You will feel like you are being forced to write in a very specific way. If you want someone to tell you exactly how to write, then maybe take this class.
Radford Skudrna ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/20/2024	Took in the winter but he was very nice and easy to reach out to (responsive). Assignments were easy, but his grading could be harsh. It doesn't help that I get full points for drafts with encouraging feedback but get points docked on the final for things that were present in the draft (why not bring this up in the draft feedback?). Overall still a good course and great prof.
Ann Mason ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/19/2024	Tough professor and class. Rubrics unclear. Group project is annoying. Some things don’t have rubrics which is annoying
Peter Witte ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2024	Peter Witte was one of my favorite professors ever. Unbelievably nice guy, Chill, super interesting course content, and he’s a great instructor. My professional writing skills improved substantially thanks to this class. Recommend him 100%.
Michelle Von Euw ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/14/2024	This class had a lot of assignments and you're expected to write large volumes at once but the professor made this class as easy as possible. Her due dates frequently had blanket extensions or did not have hard deadlines, her late work policy was lenient, and she did not grade harshly. Not to get offensive but I think everyone that had a bad experience is probably just not very good at writing or has poor time management/work ethic.
Joshua Buursma ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/13/2024	Chill professor and reasonable grading. This class feels like mostly busy work, but he will give a good grade if you put it a small but reasonable amount of effort into the assignments
Ann Mason ENGL393 Anonymous 05/11/2024	Took online. Grading is extremely slow and unclear criteria’s.
Danuta Hinc ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/09/2024	She took over half way through the semester from another prof that left. Most classes just became discussions on contemporary issues or time to work on assignments. She did pretty good with the situation she had and I enjoyed interacting with her.
Patrick Nelson ENGL393 Anonymous 05/09/2024	A little weird and very disorganized. Will randomly extend assignments, forgets to open assignments, grades as slow as a snail, gives confusing instructions. He usually ended class early tho. Also had to guess which room he'd pick to be the classroom every time because he refused to use the assigned room.
Ann Mason ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/03/2024	Slow grading and no clear rubrics but writing lessons were helpful Last stretch of semester and writing labs from before spring break still not graded
Pamela Orel ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/02/2024	She became our professor halfway through the semester because our original professor took another job. For this course, she was a very generous grader and willing to give extensions on pretty much anything if you ask, no reason necessary. I didn't really learn anything in class and she kind of just rambles about random topics, but you could definitely just skip class and meet with your group for the big group project and still get a good grade. Both we as students and she as the professor were generally confused about what was going on (assignment instructions, due dates, etc.) but I don't think any of us really cared because it was so easy to get an A on assignments.
Michelle Von Euw ENGL393 Anonymous 04/28/2024	If you're looking at her section debating whether or not it's worth it to take her so that you can be asynchronous, just go for the in-person section, it's not worth it.
Michelle Von Euw ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/21/2024	Some of these reviews are exaggerating honestly. If you read her announcements weekly and submit your assignments on time, you will be fine. I will admit the due dates are really weird (9PM on a weekday sometimes??) Also, the content of this class is quite useless. You make a website akin to a resume which you will never use, and the final project is some sort of business proposal paper trying to find a solution to a problem you’ve identified. Not really useful stuff, but this class is pretty easy and asynchronous. Her ELMS page is awful to navigate but once you get the hang of it, there are clear instructions to all of these assignments. You can also always email her; she’s quite responsive and not as condescending as some of these reviews make her out to be. One thing I really don’t like is that for major assignments (the website, proposal, final project) she never gives anyone a 100%? Like ever? She assigns these grades as letter grades, so it’s practically impossible to get an A+ in this class since the maximum grade she gives is a 95% for some reason (she has this really weird grading scale that’s hard to explain). I would probably take this class with another professor if I had the chance to redo this course but if she’s your only option left, it’s not the worst. Be punctual and thorough with your assignments; it’s not that much work overall.
Sarah Goodson ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/14/2024	Professor Goodson is incredibly kind and it's extremely evident how much she cares about her students. That being said, I personally find her course extremely confusing. There are three major writing assignments and two presentations (which are based on project 2 and 3, respectively). My notes on the class are as follows: - Instructions for the assignments are EXTREMELY confusing. She posts assignment descriptions, but they are always about 7-11 pages long and you have to search for the required deliverables. - In class, there are always graded discussion activities that are usually irrelevant/unnecessary to our current projects/presentations. - The presentations aren't too bad, but three people presented every Wednesday for project 1 which makes sense in theory, but because of this structure people were presenting before their first draft of the adjacent project was done and some presented after the project had been done for nearly two weeks. - She turned off grade calculations on Canvas, so it's hard to get a read on where you stand in the class. - We have graded journal entries due every five weeks that require five, one-page entries regarding writing style and methods - For all presentations we have to have an email conference regarding details of the project to get feedback on our ideas, but she doesn't always respond in time to apply the feedback - We have required readings for every class, but 90% of the time it's never brought up or mentioned and then the 10% of the time it is mentioned no one has done it - We turn in major assignments/drafts on an external platform, so the project due dates will NOT show up on Canvas calendar or on the assignments tab which is just something I had to get used to as all my assignments are usually on canvas (there were a few times she randomly put them in "assignments", but usually they weren't on canvas) - Sometimes (pretty randomly), there will be one week with A TON of stuff due so just keep an eye out so it doesn't take you by surprise (one time we had a draft due that was supposed to be a third of the final project length (which was about 5 pages) and the assignment was opened at 6am the day before it was due) I will say, I really enjoy Professor Goodson as a person. She always checks in on her students and is super fun to talk to. She's the most understanding professor I've had in terms of absences, presentation anxiety, mental health, and general student well-being which I think is so incredible. I don't think I would necessarily recommend her for this class, but she is an incredibly sweet woman who is so passionate about what she does.
Michelle Von Euw ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/09/2024	I’ll admit this class is not very useful in terms of the assignments given. lf you complete the assignments based on the instructions, you’ll probably get an A on each one. They aren’t really hard assignments, but it sucks that each major assignment can really impact your grade. Michelle is easy to reach if you need any clarification. I just wish she gave feedback on draft assignments before we have to submit the finalized versions, because we all know peer review is mostly bs.
Erin Green ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/16/2024	While Professor Green's course was easy, and I appreciated her upgrading method, the course was useless, and I highly recommend taking 393 with another instructor if you wish to get anything out of the course. The entire class was zombie-themed, even down to the resume and cover letter. None of the writing done in this class will you be able to reuse. The resume and cover letter must be tailored to a zombie-themed position and the instructional manual and infographic assignments are also zombie-themed. Imagine submitting a zombie-themed writing sample to an employer. I'm sure that would look reallllyyy professional. Again, don't take 393 with Erin unless you really love zombies and don't mind wasting your time writing a bunch of useless assignments.
Sonney Wolfe ENGL393 Expecting an A akl2025 01/11/2024	If I had the option to give a 10-star rating, I certainly would. Sonney is truly an incredible and empathetic professor. She communicates every assignment's requirements clearly, promptly responds to students' feedback and requests, and delivers engaging lectures. Despite having a class from 6 to 9 pm on Tuesdays, I always looked forward to attending because of her lovely energy and positive vibe. It's evident that she enjoys her job, and her upbeat attitude brings joy to the students. If you have the opportunity to choose Sonney for any ENGL course, I highly recommend doing so!
Aubrey Zinn ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/28/2023	Really fun class where we participated in many activities to get hands-on knowledge of what was being taught. Only issue is grades took long to get back. Highly recommend.
Joshua Buursma ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/28/2023	This professor is extremely reasonable. The professor consistently extended deadlines when needed. He wants to give you a good grade. The class is an easy A, but it's a lot of work. There are 2-3 completion based assignments per week, and if you complete them then you will get an A no matter what. There was no final exam or final project, but there were 4 major assignments which required a bit more work. But, the professor makes it very clear what you need to have in major assignments to get 100% on them. None of them took longer than 5-6 hours (and you could probably knock them out in 2-3 if you really needed to). All this being said, I didn't learn much in this class, though it was withing my power to learn something from this class if I put more time into it. Take ENGL393 with Buursma if you don't want to worry about your grade for ENGL393; I absolutely would recommend him.
Joshua Buursma ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/24/2023	Generous grader. His feedback helped correct the drafts before turning them in. As long as you put the effort into your assignments, you will get what you want.
Shannon Zellars Strohl ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2023	Professor Zellars Strohl provided everything we needed for this course very well. This course was an online course that didn't involve any set time during the week. We were basically just expected to hand in assignments on Mondays and Thursdays as they were due. Assignments consisted of reading, discussions, 3 major assignment drafts/submissions (Resume/Cover letter, Technical Report, Infographic, Personal Website), and peer review. Pros: - Very descriptive and helpful in the modules. She included everything that we needed to know and ELMS was very organized. All of the assignments are in ELMS from the start of the semester. I was never confused on what was due or what we had to do. I never interacted with the professor at all really since everything was super clear from the start. - Well structured assignments. She had us basically plan and set up all of our major assignments from the ground up, which was very helpful and made them seem not so big. I spent a few hours working on each of these assignments, so it did not take up too much time. - The major assignments gave us valuable skills such as writing cover letters, resumes, technical reports, and creating our own website. These made for a good experience and make us more employable. - As long as you completed the requirements, and put in some good effort into the major assignments, you will get an A. I accidentally submitted one of the discussions late but I didn't lose credit, so she is pretty lenient. Cons: - I didn't really receive too much feedback on the major assignments. She often took off a few points without explanation. It's fine though as it doesn't really affect your grade all that much. Overall I would recommend this professor for ENGL393. I learned a lot of applicable skills.
Shannon Zellars Strohl ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2023	Take ENGL393 with Professor Zellars-Strohl if you can. If you make an effort on the assignments, you should have no problem getting an A in the class. This class being online was also very convenient as you don't have to go in person to lectures.
Joshua Buursma ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/23/2023	Concurring with everyone else here: while the coursework isn't hard or novel, the class is well managed: quick email response time, has good and easily understood feedback, was lenient with extensions, and ultimately made the required work for the course way more manageable. Lots of small but free assignments that are always 100%, and the large assignments are graded very nicely (average of about 92-95% for all major assignments), making this a very easy course.
Amanda Fiore ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2023	professor fiore does the absolute most. she doesn't know how to give credit where it's due-- you could implement all her feedback from a draft assignment and she can STILL find ways to shoot down your work and take off extra points for no reason. the workload for this class isn't reasonable at all, please take any other professor but her because i think she doesn't know what she's doing half the time. she thinks that this is the only class we take and she talks about how we need to pertain to our audience yet she can never meet her student's needs!!! maybe she should take her own advice
Amanda Fiore ENGL393 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/22/2023	this is her first semester teaching at umd. pretty harsh grader, and she does care a lot about tiny details, even if they dont really matter. very hard to get an A on big assignments. theres an assignment where she will grade your resume after going over guidelines and whatever. however, my resume (proven successful with multiple internships) kinda got picked apart, because CS resume language is techy. half of the year will be spent working on group projects that build up to the final paper, but a LOT of the class was spent doing stupidly long peer reviews. her course page is a little disorganized (it is her first year using canvas after all). she is reasonably accomodating as well. overall, the class is NOT hard. she just makes it more annoying than it has to be. look, there are worse professional writing teachers. if youre aiming for an A, its very annoying. if you want to pass, just be able to bullshit at length.
Yvonne Roe ENGL393 Expecting an A- solaeo 12/17/2023	Absolutely great. She is very understanding and doesn't take off points if you're late. She will give you a zero but if you immediately email her and ask if you can turn it in for a grade change she will say yes. She love telling stories about our family. She is so nice and everything I've done in this technical writing class was super important for me getting a job in the real world. It helped many in the class get internships and jobs. She is an amazing instructor and I suggest taking her class. You won't regret it.
Aubrey Zinn ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2023	Loved taking ENGL393 with Professor Zinn. It was a very unique English class. We took part in fun activities and group projects to learn the content. The assignments were at times difficult, but if you work hard, you will get the grade you want. Only problem was grades took long to get back to us.
Daniel Saalfeld ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2023	A lot lot lot of busy work, but do it all (follow his requirements exactly) and you'll get a good grade. He made us do voice threads where you record yourself and post it which was annoying but overall if you put just a little effort to do the assignments then you can get an A.
Michael Schmidt ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/12/2023	Professor Schmidt is a very cool and passionate teacher at the university and is genuinely considerate of his students and their development. He is very impassioned about his lectures and encourages participation during class to facilitate teaching. The coursework is extremely reasonable and directly applicable to future endeavors, including resume and portfolio write-ups and reviews. Highly recommend if you enjoy a low-key class with relevant work you will find valuable.
Sonney Wolfe ENGL393 Expecting an A+ sheldoug13 12/06/2023	If I could give a rating higher than a 5 then I definitely would! Sonney is an amazing professor and a very nice person. She is fair with all her assignments, understanding when it comes to deadlines, and really helpful when it comes to feedback. She is a great personality that will make you want to come to class every time! Definitely take any class she teaches if possible!
Joshua Buursma ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/02/2023	Very laid-back professor. Buursma is quick to respond to emails and gives concise feedback on assignments. He was super understanding with his students and would give extensions on assignments as needed. Any issues you have will be with the class content and not Buursma. The class is pretty dry and there isn't much new information, I strongly recommend you take it online if possible. Regardless, Buursma is a solid choice, totally recomend.
Amanda Fiore ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/02/2023	she is new to umd so i had no expectations for her. she is an extremely hard grader and is so picky about the tiniest details. the highest grade i have gotten on any major assignment is a 91 (excluding extra credit points) and she herself admitted that she never gives 100s. she can also be condescending and unclear in her feedback. most of the class is a long group research project made up of many long assignments that take way too much time and don't really prepare you for the real world. the final proposal is also really long and tedious. only the first 2 assignments (ePortfolio and cover letter/resume) at least kind of help. for someone who emphasizes attention to the audience so much, she should be doing the same thing to her audience (us students) better. please take this class with a different professor.
Daniel Saalfeld ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/28/2023	Great professor. NGL I did not do the readings but he's not a harsh grader. I am not an English major and I hate writing. I came in expecting a B due to past English coursework being graded harshly but I have gotten a high 90 on each of his major assignments and I love it!!!! He does a peer review for each major assignment which I think is great as it gives you a chance to see how other students interpreted the assignment and may even give you ideas to make yours better (not plagiarize I genuinely mean ideas such as adding more about yourself or fonts).
Phillip Moses ENGL393 Anonymous 10/12/2023	He doesn't give anyone a full score on drafts. It's understandable that drafts aren't perfect, but he grades them like they are the final submission which defeats the purpose of a draft. The averages for the drafts are in the sixties and they can bring your grade down quite a bit. He is also very picky about a lot of things in his feedback, even though many of the students in his class are taking english for their first or second time at this college.
Eric Bond ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 07/28/2023	Took professor bond during the summer session. He was very understanding and flexible. The class was manageable with workload and consisted of four multiple part projects. It can be easy to fall behind in the course since the class is accelerated, but professor Bond is willing to work with you on extensions for assignments. I enjoyed this course and 100% recommend to anyone looking to fill a requirement and get a GPA boost over the summer.
Joshua Buursma ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/20/2023	I agree with the other review saying that a lot of the class seems to be commonalities which can make the content a bit dry at points but it is still a doable A. However, as a professor he is very laid back, he responds quickly to emails, he is very understanding of student's personal issues and will accommodate your needs. Very much recommend
Pamela Gerhardt ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 07/03/2023	Took her summer course this year, it's really engaging and she's very nice, she gives valuable feedback and she doesn't grade harshly, I would recommend taking this course with her.
Joshua Buursma ENGL393 Anonymous 06/27/2023	He is a great instructor who is also extremely understanding.
Patrick Nelson ENGL393 Anonymous 06/20/2023	just a mess. the previous post nailed it.
Robert Harris ENGL393 Expecting an A ScottF98 06/14/2023	Great professor. I see some complaints that I think are a bit off based, but I will admit, he's demanding and a hard professor. But he truly cares, so yes, he walks around, checks up on us, but he is very knowledgeable about the content and has taught on every level. So if you are not trying to work, then this is not the class for you. You will absolutely earn your grade with Dr. Rob. I appreciated his feedback and toughness because he truly taught Technical Writing and I learned.
Elizabeth McClure ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/24/2023	She grades all the significant assignments at the end of the semester, however, she is very lenient. There is a lot of work for this class but they are relatively easy and also make up for your grade in case you did not do well on the more manageable assignments. Definitely do not take it if you want a class with a light workload
Shannon Zellars Strohl ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/21/2023	Just a heads up, you will never receive a 100% on any of the major assignments. She never gives them out, and sometimes she will not clarify in the rubric the exact reason she took the point off in the rubric. However, take advantage of the peer reviews and complete all the discussion boards and you will do fine in this class.
Andrew Delfino ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2023	Lovely online course experience. Easy grading, good feedback, reasonable expectations. Honestly you don't even need to do any of the readings or anything except if there is a discussion board. Just make sure to plan to go to the writing center before the end of the semester-- it's an assignment that can be easily forgotten. He also gives you 50% if you don't turn something in-- which is quite convenient on the lower point assignments, when it's the end of the semester...
Eric Bond ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2023	A very kind and caring professor. Wishes the best for his students and is understanding when it comes to issues. Complete assignments on time and put effort into your papers, and you will do well.
Yvonne Roe ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/14/2023	Prof. Roe is one of the best professors I have ever had! She was so sweet and understanding about what everyone had going on in their their other classes and in live overall. She was always so encouraging and flexible to make things work for everyone in class and tried her best to be as accommodating and apply everyone's feedback on how the class schedule should look (visually and the work load) and wouldn't mind extending an assignment deadline if she felt everyone needed the extra time. It was also really easy to talk to her and she always responded quickly and made class fun with her easygoing personality and occasional stories about her weekends.
Yvonne Roe ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/12/2023	Professor that really cares about students. Willing to work with you to get what you need done.
Danuta Hinc ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/11/2023	Professor Hinc was one of the best professor I have had at UMD. She is not a harsh grader and leaves great feedback. The class consist of weekly discussions, four different projects, and 4 different voicethreads. The class wasn't hard overall just got to make sure you do the work early and read the modules other than that this class is a easy A.
Robert Harris ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/10/2023	This guy is by far the worst professor I've had at UMD. I was in his once a week section and while listening to him in class, it seems like there is nothing about him that makes him qualified to teach a classroom of college students. All he does is enforce deadlines and treat us like he deserves all the respect in the world. He would always walk up and down the aisle right next to me to make sure everyone was taking notes. If you weren't paying attention and taking notes, he would point it out to you in front of the whole class. On top of this, he would have us do things like sign in and out of class, pick people to read slides out loud, and even went so far as to have an exam for an English class (which he didn't tell us about). I'm almost certain that the "exam" (which was more of a quiz) was just an excuse to make sure people pay attention from that point on. Another thing is that there were no late deadlines on canvas, so you couldn't submit any assignment late without having to ask him. Even then he would only allow you to do this once and still penalize you. For assignments like first drafts, if you missed the deadline you would get a zero on the peer review as well. He has told us many times that he didn't care if something has gone wrong on our end that made us unable to submit on time and how we were just being irresponsible and lazy, despite him admitting that he doesn't want to grade our assignments because he's lazy. This guy is petty, egotistical, and lazy. Avoid him or else this class will be much harder than it needs to be.
Jesse Brooks ENGL393 Expecting an A xtermn8 05/05/2023	Jesse is amazing. He's chill, calm, humorous, pleasant, and one of the coolest dudes I've seen. Not just a professor but someone you could legitimately have a good time hanging out with. I cannot recommend him more highly. He also grades VERY fairly, where if you meet the requirements you'll get s good grade. He grades your work objectively. Only drawback was grading took a long time but I can't fault him since he has many classes he's teaching at once.
Robert Lucci ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/03/2023	Professor Lucci is a fantastic instructor. It is clear he cares deeply about both his students as well as what he is teaching. He is very flexible with deadlines and work. His conferences following some of our assignments were super insightful and definitely helped me write better. I would highly recommend him as a professor!
Kisa Lape ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/27/2023	Super understanding, kind and accessible.
Robert Harris ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/24/2023	This professor is disorganized, petty, and downright disrespectful. He treats it like a high school class, fully expecting every single student to be present, gets pissy when there isn't a 100% attendance rate, and takes it out on the people who are actually in the class. Also, he has canceled class an hour before it begins multiple times, making it seem like he doesn't care about the class-- or our time-- at all. He also refused to let me make-up an assignment when I was sick, and I know I'm not the only one. Additionally, he'll walk through the aisles of students to make sure your computer screens are relevant to the course at hand... Which again, really feels like high school. And then there's his grading criteria, which is rarely clear, and often asks you to repeat yourself in different parts of the assignment. It's anyone's guess when the assignments are actually due, as the due dates change every class (though this might have been him trying to be nice?). He seems like a nice enough guy out of class hours and I honestly think he just hates teaching, and doesn't have the emotional maturity to keep that hatred in the right lanes.
Peter Grybauskas ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/10/2023	Best professor you could ever have. The workload is very small and he is a goofball who is fun and entertaining every class. poof!
Aysha Jawed ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/01/2023	Took ENGL393 during the Winter 2023 semester. There were 3 main projects/essays: technical instructions, infographics (which is based on the technical instructions), and a cover letter + skills-based resume. In addition, there were straight-forward discussion posts to do a few times a week. Just follow the rubric, ask the professor for clarification if needed, and put in the work.
Robert Harris ENGL393 Expecting a B Anonymous 03/13/2023	Exactly what the other review said for ENGL393. He seems like he'd be a cool guy, and it seems like he is outside of class or if you talk to him, but the way he treats you with such disrespect in class will make you hate him and yourself for ever signing up for this class. He very poorly communicates what's expected of you, and so consequentially his grading is just as arbitrary. Good luck learning anything from his "death by powerpoint" presentations and all-caps tirades either. DO NOT TAKE HIM. I know there are many bad teachers for 393, but there are other classes too for professional writing in the 39x courses... I wish I had known before this professor.
Anthony Batts ENGL393 Expecting an A+ petergriffin69 02/28/2023	Took ENGL393 with Batts over the winter. Take him. That's all that needs to be said.
Robert Harris ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 02/24/2023	AVOID THIS PROFESSOR AT ALL COSTS Dr. Harris seems like a cool guy outside of class, but DON'T LET THIS FOOL YOU. This class BOILS MY BLOOD every day. I am seriously considering taking a W just so I can take it with someone else. Easily the WORST professor I have had at UMD by far. He will project a full slide of text and then just pause and make you take notes by WALKING AROUND AND CHECKING YOU LAPTOP SCREEN or else he will call you out for not taking notes. He will make you SIGN IN AND OUT of class every day and if you don't legibly put your name you won't get participation credit. He will take PERSONAL OFFENSE if you try to take a picture of the wall of text he has on the projector and CALL YOU OUT in front of the class every time you try it. He suddenly decided he wants to have a pop EXAM in an ENGLISH CLASS. Like what??? You will get no participation credit if you listen to music during class, use your phone, or don't pay attention. Literally would rather take the 10% grade hit to skip class than show up to HIGH SCHOOL again. If you break the rules: (Copied from his Google Slide) "Failure to comply with the above (and in the syllabus) classroom expectations will warrant a removal from the class that day. Repeated offenses will result in escalation." (The "above" he references is taking pictures of slides, having headphones in, or being on your phone) He has no idea how to use ELMs (in his defense he is a new professor) and you will be eternally confused and have no idea what is due and when. This class gives me more anxiety than my major classes. He comes up with all sorts of assignments where the requirements are poorly documented or just plain wrong. Only saving grace is so far he basically gives everyone 100% on stuff. Still not worth it in my opinion, at all.
Michelle Von Euw ENGL393 Anonymous 02/21/2023	avoid at all costs. don't learn a single thing about technical writing, the entire semester is focused on some random project that has nothing to do with technical writing. annoying assignments that aren't hard but she gives no feedback to improve your work from before and expects you to know what you did wrong based on powerpoints she provides. only took it with her because all other slots were full.
Roberto Leon ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 02/07/2023	good professor, lenient with grading
Sheila Lalwani ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/25/2023	she suck fr
Anthony Batts ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/25/2023	He was one of the most kindest and responsive professors I have ever had. He was always open to questions or concerns that I had throughout the entire semester. In these ways, he made the class much more enjoyable than it already was. Very reasonable grader, the course was designed such that it was easy to navigate and work, and the amount of detail he put into his assignments was absolutely amazing.
Catherine Bayly ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/25/2023	The winter section had a fair amount of coursework. Content is straightforward and simple. One thing is the weighted assignments are heavily dependent on 3 projects75% so grades can easily tank.
Patrick Nelson ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/22/2023	This class was generally a mess. Prof. Nelson would frequently announce assignments that were never actually opened on Canvas, and would arbitrarily cancel class. There were also long waits for grades on assignments. However, he seemed like a nice guy in class, and the assignments are generally not that difficult.
Aysha Jawed ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/21/2023	Prof Jawed is extremely nice and receptive to questions. The course necessarily isn't the most fun as the assignments are somewhat draining, but Prof Jawed does a great job of balancing the class. Recommended.
Aysha Jawed ENGL393 Expecting an A+ tortoise7 12/31/2022	Very helpful and responsive. Sets clear guidelines for assignments and gives great feedback on rough drafts.
Andrew Delfino ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/30/2022	I took this course asynchronously and I believe it was a great experience. He graded very leniently, like the lowest grades people ever got was like an 85. All the assignments are like standard of like engl393 and he gave ample time to do them. He also gave bonus points here and there
Ann Mason ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/24/2022	I took ENGL393 online with Dr. Mason (goes by Michele Mason). For this reason I honestly have no idea what she is like as a person. I am sure she is great based on the other reviews! I am taking off one star for slow grading, but otherwise the course was very fair and went smoothly. She gives only relevant work (no busy work) and grades fairly.
Aysha Jawed ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/23/2022	Prof Jawed is very nice and she explains the material well. The lecture is from 6:30-9:10 but she made it not so boring. You can get very good grades for assignments as long as you meet all the requirements.
Daniel Saalfeld ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/21/2022	Good class structure but Professor Saalfeld is very nitpicky as other reviews mention. He is very passive aggressive and does not believe he is ever wrong. He honestly feels like he is a bit bias sometimes with his lack of compassion for students. This teacher will be a hit or miss for you.
Shannon Zellars Strohl ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2022	She's a nice professor and helpful when asking her questions. She's also lenient on due dates if you explain why. Overall she's a good professor to take to get the professional writing gen ed.
Daniel Saalfeld ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2022	Lenient grader, but a sort of heavy workload. There were a lot of discussion posts and video response activities to do, but they were easy. The proposal was the most painful assignment and it took me a good amount of time to finish. The course was well-organized though, and if you put in a reasonable effort you should get an A.
Joan Mooney ENGL393 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/12/2022	I would not recommend taking this class if this is your instructor. You will be completing a lot of unnecessary work in a fast-paced manner and it is incredibly hard to keep up, especially during the last three weeks of class. In addition to the final project, you must complete multiple drafts beforehand that will significantly impact the grade you receive on the final project if the drafts are not completed in the way that she wants. The rubrics for these drafts are not very clear, and the only thing that really helped me were the examples that she provided of final drafts that were completed by previous students. Not to mention, she takes points off of assignments for absurd reasons even if you do follow exactly what is written in the incredibly vague rubrics that she provides, if you can even call it that. The lectures do not feel meaningful at all. You'll likely spend 50 minutes of your time listening to what assignments are due that week, which is something that is quite clearly stated on the syllabus. Please do yourself a favor and find another professor for this class, otherwise you will without a doubt be stressed in trying to keep up with the assignments while completing them in the manner that she wants. It is not worth it.
Elizabeth McClure ENGL393 Anonymous 12/03/2022	To restate what my peers have said before me: Do not take a course with this professor, no matter what. Even if this is the last available professor and you need to take 393, just take it next semester with someone else. I wish I had done exactly that. She will not give you feedback on your work, and you are left to rely entirely on your peers to review your assignments. Often, assignments are closed until a few hours before their due time, yet the professor does not shift the due date to match her lateness. Believe me and other reviewers when we say the workload is completely unrealistic. Multiple assignments are due daily, along with long readings that, oftentimes, lead to broken links. It is the end of the semester and I have received one grade out of almost sixty assignments. Sixty. From open-response quizzes to peer review summaries (like, what?), this class required far more of my time than it should have. I have no idea if this course will be an easy A, or if I have even been successful so far, and I am sure I will not find out until Testudo gives me my final grades.
Andrew Delfino ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/02/2022	Really enjoyed the course and Andrew's approach. A few of the assignments weren't as well thought out as I'd like, but that's on me.
Michelle Von Euw ENGL393 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/18/2022	I would give her zero stars if I could. No focus on technical writing whatsoever, the entirety of the course is basically focused around a making up a problem and writing a paper on how to solve it requiring interviews and/or sending out surveys. Two things which are extremely difficult to find time to do for basically anyone taking a near full slate of technical courses. Her feedback is unhelpful and unclear, her standards are vague and amorphous at best and completely absent at worst. She demands that you bring your personal life into this class for no legitimate reason, and the workload here relative to the usefulness of the information makes you want to just quit of the whole thing and focus on your real classes. Avoid her at basically all costs.
Sajeela Yaqub ENGL393 Anonymous 10/24/2022	Do not take her. Horrible at teaching and her online instructions are not clear. Too much work for 3 credits class.
Michelle Von Euw ENGL393 Expecting a B Anonymous 10/13/2022	Please save yourself months of trouble and take another professor! This class is very unorganized and the teacher is not skilled in explaining assignment guidelines. She had us create an ELMS profile the first week of class, and I completed all of the guidelines, wrote 3 paragraphs of information on my profile, and added my pronouns (all information she told us to include). But she gave me 0/10 because for some reason my email wasn't showing up, despite my adding it. This is just an example of her overall attitude to the class. She often does not grade on a rubric, which means she hands out 0s if you do not do the assignment perfectly to her liking. I brought my concerns to her attention and she responded by saying that she made everything clear and that I should have read the assignment better. Considering that this is an online class, there should be more grace for misunderstandings. But practically speaking, adding a rubric would have alleviated any confusion. I have a feeling she may enjoy giving out 0s for some reason.
Sarah Dammeyer ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 08/19/2022	Amazing professor!! I took this class over the summer and I have to say Ms.Dammeyer is the most understanding person ever. I am somebody who is never fond of English and writing classes but Ms.Dammeyer structured the class in a way that your English and writing skills do not need to be perfect to do well in this class. As long as you follow the assignment rubric and complete the assignments on time you will do well. The assignments themselves are not that hard and are straightforward. However, being a summer class there is a good workload but definitely manageable.
Phillip Moses ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 08/04/2022	Phillip (goes by Scott) Moses is a fairly easy going teacher for an asynchronous course. He posts every assignment at the start of the semester (with due dates), so I was able to map out the whole semester early on. He sends reminders on Monday about items due that week which is helpful to stay on top of tasks. The assignments are not short, so time management is key to stay on top of the work. Moses is a reasonable grader focused on how you improve between your draft and final. No matter how your draft is, if you get a lot of (good) feedback, and make changes from the feedback, you should do fine. In regards to weekly tasks, they are easy two point assignments that are quick. Usually Moses did not give out 100% on rough drafts, but those few points don't really matter. Peer feedback is key, so be sure to give constructive feedback for your peers to improve so others will do the same!
Sarah Dammeyer ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/07/2022	Legitimately one of the best English professors I have ever had. Does a style of grading similar to contract grading. IE - if you complete every objective of the assignment, you will get 100%. Very understanding about modern life/setbacks - and willing to give an extension if you genuinely need it. An absolute pleasure to talk to, and very proactive in responding to emails. TAKE THIS PROFESSOR!
Dennis Winston ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2022	Overall, very good professor. Made this course as easy as it could be. Very accommodating. A bit awkward, but it was endearing. Idk if/when he'll teach this class in person again, but he used the same elms page for in-person and virtual students, which led to a lot of confusion the first two weeks. It was all fine in the end, and I think it was worth the confusion to have him. He is a very reasonable grader and grades assignments in a timely manner. Very nice guy. I would recommend!
Phillip Moses ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/20/2022	Philip (Scott) Moses is a well-organized teacher. He taught ENGL 393 asynchronously and it was very easy to keep up with assignments and know when due dates are approaching. All assignments were input at the start of the semester, so one could plan/write out when everything is due. Scott sends out weekly announcements on Mondays for when assignments are due, but if you wait until these announcements, it may be a lot of work to complete if you wait. He grades relatively fairly and mostly focused on how you improved between the rough draft and the final submission. As long as you do the work, and put effort into each assignment, you will be successful.
Elizabeth McClure ENGL393 Anonymous 05/19/2022	Easily the worst professor I have had at UMD so far. From the things I have read on here I’m honestly not sure how she is still allowed to teach. Final grades are due tomorrow and there are three grades in the grade book from the beginning of the semester, so the entire time I had no idea what my standing was in the class. She gives no feedback on assignments. Everything was relied on peer feedback, even more stressful when it came to (potential) grades. I had no idea what was right or wrong in the work I was doing. We would have 2 different PROJECTS due almost every week, overlapping different assignments and overall an extreme amount of busy work. She was extremely hard to reach. Would take days to respond to my emails or just ghost me completely. When or if she did respond it was useless because we were already on a new assignment. She never lectured on HOW to do anything, just threw assignments at us like this was my only class. There was no way a gen ed technical writing class should have taken up the most time in my schedule, but it did. Overall awful, awful professor. She seems nice, but does not have the responsibility to be a professor here. Leaves students in the dark. I am genuinely concerned about my grade in this class, and I never leave reviews on professors but she was just that bad. Considering reaching out to the English department because my god, this woman should not have a job.
Robert Lucci ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/05/2022	There is so much slander about Mr. Lucci and absolutely none of it is true. He is very clear about the guidelines of the class, he makes sure that he is available to meet outside of class, and he is flexible with due dates. I learned many life skills from this class, and I do not think I would have with another professor. If you have the opportunity to take his class, DO IT!
Joan Mooney ENGL393 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/02/2022	Avoid this professor. You will be doing more work in this professional writing course than in the other ones for the same grade. This class has a lot of busywork. It is very monotonous. Do yourself a favor and find another professor so that you can focus on the classes that actually matter.
Kisa Lape ENGL393 Anonymous 04/18/2022	good
Daniel Saalfeld ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/14/2022	Although he is a fairly easy grader, I do not recommend him. He is extremely nit-picky and will take off even a quarter of a point for very little things. In addition, there are multiple assignments where you have to propose a topic, and he will most likely not let you do the one that you want to. Finally, he will also send out passive-aggressive announcements on ELMS about assignments. Overall, it's a 393 class, almost all of the asynchronous versions are the exact same, so the professor is the only real difference. In any async 393 class you can get an A if you put in any effort, but taking it with Professor Saalfeld will put unnecessary stress on you because of the way that he grades and how he converses with the students. I do not recommend.
Michelle Von Euw ENGL393 Anonymous 02/27/2022	Horrible. The class does not focus on technical writing and instead focuses on a useless end of semester project that has students creating their own problems just so they can write about solving one.
Michelle Von Euw ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/26/2022	I thought Michelle was a great teacher, and the work wasn't overwhelming. The final project isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Just put in a little work and you'll be fine.
Sarah Dammeyer ENGL393 Anonymous 01/23/2022	The other reviews aren't lying! She's super nice and genuinely understanding. Gives helpful feedback. I thought I'd hate the class but she made it enjoyable and worthwhile.
Cameron Mozafari ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/22/2022	Dr. Mozafari is a very kind and understanding professor. His classes are engaging and you can tell he cares about his students. He is very lenient when it comes to grades and due dates, so definitely talk to him if you are extremely stressed or falling behind. This class has a lot of assignments so don't worry about doing badly on one of them. I would definitely reccomend taking him!
Erin Green ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/17/2022	I'm taking Professor Green right now for the 3 week winter session. I definitely recommend signing up for this professor's class if at all possible. They are an amazing professor and give really good writing feedback. Makes this class super painless. Don't get me wrong, you still have to write a lot, but this professor doesn't gatekeep or nit-pick and take off points unnecessarily. Take Professor Green!
Marina Seamans ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/24/2021	ENGL393 tends to be a hefty amount of busy work however Professor Ellis does a good job of trying to keep you engaged. While the work is never hard there is a tremendous amount to do. Still an easier professor who will want to help point you in the right direction every step of the way.
Elliot Berger ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2021	Really nice dude, it was genuinely fun to be in his class. He studied something relating to comedy in school, so he always cracks corny jokes to break the ice. He is always willing to help on assignments. He seems to be very lenient on grading, but I wouldn't know. The problem: None of his major assignments were graded when the semester ended, I mean ZERO. My final grade on testudo was posted... and I still have ungraded assignments on ELMS. It's not cool to leave students in the dark on their grades like this. I don't know anything about his personal life, but if they gave him a grading TA this course would have had no problems. I still enjoyed class with Berger, I wouldn't change professors if given the opportunity. He was laid back and cared. Slow (or non-existent) grading is a major pet peeve of mine as a student.
Dennis Winston ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/23/2021	Winston was a great professor. It's an english class, so expect to put in a fair amount of effort. I took the asynchronous section, so all assignments were posted in the beginning of the semester with the due dates laid out. The main assignments consisted of the core essays (instructions, proposal, infographic, ePortfolio), along with voice threads and discussions. I think the assignments were properly paced, and Winston was responsive to any concerns over email. Overall, a pretty straightforward english class that was graded quite fairly!
Michelle Von Euw ENGL393 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/22/2021	Avoid her. She accepts late work but it's because she doesn't make everything clear. It is very difficult to get in contact with her as she doesn't reply most of the time. Every assignment is unclear. There is a lot of work that helps make your final better though. Overall, I would not recommend this to someone who isn't willing to put in the work for this class.
Daniel Saalfeld ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2021	Very reasonable grader. Took an entirely asynchronous course that was organized well. Very much recommend.
Daniel Saalfeld ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/20/2021	I recommend taking this course asynchronously online. If you read his announcements and do each assignment, you will be more than fine. For the longer papers, follow the rubric and go to the writing center. I recommend taking it with him as long as you are asynchronous.
Aysha Jawed ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/18/2021	This is the best professor you can have for technical writing. She gives you relevant assignments that can be utilized in your future and always provides excellent feedback when grading your rough draft. Not only is Professor Jawed understanding, but she genuinely cares about your well-being while encouraging you to do your best in the course.
Daniel Saalfeld ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/14/2021	Really respectful and lenient grader. Would recommend
Sheila Lalwani ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/13/2021	Massive workload for minimal feedback, rough drafts are expected to be final drafts. Depend on peer reviews for feedback on major assignments. Mandatory conferences even though it is a asynchronous course. Harsh grader.
Sheila Lalwani ENGL393 Anonymous 11/02/2021	DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS. I signed up for an asynchronous class but had mandatory synchronous zoom sessions where the only thing covered was material we had already read in our asynchronous work. Feedback was one of two paragraphs copied and pasted for all students with no justification for deductions. She ruined what should have been a useful class.
Michelle Von Euw ENGL393 Expecting a B DangerousSoup 10/15/2021	This class was a lot of work and everything was graded harshly. She didn't actually have lectures, just links to readings and occasional videos. With that being said, she didn't actually teach us anything we needed to know for assignments. Most assignments were unclear and she sometimes grades based on criteria that you didn't know about. Also, her elms page is not well organized. She is very supportive of your ideas, but what she says is inconsistent and she can be very mean. I had an issue where she approved my project topic, but after I wrote the proposal, she told me the topic was no longer valid.
Aysha Jawed ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 09/03/2021	Professor Jawed is a gem. As long as you follow her instructions and try your best, you're in good hands. After you complete your first draft, she'll review it and suggest corrections. If you correct it properly, she'll give you full credit. You can also send her your draft at any time, so be sure to utilize her expertise. It is up to you how difficult you want your research to be, so don't stress over the research project, just choose a topic you are passionate about.
Sarah Dammeyer ENGL393 Expecting a B Anonymous 08/16/2021	dude her entire existence makes me so happy. she is literally the nicest person on the planet. super forgiving if you're feeling overwhelmed or if something in your life messed up. she is super understanding, approachable, and helpful. responds to emails pretty fast if she sees it too. I hate english with a passion and she still made it alright, like the other guy said. taken during summer 2021 If you need to take a professional writing course (ENGL 39x). TAKE IT WITH DAMMEYER. TRUST. I BEG YOU, TAKE IT WITH HER
Justin Lohr ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/09/2021	Professor Lohr provides some of the best feedback I've ever received on a paper and also loves to help his students improve their writing. So long as you actually read the instructions for each assignment and meet all the assignments requirements you'll get an A. It's as simple as that. Pro tip: don't wait until the last minute to do the major assignments, trust me; It's not worth it.
Mrim Boutla ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/17/2021	Dr. Boutla is the only professor i've felt the need to write a review for in my three years i've been at the University of Maryland. Being Mech E, i really didn't care about taking ENGL393 at all but Dr. Boutla made me enjoy going to class. She realized that most of my class were stem majors and tailored a lot of the lectures to have stem-based writing samples, making the assignments much easier to understand. Dr. Boutla cares for her students and genuinely cares about teaching you. She doesn't grade hard and as long as you put in noticeable effort you'll get an A. She gives in-depth feedback on every assignment you do, and allows you to resubmit them for re-grading. Overall, phenomenal professor.
Dennis Winston ENGL393 Anonymous 05/27/2021	Good professor with reasonable expectations. If you put in the effort that a 300-level English course requires and don't procrastinate then you will do well. Dr. Winston is probably one of the better ENGL393 professors available.
Brian Davis ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2021	Davis is a nice and effective professor, and has done a pretty good job of running things online. Readings get to be a little much sometimes (this was more applicable in the first half of the semester), but other than that the workload is very manageable. There are several papers/projects throughout the semester; some individual, some group work. All of it can be done in a reasonable amount of time, and Davis is willing to listen if there are any issues with meeting deadlines. Grading is also pretty generous; grades tend to go from the high B to mid A range, tending towards the latter.
Sheila Lalwani ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/19/2021	She is a decent professor. This class was totally online and she was pretty hands-off. Final drafts were due 7 days after submission of the first draft, and she often did not get feedback to you until the day the final draft is due. You rely primarily on peer reviews to improve your papers, and honestly most of the peer reviews aren't great quality. However, her grading on final drafts is fair and not too harsh. The peer reviews and first drafts are graded harshly (top score is always an 85% at best) and will bring down your grade if you're aiming for an A. Overall, she is not as bad as some of the reviews online suggest and I would not mind taking her again.
Dennis Winston ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/04/2021	I had Professor Winston for online ENGL393. His assignments were very reasonable and he was an extremely fair grader. Some of the assignments are time consuming, especially the proposal paper, so don't leave that one till the last minute! Overall I HIGHLY recommend taking him for online ENGL393.
Sarah Dammeyer ENGL393 Anonymous 04/06/2021	I really hate this class, but Sarah makes it tolerable. She's understanding of student's busy schedules and is pretty lax on deadlines and workload. Her grading system is also awesome. Highly recommend her for this class.
Nia Crawford ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/06/2021	She's very nice, but grades pretty harshly. Class is pretty pointless and boring imo but I think that's because the people in my class are robots. I haven't really gained anything at all from the class as a whole. All of the assignments are things I've done before and should be easy A's but since she's picky thats not really the case. I would say take it with a different instructor or just take a different professional writing course that's worth the time and $.
Mrim Boutla ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 03/28/2021	A STEM perspective on Boutla's 393 class: Dr Boutla does not teach this class like other professors. The review on this page from 2019 is pretty on-the-mark by claiming that her class is basically just an entrepreneurship writing course. That's not a bad thing. Allow me to elucidate. I took tech writing with Dr Boutla in Fall 2019. My peers in aerospace engineering are taking 393 now (Spring 2020) with other professors, so I have a decent data set to compare with. With most instructors, English 393 is a horrible class. The papers are long, tedious, pointless, joyless trash that will leave you more confused and agitated than anything, and the biggest assignments always seem to line up with the parts of the semester when you should be studying for exams for your major courses. I've had multiple peers miss several days of exam study to write pointless dreck like "annotated bibliographies" and impossibly detailed peer reviews. All to have the teacher give them a middling grade with copy-pasted feedback. Dr Boutla does none of that. She approaches the class from a goal-oriented perspective, challenging students to consider the professional path they most wish to pursue and tailoring their assignments to that end. She gives a handful of reasonable assignments throughout the semester and grades fairly. It is easy to get full credit on every assignment as long as you meet the posted requirements. My class had to do the following: - Resume and cover letter (write, and rewrite based on instructor feedback) - Industry paper (Write about the field and companies you intend to work for, focusing on a key industry issue) - Slide deck/Presentation (Prepare a powerpoint based on your industry paper, present it, and answer questions from your peers) - Some in-class participation exercises These are all reasonable assignments that mostly teach useful skills. Dr Boutla's lectures are laced with premium professional advice whether you're interested in grad school or employment post-grad. She's a neuroscientist and professional career coach which makes her highly qualified to discuss the course content, and I believe she's genuinely invested in her students' success. Also, she's just a very nice person. I strongly recommend Dr Boutla's section. I would even go as far as recommending shuffling your schedule around to get into it if necessary/possible. The horror stories from your peers in traditional 393 sections should be enough to prove you made the right choice.
Mark Fitzgerald ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/19/2021	Taken over a winter semester. There were three core assignments (100pts) all split over the duration of the semester, with small (1-10pt) tasks thrown in. He's a super light grader; If you submitted something, you got a passing grade on it. There were plenty of sections, and a lot of work for him to grade, yet he managed to provide real feedback on papers and writing discussions within ~1-2 days (even over the weekend). Fast response to emails as well. Overall, really a great guy, I would 100% take him again in a heartbeat.
Michelle Von Euw ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/19/2021	Everyone seems to not like her, but I thought this class was very self explanatory and she was very responsive. Read the announcements every week and you'll be set. Throughout the semester you do smaller assignments that lead up to a final research paper. Overall the assignments were pretty straight forward, but she was always willing to clarify through email if there was confusion.
Dennis Winston ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/12/2021	I had Professor Winston for ENGL393 and thought that he as a very reasonable professor. As long as you follow his instructions and look at the rubric, he always graded the assignments fairly. Although the course was not that difficult, the workload could be heavy at some points.
Kelly Cresap ENGL393 Anonymous 01/08/2021	Please avoid taking ENGL393 with Cresap!! There is no rubric at all, and you will not know your grade unless you ask him or estimate based on your previous assignments. He asked us to fill out a mid-semester course evaluation and lots of students put that we wanted a rubric so we know what he expects for each assignment. However, he told us that "he doesn't believe in rubrics", so essentially it's just hoping that he likes your paper enough for it to be an A (which was a very slim chance after talking to other people in my class). The only chunk of feedback you can get is from peer reviews, but still they are unhelpful since they also don't know what he expects. The only perk to this class was that he lists out all things expected within the ELMS announcements, but there are a lot so you need to keep track of them. He might be helpful to take if you are a junior because of the resume and cover letter assignments. I am a senior, and he graded mine poorly (even though I got hired at a top company with both!!) just because it didn't meet his standard of the outdated textbook. If you'd like transparency in your grading and helpful feedback to actually learn professional writing, avoid him at all costs.
Patrick Nelson ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/29/2020	Prof. Patrick was fantastic! He was really accommodating and understanding during the virtual semester and made sure that we weren't being overwhelmed with material. His lectures were very short, concise, and entertaining while still getting the point across. I felt like I learned a lot about how to write better in his class.
Daniel Saalfeld ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2020	Mixed feelings. I don't think taking ENGL393 with Professor Saalfeld is very difficult (his grading is fair), but it's a decent amount of work. Occasionally he would send us very passive aggressive emails when a chunk of the class missed an instruction, however some of these instructions are buried in large walls of text that he gives us for assignments, so I wish that he cut the students a little more slack at times.
Andrew Delfino ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2020	Chill professor, I only spent a few hours per week on this class and easily secured my A. Style exercises are a cool addition to try and improve your writing.
Andrew Delfino ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/20/2020	Andy was a great online professor for professional writing. The videos he posted every week helped with understanding the weekly assignments that needed to be done. I loved the way he structured the online course and I loved the way he critiqued our assignments. He always starts off with a nice comment about our work and then politely comments on what we could work on. He is very understanding and overall an awesome professor!
David Miles ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/16/2020	Scott (David) was a super nice professor and had very easy and relevant assignments for students interested in technical work. Grading leniently and provided great feedback . Would recommend!
Elliot Berger ENGL393 Anonymous 12/04/2020	Really nice professor. Lectures are sometimes a little boring, but he's really accommodating and tries to help every student pass the course. If you need help with papers he has weekly office hours. Only issue I have is that he takes a long time to give your grades back to you.
Dennis Winston ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/03/2020	ENGL393 is a decently time consuming class, but Dr. Winston was pretty good at responding to emails and concerns I had
Michelle Von Euw ENGL393 Anonymous 11/13/2020	Absolutely awful. You write a paper for the class to bring a solution to a real world problem. This is fine, but she is very bad at communicating what she wants and the actual timeline of assignments. Her feedback was never helpful and overall you aren't going to gain anything meaningful from this class.
Elizabeth McClure ENGL393 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 06/11/2020	Have you ever received a final letter grade at random? Because I'm pretty sure that's how she operates. On the last day of classes, only eleven out of 42 assignments were graded. Today, weeks after the end of the semester, I have a final course grade, but my final project has none. Get ready to spend 12 hours on every project for absolutely no reason. Astonishing that she is still allowed to teach. Praying that my course evaluation allows someone else to take her job.
Joshua Buursma ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/10/2020	A lot of the class seems to be commonalities you probably have already picked up or learned in the past - not a reflection on him though so much as the course. He is very laid back, somewhat dry of a lecturer but grades very fairly and cares about the well-being of students. He accounts for personal life problems and will accommodate you as necessary. He will also review any piece of writing you send to him if you do so before the due date (and if he has time that is) so there really is no reason you shouldn't get a good grade in this class. For the big group project (proposal) he lets you select whatever RFP you want, so pick something you like to write about and are interested in and it will feel less taxing.
Sheila Lalwani ENGL393 Expecting a P Anonymous 06/08/2020	I tried to give her a chance but she's a piece of shit. Coarse load is way too high. She makes you have a conference with her for every major assignment. She usually gives useless criticism because she doesn't actually read your rough draft. If you ask for specific instances of the issues she mentions, she'll dodge the question and in one instance got super passive aggressive with me because she "already told" me that I had the issue..... Lots of times we would get our grade and feedback for rough drafts AFTER the final draft was due. B1G brain. Avoid her class at all costs.
Mrim Boutla ENGL393 Anonymous 05/23/2020	Great teacher, super knowledgeable, and the class helped immensely
Andrew Delfino ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2020	Andy was awesome! (Our course was already online before COVID started). The organization of the online classroom was fantastic, and he gave meaningful assignments (Loved the style exercises). All that, and he's a fast grader.
Alexandra Calloway ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2020	Professor Calloway cares about her students. She is very nice and understanding. She gives good comments and feedback in almost all her assignments but doesn't take many points off. If you do the assignments and show up to class, you will get an A even if you submit assignments late. Definitely an easy A course that I actually learned stuff in. She makes us read certain short articles and do simple assignments that teach you important aspects of technical writing and skills that you will definitely put to use in the workplace. She also gives a lot of extra credit opportunities. I was probably putting, at most, an hour of work per week in this course.
Kelly Cresap ENGL393 Anonymous 05/01/2020	As nice as Cresap was trying to be, it was extremely difficult trying to understand what he’d want from us for any assignment. There’s no rubric, no sense of organization, along with the fact that you don’t know your grade unless you email or ask in person. I’m taking his course that was originally in person, now online due to the pandemic, and this situation goes to show that he’s truly not for online teaching. He took feedback on his spamming us with ELMs announcements (and us struggling to find what assignments were due that day within those 10+ announcements) and he minimized the amount and made them a bit more organized by listing everything due that day under one announcement. That was the only upside to this class. Otherwise, his critiques on my final drafts, although they should be helpful, I don’t read them because there’s no incentive for us to redo our papers when those are the final grades anyways. Whatever paper you edited after your peer review and submit to him the following week is the final draft you get graded on. He gives no direct feedback to your draft until it’s graded, so you just have to hope you magically wrote an A paper. Your grade relies on you knowing what he wants without him explicitly telling you, and hoping that the peer review somewhat helps you, and at the end only to get a nice B- for an assignment you thought you put a decent amount of effort on. I thought I could enjoy his class and get something out of it but it’s the most useless class I’ve taken. He’s also pretty good at responding fairly quickly to emails. If you’re looking for an easy A or some class to ease up your schedule a bit, I don’t recommend taking it with Cresap.
Sajeela Yaqub ENGL393 Anonymous 04/08/2020	I had her for the online section for ENGL393 for abroad engineering students. Her section had way more work than the other sections.
Michelle Von Euw ENGL393 Anonymous 04/03/2020	This is without a doubt the worst, most useless class I've ever taken at UMD. She forces you to do a project where you have to pick a real problem at one of the organizations you're involved in outside the university, and present a technical report/manual providing solutions to this problem. You are forced to interview people or give out surveys to a lot of people to get a passing grade. You are completely out of luck if you either don't have a problem or people to interview. There were a few assignments on cover letters, resumes and memos, which are great and what ENGL393 should be, but the biggest project is a completely stupid source of anxiety. I wish she would focus more on just writing formally than forcing you to bring your own life into this class.
Patrick Nelson ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/24/2020	great
Mrim Boutla ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/06/2020	Great Professor. Expect to put in moderate work, but the skills you will learn in this class are immense.
Sheila Lalwani ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2019	Shes a pretty good professor. The class is busy work but it is a gen ed requirement. I really only spent 3 hours max a week on work aside from when we had big writing assignments due like the research paper and a 2 other major assignments. Aside from that, if you submit a decent enough paper you will do fine in this class. She even offers some extra credit at the end of the semester for doing course evaluations and going to the writing center. She really cares about her students and even though this was an online class, I really connected with her more than I do with other professors and she gives good feedback on your drafts to help you improve and get a good grade on the final draft.
Mrim Boutla ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/26/2019	Don't take Boutla for ENGL393. She thinks the class is an Entrepreneurship course. In the past, she has taught ENGL398B (Writing for Social Entrepreneurship) and she is too lazy to adapt the course or materials, so she teaches ENGL393 as if it were that class. I'm not learning the topic I signed up for and it's very frustrating. She is not a very strict grader, but there are definitely easier options out there for this class.
Elliot Berger ENGL393 Anonymous 12/17/2018	Good teacher, fair to students and very courteous in class. Some lectures can be a bit dry, but he has some assignments (peer critque of papers, sentence rewriting handouts) that are a bit more interactive. Biggest issue with him is that assignments were never graded on time and that he's always late to class by 5-8 minutes. Also, he only accepts hard copies of assignments, and doesn't really use ELMS for submitting essays which is annoying.
Elliot Berger ENGL393 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/13/2018	Very nice guy, easy going and fair with what to expect from students. He likes to interact with the class so make sure you are willing to participate. A slow grader however he is fair and is not extremely strict about assignments. Most of semester focuses on a final proposal which is not that enjoyable but he is willing to help in any way to get you through it.
Elliot Berger ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2018	He teaches well, and usually has interesting things to do each day. The assignments are in the end graded fairly, but we didn't get anything back until the end of the semester.
Kelly Cresap ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/11/2018	Very nice guy who makes the class very interesting. His classes may be long, but he gives you a 10 minute break, and has interesting short stories to tell each class. He is willing to work with you to meet deadlines if you give him enough warning.
Daniel Saalfeld ENGL393 Anonymous 05/01/2018	He's really not that bad, but the final project is individual and not as a group and he bans over a dozen topics for the final paper including on campus issues, curriculum changes, legislation changes, fraternity/sorority related, big issue/global issues, social problems, business plans, traffic on 495, and more.
Sheila Lalwani ENGL393 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/26/2018	If you have a choice between taking Shelia's class and being attacked by a rabid raccoon, you'll probably have a better time and a better chance of success taking on the raccoon. She teaches nothing, most of the class is annoying busy work, and is a horrendously terrible communicator. On multiple occasions she has been unable to answer even basic questions by email, and often deducts large amounts of points from your writing without explaining why. She also provides rubrics but refuses to use them. When you peer review other students, she makes you research their topics and give them sources to include in their paper - literally doing their work for them. It's really hard to do well in her class but grades are inflated for the low end, so everyone is pushed toward a mediocre grade. This course was more time consuming than the overwhelming majority of my engineering classes, even though the material is much easier, because she assigns so much unnecessary work.
Daniel Saalfeld ENGL393 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/17/2018	Amazing professor. Really liked his class. Even though it was too much work his directions and rubrics made it lot easier. Took it online
Joshua Buursma ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/13/2017	He is a great laid back teacher. The once a week 6:30 to 9:15 PM class was sometimes dry, but not too terrible. There are extra credit opportunities at the end of the semester as well. There is no reason you shouldn't be able to get an A in this class with ~2 hours of work per week.
Rebecca Ritzel ENGL393 Expecting a c- kellie0509 12/18/2015	shes not a good professor...as an adjunct she works in the day and at night came in to class...sometimes late...i had her last year in the fall and i see that nothing has changed (in the reviews below)..i recieved a c- for no reason at all...she would use my work as examples and yet i got this grade, she just doesn't care and UMD should honestly fire her.
Rebecca Ritzel ENGL393 Expecting a C- Anonymous 08/28/2015	Worst professor i had. She had a high expectation and she didn't even show half of the professionalism she asked. She's always late to class yet wants the students to be in their seats with the books open. For the summer, she easily could have just scanned the book page and upload it on the elms so that we can just print or save it on the tablet for the class. The incompetence just made us buy the book without notifying us beforehand. With 11 weeks of the first session, we had to buy the books which we barely used. She is also a horrible teacher with horrendous chicken scratch on the board. I didn't learn anything. Overall she's just so painful and the waste of time and money. Don't ever take her.
Rebecca Ritzel ENGL393 Anonymous 08/25/2014	☆☆☆☆☆ 0/5 I put 1 star because that's the minimum requirement to leave the review. She is terrible. She nearly always came late, and was unapologetic. From the first day, it seemed as though she expected a lot from the student and that she'd show same kind of professionalism. Her excuse was, "It takes at least 50 minutes to get to the school". For a few times, she came late and just walked out of the class to get something. Her teaching style is so awkward as well. She uses a board when it's better taught by other method. She types things when it's better taught by other method, etc. You'll have a difficult time deciphering her chicken scratch on board and on your graded paper. She boasts that she is a tough grader, but is never fair. When i asked her why i lost points, she couldn't justify them (which i never got any point back). Every time i'd ask, she had the attitude of 'Oh i don't wanna deal with this'. One time i asked what grade i received (because she rarely updates on Myelms). She said, "I can tell you that you didn't follow the basic requirement, which was clearly stated in the instruction". She's so arrogant and insulting that even when i asked where it was stated in the instruction, she just ignored. She returned the papers few weeks into the semester, when we already handed in quite a few, so you do not get to find out until it's too late how her style is. She is so late in updating (or uploading the grades). Also, i followed the rules and turned my phone off, never had a side conversation, was never late. She gave me a C- for participation grade for not answering a few times. I asked her, and she said "There are many others who got that grade. Just be glad that you got some credit". She seems to favor those who just talk a lot (and not helpfully contribute to the class). Additionally, she occasionally sparks up a side conversation that is totally unrelated to the class material. So, for the participation grade, just disregard your classmates and talk a lot. Many times she'd say "Guys, i'm an adjunct, so i'll be busy writing for the Washington Post, so don't send me an email about the assignment". She also requires the textbook that she rarely uses. Lastly, she cancelled the class because she had a silly accident in the building, and told us to come on "reading day". On that day, she said, "Well, i hope you had a good extra time to work on your final paper. I hope no one complains about the extended day". Needless to say, she never even apologize. On that day, she barely came on time and said "Yay~ i'm not late!". I wouldn't dislike her so much if she showed a little bit of respect, but she has none. She doesn't take this job seriously at all. Without a doubt, she's the most horrendous professor i have ever had. She shouldn't be teaching.
Daniel Saalfeld ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/14/2013	Technical Writing with Saalfeld is an alright experience. Saalfeld himself is a good guy and he provides useful insight on technical reports. He can be boring as he likes to read word for word directly off papers to you in a rather monotone voice. The entire class revolves around a final project where you have to research and propose a solution to a problem. He grades pretty fairly, so do the work and you'll be fine. Don't be absent to many times, because if you are then 10% of your grade is gone.
Joan Mooney ENGL393 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/13/2013	DO NOT TAKE HER. I cannot stress this enough. Drop english completely and take it next following semester if you have to. This women is insane. I received a B+ on an in-class writing assignment, where we had to write a set of instructions for people who have never used a shower before, because I did not write "warning: shower may be slippery!" She did not have an issue with anything else in my paper...that was her only comment. You may be thinking "oh pshh, I did well in AP English in high school, I'm not worried." I got As in AP english and a 780 on my SATs. This woman does not believe in giving out As. When asked what it takes to get an A, she will tell you that you need to go above and beyond what she puts in the rubrics. Too bad the rubrics are incredibly vague and very unhelpful. You can lose a letter grade for not including something that she never told you to include. If you do end up taking her, whenever you go to office hours to ask for help, write down everything that she says. I once went in and she told me not to worry about the page length. I lost points on the final assignment because my page length was off. She forgets everything that she tells you. The final semester project is not a group project in her class Albeit, it is a shorter project than you have to do in other classes...but it is just as much work. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS. She gives out way too much work and you will get lower grades than you deserve.
Alexandra Calloway ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/26/2012	Alexandra is a nice professor and if you put the necessary work into this class, you'll be fine. As another reviewer pointed out, she allows you to rewrite pretty much any assignment in the course for a higher grade, which is great when you get a lower grade than you expected. She will also give you a lot of advice on how to improve your work if you ask her, making the rewrite policy very nice. She does only teach the class one night a week, so the 3 hour block can be kind of a drag, but she tends to do a decent job of making the class go by somewhat quickly, especially in the second half of the semester where most weeks there will either be some sort of class activity or a peer review. My one complaint is that, at the very beginning of the course, I was confused about when certain assignments were due, since the syllabus would show upcoming due dates for assignments we had not discussed, but she corrected this and it got better as the semester went on. You're probably required to take technical writing, but if you take it with Alexandra, it won't be that bad.
Ann Mason ENGL393 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/03/2012	I absolutely loved her. She was extremely helpful and kind. Her class is pretty interesting but the material can get pretty dry. (It is an English class after all). One of the best professors I've ever had. If I had a complaint, it would be that she takes a while with grading, but she is normally pretty generous when it comes to grading so I would say that evens out.
Phillip Moses ENGL393 Expecting an A OtG 06/04/2012	This is not a good class. It's not Scott's fault. Scott is largely a fair grader and a nice guy teaching a class forced on students by the University. He expects effort, and he's happy to address concerns and questions and to give advice to his students. If you can show that you put effort into your work, he'll grade accordingly. My main criticism is that Scott tends to read verbatim from presentations and handouts in class, using time that would be better spent peer-reviewing, and he has some odd criteria for some assignments. I'd advise taking the blended section if it's available; less time in class means more time to get the work done.
Phillip Moses ENGL393 Expecting an A zaqu413 05/28/2012	I took the Blended Learning section of this course, which was awesome because we only had class once a week for 75 minutes and then just had to do online reading and stuff instead of going to class the other day. Lecture: When we went we usually did in class peer review or Moses spoke more specifically about the current paper requirements. You are graded on attendance, but you don't get points for going, you only lose points for not going. Book: The book is MyTechCommLab which is an online book type thing. It is rather annoying, and is in desperate need of a competent webmaster to revise the site. Other than that I would say that about 50% of the assigned reading and activities were helpful, and all the rest were stupid (like stuff I knew in 5th grade, or repetitive stuff). Also it's mostly a completion grade, if your quiz grades are too low he takes off points. Papers and stuff: I thought he was a somewhat lenient grader, just compared to who I had for ENGL101. He was pedantic as other reviewers have said, but I didn't feel that he took off a lot of points, he just critiques everything. Suggestions: Start early on the final project, like start during spring break or in the fall semester start in October. I'm not kidding, just send some emails to your audiences and ask to interview them, it will REALLY help out. Also, I got a lot out of this class because I did all the readings and put a lot of effort in. Most of my classmates didn't, but I really do think that this class actually taught some important concepts. Despite being an English class, the content is very useful. Grading: Online stuff (turning things in on time and MyTechCommLab stuff): 25% Resume/Cover Letter: 10% Definition: 10% Proposal: 20% Instructions: 10% Final Project: 25%
Joan Mooney ENGL393 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/22/2012	Avoid this instructor at all costs. She literally has NO teaching qualifications, and the major part of her career consists of writing articles for the auto industry. There are many assignments, including 2 presentations, 3 memos, an individual final project, and lots of little assignments in between. Oh and you have to attend every class because she keeps track of attendance and participation (10% of you final grade). Expect harsh grading, she will knock you a 1-2 letter grades down for "poor formatting" on an IN-CLASS writing assignment, despite having excellent content. Comments on returned assignments are not helpful, leading you to make the same mistakes again. Sometimes she just tells you to visit the writing center, instead of providing useful advice on how to improve your writing. As you can see by her stats, Mooney believes that everyone should get a B, and doesn't explain how to get an A. With no teaching ability whatsoever, she stands at the front of the class and informs you of upcoming assignments for 50 minutes. Once in a while, there is assigned reading, in-class writing assignments, or poorly explained grammar exercises. For some reason, she gives out a ton of paperwork in addition to posting assignments on elms. Towards the end of the semester, there are a LOT of due dates one after another, so it becomes very difficult to keep up with the work. More than half of your grade is determined in the last ~4 weeks, with 3 drafts for your final project, an oral presentation and 2 memos. Overall, this class was way too much work. And I definitely have not improved my writing skills at all.
Alexandra Calloway ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2012	Alexandra is a good professor. She gives you a lot of freedom in writing your papers about topics that you care about, which makes the course much more interesting and bearable. Her lectures are kind of boring and not that helpful, but what can you expect from an English class? She often lets the class out early which is awesome. She is very nice and responsive to student concerns. She can be somewhat disorganized and there are too many documents and procedures for submission of assignments which is kind of annoying. But overall I enjoyed this course very much. Just make sure to pick a final project that is easy so you don't get bogged down trying to finish it at the end of the semester.
Rebecca Ritzel ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/04/2012	- Sit in the front - Participate - Do a good job on the light/fair amount of work that is given (it is fun work too since she will let you be creative. No papers either, just sweet projects) - Come to all the classes on time (she is lenient if you miss one or two) - Turn off your phone Doing all of that will lead to a good grade in the class. It is also a lot of fun for an English class. In my four years at UMD this is the only class in which I have never missed a day, and not because of the attendance policy, but it was because I actually wanted to go! I wish I could take this class all over again. Highly recommended.
Alexandra Calloway ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/27/2011	Work hard in her class and you should be rewarded. For your group project, make sure you ask her for advise before turning in your final copy. Make sure you attend class because it counts toward your final grade. She allows every graded paper to be revised and resubmitted, take advantage of that and you should be fine.
Rebecca Ritzel ENGL393 Expecting an A UMCPStudent 12/26/2011	I feel like the reviews for Ritzel are extremely mixed, which made it hard for me to choose her as a professor. From my experience, she is not biased towards women (I have no idea where that came from) and while she is consistently late for class and assignments take weeks to be returned, she grades fairly and tries her best to make class bearable. If you put effort into the class (and actually attend class), you will understand assignments and do well.
Michael Winett ENGL393 Expecting an A+ pat 10/30/2011	Yeah this guy will definitely make you want to kill yourself when you listen to him talk for long enough. The class itself was actually really straight forward, and I found it to be very easy overall especially for a summer class. I would have given him a higher rating but I am sitting here, it is the last week of the class, we have had 4/5 assignments, and I have no idea how I am doing. He only returned grades for the first assignment, and then he just flaked off. Overall a really nice guy though, I'd definitely recommend 110 percent for technical writing. Easy!
Rebecca Ritzel ENGL393 Expecting a B Anonymous 10/10/2011	Worst Professor I have ever had at UMD. She doesn't grade fairly at all. When you ask her what you do wrong, she can't even tell you what is wrong with the paper. She just makes up excuses. When working in groups and the group had to pick the better example of the assignment, mine would be chosen and she would give me the lowest grade. I felt like I was back in high school with all of the presenting we did in front of the class. Points deducted for having your phone on your desk. Overall, she's just not a fair grader and definitely has her favorites in the class.
Phillip Moses ENGL393 Anonymous 09/16/2011	Moses is a relatively nice guy, but definitely pedantic and can come across as a bit uptight. His criticisms are on point, but he does hold the bar rather high given the demographic of students taking his courses (non-English majors coupled with the average student writing level at Maryland). If we weren't upperclassmen, I'd say his class stands a chance at improving you writing. But as is, it just brings out the already-existing discrepancies in everyone's writing abilities.
Rebecca Ritzel ENGL393 Anonymous 05/04/2011	STAY AWAY!!! My worst professor at UMD. She doesn't describe what she wants for her assignments but is a tough grader. If she was debating to give you a 89 or a 90, she will give you the 89 without a doubt. She was constantly late coming to class and returning assignments. She was bad in retuning emails. She has a poor teaching style. She is not helpful when providing feedback and anything I learned from this class was from the book. She is just the worst! STAY AWAY!
Rebecca Ritzel ENGL393 Anonymous 04/27/2011	I'm not usually critical of professors; I do the work and get the A and I'm happy. But Ritzel's kind of a *****. It's not a dealbreaker if you need to take her section to fit your schedule but if you have a choice I'd recommend picking a different instructor. To give you an idea of what I mean, she actually deducts points for showing your phone in class or coming in late. Various such zero tolerance policies are frostily written all throughout her syllabus. This is really tedious in my senior year and makes me feel like a freshman. Attendance is absolutely mandatory, which is ridiculous since the useful content of 393 is stretched pretty thin- unlike technical classes the X on the attendance sheet is the only thing you'll miss if you skip, but there's still a grade tied to it. Every week or so there's some little thing you need to present to the class or your group. Like high school there's not really a grade attached to it; you just get an annoyed clucking and a careful Nurse Ratched scratch in the gradebook.
Rebecca Ritzel ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/23/2010	Ritzel was an amazing professor. Her comments were critical, but very fair. The same can be said about the grading for assignments. As long as decent work was produced, fair grades resulted. With music and an occasional joke, she made the class very captivating and worth attending. She does drill certain grammar items, but only to improve writing. Overall, one of my favorite professors.
Rebecca Ritzel ENGL393 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/17/2010	Ritzel was a great professor! She's a lot of fun and is really laid back. She tries to make the class fun with candy, videos, etc. There's not a lot of work to the class, and we always peer review each others work when there are assignments. If you want, she'll look over all of your work before you submit it so that you do well. Pretty much as long as you show up, you'll do well. Take her!
Rebecca Ritzel ENGL393 Expecting an A bencbruno 12/12/2010	I didn't have the same experience as the other reviewer that says she is sexist. I am a male too, and felt no such vibe from her. She is a great teacher, and I learned a lot from her. As a Mech E. major, i generally don't like English at all, but this class was my favorite class this semester, even though it was in Tawes. It was worth, the walk, and i looked forward to class each day. She brings many interesting aspects to the course to keep your attention, and she makes the class fun, to the point it doesn't seem like class, yet you still learn. Great teach, my favorite at UMD yet.
Kelly Cresap ENGL393 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/14/2010	I took this course with him over the summer which was great because he really reduced the amount of work we had to do. He's really nice and approachable, and it's quite easy to do well in his class. Just follow the textbook's examples and don't make stupid grammatical errors and you'll do fine.
Ann Mason ENGL393 Expecting an A katmariew 08/13/2010	She is an amazing professor who really cares about her students. She makes you want to improve your writing for the sake of improving it...not to just get the grade you want. I am a biology major, and I do have to say that so far this has been one of the most interesting classes I've taken.
Kelly Cresap ENGL393 Expecting an A jertor3411 07/13/2010	Dr. Cresap is a great teacher! He keeps things light and moving. He's not that harsh of a grader. Just don't be lazy... make a solid effort, and you'll be fine. He's very approachable and easy to get along with. Awesome class.
Daniel Saalfeld ENGL393 Expecting an A random 06/08/2010	This is a really easy class. He is a very liberal grader. And the class is mostly presentations and a project throughout the semester. You have to do a giant group research project and write about it. Most lectures were just student presentations about various weekly assignments. But quite easy stuff.If you have to take ENGL393, definitely take it with Saalfeld for an easy A. And as long as you don't completely ignore the assignments or coming to class, you will do fine.
Phillip Moses ENGL393 Expecting an A fiddlerkrt 05/24/2010	This class is a bit of a drag. As the other review says, the entire course revolves around one single project that makes up about 40% of your grade (the final paper is 25%). I would advise anyone taking ENGL393 with Moses to take this class seriously. When he asked the first day of class what people had heard about it, many said it was an easy A. To this day, I think he made it his mission to prove that fact wrong. He can be pedantic, fussy, and annoying at times with his comments but he was always right. Once you learn how he grades, you should do fine. As he always says, your audience is the most important aspect of your writing. He's your audience, so figure out how he likes things done to do well.
Phillip Moses ENGL393 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/05/2010	I sort of went into the class with the mentality that it was just a stupid requirement, that the professor would be laid-back, and it would be a pretty easy A. Not quite the case. This guy will make you work. The entire course revolves around a giant semester-long recommendation report. Come to think of it, it's a really useful assignment, and it does a fabulous job of preparing you for the "real world," but I'm just too lazy for that. So far I've learned quite a bit, but most of the subject matter is about functioning in a corporate desk job and dealing with an administration. What a drag.
Kelly Cresap ENGL393 Anonymous 03/31/2010	he nit picks at everything. doesn't show that he really knows the technical atmosphere as much as an engineering professor would. grades really hard bc of his nit picking. tries to be funny :/
Kelly Cresap ENGL393 Expecting a B+ Xin 12/23/2009	Great teacher! He is kind of a harsh grader but very nice, approachable, and helpful. He wants you to do well and does whatever he can to make sure to you are successful.
Arthur Reynolds ENGL393 Expecting an A Argraybeal 08/04/2009	Professor Reynolds is one of the easiest teachers I've ever had. all you have to do is show up for class. He lets you work on all the assignments in class and then reviews them for you. unless you are really looking to learn a lot about technical writing, he is a good choice for a professor. he does spend a lot of time talking about completely random things, which can sometimes be interesting, but usually just end up wasting class time that could be better spent working on his assignments.
Joseph Wappel ENGL393 Expecting an A a778999 05/24/2009	This is not a hard course if you don't procrastinate. As long as you write decent papers you will get an A. He didn't even grade my final assignment (technically worth 25% of the grade) because I had an A already.
Michael Winett ENGL393 Anonymous 05/27/2008	Although this professor gives the majority of his students good grades, as far as I am concerned he is a disgrace to the english staff. He gave me a bad grade in his class for no reason. According to his grading scale, I am in his bottom 3% As far as I am concerned, he is a horrible person and a horrible grader and should be removed from teaching at the english department because he contributed to the lowering of my gpa! I would not take his class again if he paid me to.

Kelly Cresap
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/15/2024

Kelly Cresap is an excellent instructor and one of my personal favorite professors. Writing isn't too bad and with weekly classes he often enabled a bit of leeway. Each week you'll have a peer review of an upcoming assignment and a due date for a current assignment. What's helpful is if you are swamped you can always just save the peer reviewed assignment for next week. They're not technically due until then anyways. Additionally, I had class from 6:30 to 9:10 PM and not once did we have class that went until the technical stopping point. Usually it ended between 7:30 and 8:00. Grading is fair, although the other reviews are correct in that you can't see what your current grade is in the class, he simply comments the grade under each assignment's submission. Cresap is very friendly and soft spoken, but clearly cares about teaching his class.

Ann Mason
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/01/2024

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. I thought this class was gonna be easy and just like 1-2 hours a week or less. This class has more work than my 400 lvl engineering classes combined. I had this class aysnc and online, but she seemed nice over email and announcement. Her assignments are long and time consuming and there are three writing exams that last 2 hours. There are a lot of peer reviews and discussion questions.

Michele Mason
ENGL393

Expecting a B
Anonymous
10/24/2024

Hard to get an A in her class for the average person as she takes off points for no reason or unnecessarily.

Kisa Lape
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
08/15/2024

Professor Lape is hands down the best professor! Like other students said she is so sweet and understanding. Her feedback on coursework is so helpful and you really would gain something from taking a course with her. Communication, Communication, Communication, honestly I cannot stress enough that reaching out to her on time can help both parties. There are a lot of assignments, but she does provide numerous resources to refer to.

Joan Mooney
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
07/23/2024

Overall not that bad a class. ENGL393 has absolutely no reason to be a 3 hr/week course, and I think any professor would have a hard time filling that space with meaningful content. The lectures were sometimes dry, mumbled, or meandering, but there was often in-class work to be done that effectively took up the time. She does sometimes give vague advice, but she is also very nice and willing to help if you ask. While there were a lot of small assignments, they weren't exactly difficult and most were done in-class. The final project can be a lot of work, but I didn't find it overwhelming. I think a lot of the issues stem from the course structure and requirements more than the instructor. 5/10 course 7/10 instructor.

Andrew Delfino
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/03/2024

Great asychronous summer course experience. Assignments are clear, grading is laid back, and a reasonable amount of time is given. Does not demand much time per week to secure an A, and unlimited resubmissions were allowed if you're unhappy with your grade on almost any assignment. Great caring professor, willing to work with students, and wants everyone to succeed.

Ann Mason
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/26/2024

If you're looking for a professional writing class that's an easy A take another person. I had this class aysnc and online so I never met her, but she seemed nice over email and announcements. But her assignments are quite literally all busy work except for like 4 main ones. She makes you do rhetorical analysis to stuff like your resume, which imo is unnecessary and a waste of time for this class. I got an A+ in ENGL101 and I was still getting grades in the 80's and low 90's for this class. I ended with BARELY a 90%. DO NOT RECOMMEND ANN MASON IF YOU WANT AN A. If you want to relearn rhetorical analysis and do a bunch random assignments go ahead and sign up.

Ann Mason
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/22/2024

Pros: - Asynchronous - Prof. is responsive to emails & questions Cons: - Way too strict for no reason, you could not use words like "is, was, were, be" etc. without losing points on assignments - Too time consuming for a gen-ed - Long writing labs that did not open until the day they were due and took forever to complete - Incredibly slow grading - Did not receive feedback from her in time to apply it to future assignments - If you are already a pretty good writer, this is not the class for you. You will feel like you are being forced to write in a very specific way. If you want someone to tell you exactly how to write, then maybe take this class.

Radford Skudrna
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/20/2024

Took in the winter but he was very nice and easy to reach out to (responsive). Assignments were easy, but his grading could be harsh. It doesn't help that I get full points for drafts with encouraging feedback but get points docked on the final for things that were present in the draft (why not bring this up in the draft feedback?). Overall still a good course and great prof.

Ann Mason
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/19/2024

Tough professor and class. Rubrics unclear. Group project is annoying. Some things don’t have rubrics which is annoying

Peter Witte
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/16/2024

Peter Witte was one of my favorite professors ever. Unbelievably nice guy, Chill, super interesting course content, and he’s a great instructor. My professional writing skills improved substantially thanks to this class. Recommend him 100%.

Michelle Von Euw
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/14/2024

This class had a lot of assignments and you're expected to write large volumes at once but the professor made this class as easy as possible. Her due dates frequently had blanket extensions or did not have hard deadlines, her late work policy was lenient, and she did not grade harshly. Not to get offensive but I think everyone that had a bad experience is probably just not very good at writing or has poor time management/work ethic.

Joshua Buursma
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/13/2024

Chill professor and reasonable grading. This class feels like mostly busy work, but he will give a good grade if you put it a small but reasonable amount of effort into the assignments

Ann Mason
ENGL393

Anonymous
05/11/2024

Took online. Grading is extremely slow and unclear criteria’s.

Danuta Hinc
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/09/2024

She took over half way through the semester from another prof that left. Most classes just became discussions on contemporary issues or time to work on assignments. She did pretty good with the situation she had and I enjoyed interacting with her.

Patrick Nelson
ENGL393

Anonymous
05/09/2024

A little weird and very disorganized. Will randomly extend assignments, forgets to open assignments, grades as slow as a snail, gives confusing instructions. He usually ended class early tho. Also had to guess which room he'd pick to be the classroom every time because he refused to use the assigned room.

Ann Mason
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/03/2024

Slow grading and no clear rubrics but writing lessons were helpful Last stretch of semester and writing labs from before spring break still not graded

Pamela Orel
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/02/2024

She became our professor halfway through the semester because our original professor took another job. For this course, she was a very generous grader and willing to give extensions on pretty much anything if you ask, no reason necessary. I didn't really learn anything in class and she kind of just rambles about random topics, but you could definitely just skip class and meet with your group for the big group project and still get a good grade. Both we as students and she as the professor were generally confused about what was going on (assignment instructions, due dates, etc.) but I don't think any of us really cared because it was so easy to get an A on assignments.

Michelle Von Euw
ENGL393

Anonymous
04/28/2024

If you're looking at her section debating whether or not it's worth it to take her so that you can be asynchronous, just go for the in-person section, it's not worth it.

Michelle Von Euw
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/21/2024

Some of these reviews are exaggerating honestly. If you read her announcements weekly and submit your assignments on time, you will be fine. I will admit the due dates are really weird (9PM on a weekday sometimes??) Also, the content of this class is quite useless. You make a website akin to a resume which you will never use, and the final project is some sort of business proposal paper trying to find a solution to a problem you’ve identified. Not really useful stuff, but this class is pretty easy and asynchronous. Her ELMS page is awful to navigate but once you get the hang of it, there are clear instructions to all of these assignments. You can also always email her; she’s quite responsive and not as condescending as some of these reviews make her out to be. One thing I really don’t like is that for major assignments (the website, proposal, final project) she never gives anyone a 100%? Like ever? She assigns these grades as letter grades, so it’s practically impossible to get an A+ in this class since the maximum grade she gives is a 95% for some reason (she has this really weird grading scale that’s hard to explain). I would probably take this class with another professor if I had the chance to redo this course but if she’s your only option left, it’s not the worst. Be punctual and thorough with your assignments; it’s not that much work overall.

Sarah Goodson
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/14/2024

Professor Goodson is incredibly kind and it's extremely evident how much she cares about her students. That being said, I personally find her course extremely confusing. There are three major writing assignments and two presentations (which are based on project 2 and 3, respectively). My notes on the class are as follows: - Instructions for the assignments are EXTREMELY confusing. She posts assignment descriptions, but they are always about 7-11 pages long and you have to search for the required deliverables. - In class, there are always graded discussion activities that are usually irrelevant/unnecessary to our current projects/presentations. - The presentations aren't too bad, but three people presented every Wednesday for project 1 which makes sense in theory, but because of this structure people were presenting before their first draft of the adjacent project was done and some presented after the project had been done for nearly two weeks. - She turned off grade calculations on Canvas, so it's hard to get a read on where you stand in the class. - We have graded journal entries due every five weeks that require five, one-page entries regarding writing style and methods - For all presentations we have to have an email conference regarding details of the project to get feedback on our ideas, but she doesn't always respond in time to apply the feedback - We have required readings for every class, but 90% of the time it's never brought up or mentioned and then the 10% of the time it is mentioned no one has done it - We turn in major assignments/drafts on an external platform, so the project due dates will NOT show up on Canvas calendar or on the assignments tab which is just something I had to get used to as all my assignments are usually on canvas (there were a few times she randomly put them in "assignments", but usually they weren't on canvas) - Sometimes (pretty randomly), there will be one week with A TON of stuff due so just keep an eye out so it doesn't take you by surprise (one time we had a draft due that was supposed to be a third of the final project length (which was about 5 pages) and the assignment was opened at 6am the day before it was due) I will say, I really enjoy Professor Goodson as a person. She always checks in on her students and is super fun to talk to. She's the most understanding professor I've had in terms of absences, presentation anxiety, mental health, and general student well-being which I think is so incredible. I don't think I would necessarily recommend her for this class, but she is an incredibly sweet woman who is so passionate about what she does.

Michelle Von Euw
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/09/2024

I’ll admit this class is not very useful in terms of the assignments given. lf you complete the assignments based on the instructions, you’ll probably get an A on each one. They aren’t really hard assignments, but it sucks that each major assignment can really impact your grade. Michelle is easy to reach if you need any clarification. I just wish she gave feedback on draft assignments before we have to submit the finalized versions, because we all know peer review is mostly bs.

Erin Green
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/16/2024

While Professor Green's course was easy, and I appreciated her upgrading method, the course was useless, and I highly recommend taking 393 with another instructor if you wish to get anything out of the course. The entire class was zombie-themed, even down to the resume and cover letter. None of the writing done in this class will you be able to reuse. The resume and cover letter must be tailored to a zombie-themed position and the instructional manual and infographic assignments are also zombie-themed. Imagine submitting a zombie-themed writing sample to an employer. I'm sure that would look reallllyyy professional. Again, don't take 393 with Erin unless you really love zombies and don't mind wasting your time writing a bunch of useless assignments.

Sonney Wolfe
ENGL393

Expecting an A
akl2025
01/11/2024

If I had the option to give a 10-star rating, I certainly would. Sonney is truly an incredible and empathetic professor. She communicates every assignment's requirements clearly, promptly responds to students' feedback and requests, and delivers engaging lectures. Despite having a class from 6 to 9 pm on Tuesdays, I always looked forward to attending because of her lovely energy and positive vibe. It's evident that she enjoys her job, and her upbeat attitude brings joy to the students. If you have the opportunity to choose Sonney for any ENGL course, I highly recommend doing so!

Aubrey Zinn
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/28/2023

Really fun class where we participated in many activities to get hands-on knowledge of what was being taught. Only issue is grades took long to get back. Highly recommend.

Joshua Buursma
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/28/2023

This professor is extremely reasonable. The professor consistently extended deadlines when needed. He wants to give you a good grade. The class is an easy A, but it's a lot of work. There are 2-3 completion based assignments per week, and if you complete them then you will get an A no matter what. There was no final exam or final project, but there were 4 major assignments which required a bit more work. But, the professor makes it very clear what you need to have in major assignments to get 100% on them. None of them took longer than 5-6 hours (and you could probably knock them out in 2-3 if you really needed to). All this being said, I didn't learn much in this class, though it was withing my power to learn something from this class if I put more time into it. Take ENGL393 with Buursma if you don't want to worry about your grade for ENGL393; I absolutely would recommend him.

Joshua Buursma
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/24/2023

Generous grader. His feedback helped correct the drafts before turning them in. As long as you put the effort into your assignments, you will get what you want.

Shannon Zellars Strohl
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/24/2023

Professor Zellars Strohl provided everything we needed for this course very well. This course was an online course that didn't involve any set time during the week. We were basically just expected to hand in assignments on Mondays and Thursdays as they were due. Assignments consisted of reading, discussions, 3 major assignment drafts/submissions (Resume/Cover letter, Technical Report, Infographic, Personal Website), and peer review. Pros: - Very descriptive and helpful in the modules. She included everything that we needed to know and ELMS was very organized. All of the assignments are in ELMS from the start of the semester. I was never confused on what was due or what we had to do. I never interacted with the professor at all really since everything was super clear from the start. - Well structured assignments. She had us basically plan and set up all of our major assignments from the ground up, which was very helpful and made them seem not so big. I spent a few hours working on each of these assignments, so it did not take up too much time. - The major assignments gave us valuable skills such as writing cover letters, resumes, technical reports, and creating our own website. These made for a good experience and make us more employable. - As long as you completed the requirements, and put in some good effort into the major assignments, you will get an A. I accidentally submitted one of the discussions late but I didn't lose credit, so she is pretty lenient. Cons: - I didn't really receive too much feedback on the major assignments. She often took off a few points without explanation. It's fine though as it doesn't really affect your grade all that much. Overall I would recommend this professor for ENGL393. I learned a lot of applicable skills.

Shannon Zellars Strohl
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/24/2023

Take ENGL393 with Professor Zellars-Strohl if you can. If you make an effort on the assignments, you should have no problem getting an A in the class. This class being online was also very convenient as you don't have to go in person to lectures.

Joshua Buursma
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/23/2023

Concurring with everyone else here: while the coursework isn't hard or novel, the class is well managed: quick email response time, has good and easily understood feedback, was lenient with extensions, and ultimately made the required work for the course way more manageable. Lots of small but free assignments that are always 100%, and the large assignments are graded very nicely (average of about 92-95% for all major assignments), making this a very easy course.

Amanda Fiore
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/22/2023

professor fiore does the absolute most. she doesn't know how to give credit where it's due-- you could implement all her feedback from a draft assignment and she can STILL find ways to shoot down your work and take off extra points for no reason. the workload for this class isn't reasonable at all, please take any other professor but her because i think she doesn't know what she's doing half the time. she thinks that this is the only class we take and she talks about how we need to pertain to our audience yet she can never meet her student's needs!!! maybe she should take her own advice

Amanda Fiore
ENGL393

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/22/2023

this is her first semester teaching at umd. pretty harsh grader, and she does care a lot about tiny details, even if they dont really matter. very hard to get an A on big assignments. theres an assignment where she will grade your resume after going over guidelines and whatever. however, my resume (proven successful with multiple internships) kinda got picked apart, because CS resume language is techy. half of the year will be spent working on group projects that build up to the final paper, but a LOT of the class was spent doing stupidly long peer reviews. her course page is a little disorganized (it is her first year using canvas after all). she is reasonably accomodating as well. overall, the class is NOT hard. she just makes it more annoying than it has to be. look, there are worse professional writing teachers. if youre aiming for an A, its very annoying. if you want to pass, just be able to bullshit at length.

Yvonne Roe
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
solaeo
12/17/2023

Absolutely great. She is very understanding and doesn't take off points if you're late. She will give you a zero but if you immediately email her and ask if you can turn it in for a grade change she will say yes. She love telling stories about our family. She is so nice and everything I've done in this technical writing class was super important for me getting a job in the real world. It helped many in the class get internships and jobs. She is an amazing instructor and I suggest taking her class. You won't regret it.

Aubrey Zinn
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/16/2023

Loved taking ENGL393 with Professor Zinn. It was a very unique English class. We took part in fun activities and group projects to learn the content. The assignments were at times difficult, but if you work hard, you will get the grade you want. Only problem was grades took long to get back to us.

Daniel Saalfeld
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/16/2023

A lot lot lot of busy work, but do it all (follow his requirements exactly) and you'll get a good grade. He made us do voice threads where you record yourself and post it which was annoying but overall if you put just a little effort to do the assignments then you can get an A.

Michael Schmidt
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/12/2023

Professor Schmidt is a very cool and passionate teacher at the university and is genuinely considerate of his students and their development. He is very impassioned about his lectures and encourages participation during class to facilitate teaching. The coursework is extremely reasonable and directly applicable to future endeavors, including resume and portfolio write-ups and reviews. Highly recommend if you enjoy a low-key class with relevant work you will find valuable.

Sonney Wolfe
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
sheldoug13
12/06/2023

If I could give a rating higher than a 5 then I definitely would! Sonney is an amazing professor and a very nice person. She is fair with all her assignments, understanding when it comes to deadlines, and really helpful when it comes to feedback. She is a great personality that will make you want to come to class every time! Definitely take any class she teaches if possible!

Joshua Buursma
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/02/2023

Very laid-back professor. Buursma is quick to respond to emails and gives concise feedback on assignments. He was super understanding with his students and would give extensions on assignments as needed. Any issues you have will be with the class content and not Buursma. The class is pretty dry and there isn't much new information, I strongly recommend you take it online if possible. Regardless, Buursma is a solid choice, totally recomend.

Amanda Fiore
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/02/2023

she is new to umd so i had no expectations for her. she is an extremely hard grader and is so picky about the tiniest details. the highest grade i have gotten on any major assignment is a 91 (excluding extra credit points) and she herself admitted that she never gives 100s. she can also be condescending and unclear in her feedback. most of the class is a long group research project made up of many long assignments that take way too much time and don't really prepare you for the real world. the final proposal is also really long and tedious. only the first 2 assignments (ePortfolio and cover letter/resume) at least kind of help. for someone who emphasizes attention to the audience so much, she should be doing the same thing to her audience (us students) better. please take this class with a different professor.

Daniel Saalfeld
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/28/2023

Great professor. NGL I did not do the readings but he's not a harsh grader. I am not an English major and I hate writing. I came in expecting a B due to past English coursework being graded harshly but I have gotten a high 90 on each of his major assignments and I love it!!!! He does a peer review for each major assignment which I think is great as it gives you a chance to see how other students interpreted the assignment and may even give you ideas to make yours better (not plagiarize I genuinely mean ideas such as adding more about yourself or fonts).

Phillip Moses
ENGL393

Anonymous
10/12/2023

He doesn't give anyone a full score on drafts. It's understandable that drafts aren't perfect, but he grades them like they are the final submission which defeats the purpose of a draft. The averages for the drafts are in the sixties and they can bring your grade down quite a bit. He is also very picky about a lot of things in his feedback, even though many of the students in his class are taking english for their first or second time at this college.

Eric Bond
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
07/28/2023

Took professor bond during the summer session. He was very understanding and flexible. The class was manageable with workload and consisted of four multiple part projects. It can be easy to fall behind in the course since the class is accelerated, but professor Bond is willing to work with you on extensions for assignments. I enjoyed this course and 100% recommend to anyone looking to fill a requirement and get a GPA boost over the summer.

Joshua Buursma
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/20/2023

I agree with the other review saying that a lot of the class seems to be commonalities which can make the content a bit dry at points but it is still a doable A. However, as a professor he is very laid back, he responds quickly to emails, he is very understanding of student's personal issues and will accommodate your needs. Very much recommend

Pamela Gerhardt
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
07/03/2023

Took her summer course this year, it's really engaging and she's very nice, she gives valuable feedback and she doesn't grade harshly, I would recommend taking this course with her.

Joshua Buursma
ENGL393

Anonymous
06/27/2023

He is a great instructor who is also extremely understanding.

Patrick Nelson
ENGL393

Anonymous
06/20/2023

just a mess. the previous post nailed it.

Robert Harris
ENGL393

Expecting an A
ScottF98
06/14/2023

Great professor. I see some complaints that I think are a bit off based, but I will admit, he's demanding and a hard professor. But he truly cares, so yes, he walks around, checks up on us, but he is very knowledgeable about the content and has taught on every level. So if you are not trying to work, then this is not the class for you. You will absolutely earn your grade with Dr. Rob. I appreciated his feedback and toughness because he truly taught Technical Writing and I learned.

Elizabeth McClure
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/24/2023

She grades all the significant assignments at the end of the semester, however, she is very lenient. There is a lot of work for this class but they are relatively easy and also make up for your grade in case you did not do well on the more manageable assignments. Definitely do not take it if you want a class with a light workload

Shannon Zellars Strohl
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/21/2023

Just a heads up, you will never receive a 100% on any of the major assignments. She never gives them out, and sometimes she will not clarify in the rubric the exact reason she took the point off in the rubric. However, take advantage of the peer reviews and complete all the discussion boards and you will do fine in this class.

Andrew Delfino
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/18/2023

Lovely online course experience. Easy grading, good feedback, reasonable expectations. Honestly you don't even need to do any of the readings or anything except if there is a discussion board. Just make sure to plan to go to the writing center before the end of the semester-- it's an assignment that can be easily forgotten. He also gives you 50% if you don't turn something in-- which is quite convenient on the lower point assignments, when it's the end of the semester...

Eric Bond
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/16/2023

A very kind and caring professor. Wishes the best for his students and is understanding when it comes to issues. Complete assignments on time and put effort into your papers, and you will do well.

Yvonne Roe
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/14/2023

Prof. Roe is one of the best professors I have ever had! She was so sweet and understanding about what everyone had going on in their their other classes and in live overall. She was always so encouraging and flexible to make things work for everyone in class and tried her best to be as accommodating and apply everyone's feedback on how the class schedule should look (visually and the work load) and wouldn't mind extending an assignment deadline if she felt everyone needed the extra time. It was also really easy to talk to her and she always responded quickly and made class fun with her easygoing personality and occasional stories about her weekends.

Yvonne Roe
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/12/2023

Professor that really cares about students. Willing to work with you to get what you need done.

Danuta Hinc
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/11/2023

Professor Hinc was one of the best professor I have had at UMD. She is not a harsh grader and leaves great feedback. The class consist of weekly discussions, four different projects, and 4 different voicethreads. The class wasn't hard overall just got to make sure you do the work early and read the modules other than that this class is a easy A.

Robert Harris
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/10/2023

This guy is by far the worst professor I've had at UMD. I was in his once a week section and while listening to him in class, it seems like there is nothing about him that makes him qualified to teach a classroom of college students. All he does is enforce deadlines and treat us like he deserves all the respect in the world. He would always walk up and down the aisle right next to me to make sure everyone was taking notes. If you weren't paying attention and taking notes, he would point it out to you in front of the whole class. On top of this, he would have us do things like sign in and out of class, pick people to read slides out loud, and even went so far as to have an exam for an English class (which he didn't tell us about). I'm almost certain that the "exam" (which was more of a quiz) was just an excuse to make sure people pay attention from that point on. Another thing is that there were no late deadlines on canvas, so you couldn't submit any assignment late without having to ask him. Even then he would only allow you to do this once and still penalize you. For assignments like first drafts, if you missed the deadline you would get a zero on the peer review as well. He has told us many times that he didn't care if something has gone wrong on our end that made us unable to submit on time and how we were just being irresponsible and lazy, despite him admitting that he doesn't want to grade our assignments because he's lazy. This guy is petty, egotistical, and lazy. Avoid him or else this class will be much harder than it needs to be.

Jesse Brooks
ENGL393

Expecting an A
xtermn8
05/05/2023

Jesse is amazing. He's chill, calm, humorous, pleasant, and one of the coolest dudes I've seen. Not just a professor but someone you could legitimately have a good time hanging out with. I cannot recommend him more highly. He also grades VERY fairly, where if you meet the requirements you'll get s good grade. He grades your work objectively. Only drawback was grading took a long time but I can't fault him since he has many classes he's teaching at once.

Robert Lucci
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/03/2023

Professor Lucci is a fantastic instructor. It is clear he cares deeply about both his students as well as what he is teaching. He is very flexible with deadlines and work. His conferences following some of our assignments were super insightful and definitely helped me write better. I would highly recommend him as a professor!

Kisa Lape
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/27/2023

Super understanding, kind and accessible.

Robert Harris
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/24/2023

This professor is disorganized, petty, and downright disrespectful. He treats it like a high school class, fully expecting every single student to be present, gets pissy when there isn't a 100% attendance rate, and takes it out on the people who are actually in the class. Also, he has canceled class an hour before it begins multiple times, making it seem like he doesn't care about the class-- or our time-- at all. He also refused to let me make-up an assignment when I was sick, and I know I'm not the only one. Additionally, he'll walk through the aisles of students to make sure your computer screens are relevant to the course at hand... Which again, really feels like high school. And then there's his grading criteria, which is rarely clear, and often asks you to repeat yourself in different parts of the assignment. It's anyone's guess when the assignments are actually due, as the due dates change every class (though this might have been him trying to be nice?). He seems like a nice enough guy out of class hours and I honestly think he just hates teaching, and doesn't have the emotional maturity to keep that hatred in the right lanes.

Peter Grybauskas
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/10/2023

Best professor you could ever have. The workload is very small and he is a goofball who is fun and entertaining every class. poof!

Aysha Jawed
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
04/01/2023

Took ENGL393 during the Winter 2023 semester. There were 3 main projects/essays: technical instructions, infographics (which is based on the technical instructions), and a cover letter + skills-based resume. In addition, there were straight-forward discussion posts to do a few times a week. Just follow the rubric, ask the professor for clarification if needed, and put in the work.

Robert Harris
ENGL393

Expecting a B
Anonymous
03/13/2023

Exactly what the other review said for ENGL393. He seems like he'd be a cool guy, and it seems like he is outside of class or if you talk to him, but the way he treats you with such disrespect in class will make you hate him and yourself for ever signing up for this class. He very poorly communicates what's expected of you, and so consequentially his grading is just as arbitrary. Good luck learning anything from his "death by powerpoint" presentations and all-caps tirades either. DO NOT TAKE HIM. I know there are many bad teachers for 393, but there are other classes too for professional writing in the 39x courses... I wish I had known before this professor.

Anthony Batts
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
petergriffin69
02/28/2023

Took ENGL393 with Batts over the winter. Take him. That's all that needs to be said.

Robert Harris
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
02/24/2023

AVOID THIS PROFESSOR AT ALL COSTS Dr. Harris seems like a cool guy outside of class, but DON'T LET THIS FOOL YOU. This class BOILS MY BLOOD every day. I am seriously considering taking a W just so I can take it with someone else. Easily the WORST professor I have had at UMD by far. He will project a full slide of text and then just pause and make you take notes by WALKING AROUND AND CHECKING YOU LAPTOP SCREEN or else he will call you out for not taking notes. He will make you SIGN IN AND OUT of class every day and if you don't legibly put your name you won't get participation credit. He will take PERSONAL OFFENSE if you try to take a picture of the wall of text he has on the projector and CALL YOU OUT in front of the class every time you try it. He suddenly decided he wants to have a pop EXAM in an ENGLISH CLASS. Like what??? You will get no participation credit if you listen to music during class, use your phone, or don't pay attention. Literally would rather take the 10% grade hit to skip class than show up to HIGH SCHOOL again. If you break the rules: (Copied from his Google Slide) "Failure to comply with the above (and in the syllabus) classroom expectations will warrant a removal from the class that day. Repeated offenses will result in escalation." (The "above" he references is taking pictures of slides, having headphones in, or being on your phone) He has no idea how to use ELMs (in his defense he is a new professor) and you will be eternally confused and have no idea what is due and when. This class gives me more anxiety than my major classes. He comes up with all sorts of assignments where the requirements are poorly documented or just plain wrong. Only saving grace is so far he basically gives everyone 100% on stuff. Still not worth it in my opinion, at all.

Michelle Von Euw
ENGL393

Anonymous
02/21/2023

avoid at all costs. don't learn a single thing about technical writing, the entire semester is focused on some random project that has nothing to do with technical writing. annoying assignments that aren't hard but she gives no feedback to improve your work from before and expects you to know what you did wrong based on powerpoints she provides. only took it with her because all other slots were full.

Roberto Leon
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
02/07/2023

good professor, lenient with grading

Sheila Lalwani
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
01/25/2023

she suck fr

Anthony Batts
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/25/2023

He was one of the most kindest and responsive professors I have ever had. He was always open to questions or concerns that I had throughout the entire semester. In these ways, he made the class much more enjoyable than it already was. Very reasonable grader, the course was designed such that it was easy to navigate and work, and the amount of detail he put into his assignments was absolutely amazing.

Catherine Bayly
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
01/25/2023

The winter section had a fair amount of coursework. Content is straightforward and simple. One thing is the weighted assignments are heavily dependent on 3 projects75% so grades can easily tank.

Patrick Nelson
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/22/2023

This class was generally a mess. Prof. Nelson would frequently announce assignments that were never actually opened on Canvas, and would arbitrarily cancel class. There were also long waits for grades on assignments. However, he seemed like a nice guy in class, and the assignments are generally not that difficult.

Aysha Jawed
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/21/2023

Prof Jawed is extremely nice and receptive to questions. The course necessarily isn't the most fun as the assignments are somewhat draining, but Prof Jawed does a great job of balancing the class. Recommended.

Aysha Jawed
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
tortoise7
12/31/2022

Very helpful and responsive. Sets clear guidelines for assignments and gives great feedback on rough drafts.

Andrew Delfino
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/30/2022

I took this course asynchronously and I believe it was a great experience. He graded very leniently, like the lowest grades people ever got was like an 85. All the assignments are like standard of like engl393 and he gave ample time to do them. He also gave bonus points here and there

Ann Mason
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/24/2022

I took ENGL393 online with Dr. Mason (goes by Michele Mason). For this reason I honestly have no idea what she is like as a person. I am sure she is great based on the other reviews! I am taking off one star for slow grading, but otherwise the course was very fair and went smoothly. She gives only relevant work (no busy work) and grades fairly.

Aysha Jawed
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/23/2022

Prof Jawed is very nice and she explains the material well. The lecture is from 6:30-9:10 but she made it not so boring. You can get very good grades for assignments as long as you meet all the requirements.

Daniel Saalfeld
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/21/2022

Good class structure but Professor Saalfeld is very nitpicky as other reviews mention. He is very passive aggressive and does not believe he is ever wrong. He honestly feels like he is a bit bias sometimes with his lack of compassion for students. This teacher will be a hit or miss for you.

Shannon Zellars Strohl
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/21/2022

She's a nice professor and helpful when asking her questions. She's also lenient on due dates if you explain why. Overall she's a good professor to take to get the professional writing gen ed.

Daniel Saalfeld
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/19/2022

Lenient grader, but a sort of heavy workload. There were a lot of discussion posts and video response activities to do, but they were easy. The proposal was the most painful assignment and it took me a good amount of time to finish. The course was well-organized though, and if you put in a reasonable effort you should get an A.

Joan Mooney
ENGL393

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/12/2022

I would not recommend taking this class if this is your instructor. You will be completing a lot of unnecessary work in a fast-paced manner and it is incredibly hard to keep up, especially during the last three weeks of class. In addition to the final project, you must complete multiple drafts beforehand that will significantly impact the grade you receive on the final project if the drafts are not completed in the way that she wants. The rubrics for these drafts are not very clear, and the only thing that really helped me were the examples that she provided of final drafts that were completed by previous students. Not to mention, she takes points off of assignments for absurd reasons even if you do follow exactly what is written in the incredibly vague rubrics that she provides, if you can even call it that. The lectures do not feel meaningful at all. You'll likely spend 50 minutes of your time listening to what assignments are due that week, which is something that is quite clearly stated on the syllabus. Please do yourself a favor and find another professor for this class, otherwise you will without a doubt be stressed in trying to keep up with the assignments while completing them in the manner that she wants. It is not worth it.

Elizabeth McClure
ENGL393

Anonymous
12/03/2022

To restate what my peers have said before me: Do not take a course with this professor, no matter what. Even if this is the last available professor and you need to take 393, just take it next semester with someone else. I wish I had done exactly that. She will not give you feedback on your work, and you are left to rely entirely on your peers to review your assignments. Often, assignments are closed until a few hours before their due time, yet the professor does not shift the due date to match her lateness. Believe me and other reviewers when we say the workload is completely unrealistic. Multiple assignments are due daily, along with long readings that, oftentimes, lead to broken links. It is the end of the semester and I have received one grade out of almost sixty assignments. Sixty. From open-response quizzes to peer review summaries (like, what?), this class required far more of my time than it should have. I have no idea if this course will be an easy A, or if I have even been successful so far, and I am sure I will not find out until Testudo gives me my final grades.

Andrew Delfino
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/02/2022

Really enjoyed the course and Andrew's approach. A few of the assignments weren't as well thought out as I'd like, but that's on me.

Michelle Von Euw
ENGL393

Expecting a B
Anonymous
11/18/2022

I would give her zero stars if I could. No focus on technical writing whatsoever, the entirety of the course is basically focused around a making up a problem and writing a paper on how to solve it requiring interviews and/or sending out surveys. Two things which are extremely difficult to find time to do for basically anyone taking a near full slate of technical courses. Her feedback is unhelpful and unclear, her standards are vague and amorphous at best and completely absent at worst. She demands that you bring your personal life into this class for no legitimate reason, and the workload here relative to the usefulness of the information makes you want to just quit of the whole thing and focus on your real classes. Avoid her at basically all costs.

Sajeela Yaqub
ENGL393

Anonymous
10/24/2022

Do not take her. Horrible at teaching and her online instructions are not clear. Too much work for 3 credits class.

Michelle Von Euw
ENGL393

Expecting a B
Anonymous
10/13/2022

Please save yourself months of trouble and take another professor! This class is very unorganized and the teacher is not skilled in explaining assignment guidelines. She had us create an ELMS profile the first week of class, and I completed all of the guidelines, wrote 3 paragraphs of information on my profile, and added my pronouns (all information she told us to include). But she gave me 0/10 because for some reason my email wasn't showing up, despite my adding it. This is just an example of her overall attitude to the class. She often does not grade on a rubric, which means she hands out 0s if you do not do the assignment perfectly to her liking. I brought my concerns to her attention and she responded by saying that she made everything clear and that I should have read the assignment better. Considering that this is an online class, there should be more grace for misunderstandings. But practically speaking, adding a rubric would have alleviated any confusion. I have a feeling she may enjoy giving out 0s for some reason.

Sarah Dammeyer
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
08/19/2022

Amazing professor!! I took this class over the summer and I have to say Ms.Dammeyer is the most understanding person ever. I am somebody who is never fond of English and writing classes but Ms.Dammeyer structured the class in a way that your English and writing skills do not need to be perfect to do well in this class. As long as you follow the assignment rubric and complete the assignments on time you will do well. The assignments themselves are not that hard and are straightforward. However, being a summer class there is a good workload but definitely manageable.

Phillip Moses
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
08/04/2022

Phillip (goes by Scott) Moses is a fairly easy going teacher for an asynchronous course. He posts every assignment at the start of the semester (with due dates), so I was able to map out the whole semester early on. He sends reminders on Monday about items due that week which is helpful to stay on top of tasks. The assignments are not short, so time management is key to stay on top of the work. Moses is a reasonable grader focused on how you improve between your draft and final. No matter how your draft is, if you get a lot of (good) feedback, and make changes from the feedback, you should do fine. In regards to weekly tasks, they are easy two point assignments that are quick. Usually Moses did not give out 100% on rough drafts, but those few points don't really matter. Peer feedback is key, so be sure to give constructive feedback for your peers to improve so others will do the same!

Sarah Dammeyer
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/07/2022

Legitimately one of the best English professors I have ever had. Does a style of grading similar to contract grading. IE - if you complete every objective of the assignment, you will get 100%. Very understanding about modern life/setbacks - and willing to give an extension if you genuinely need it. An absolute pleasure to talk to, and very proactive in responding to emails. TAKE THIS PROFESSOR!

Dennis Winston
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/21/2022

Overall, very good professor. Made this course as easy as it could be. Very accommodating. A bit awkward, but it was endearing. Idk if/when he'll teach this class in person again, but he used the same elms page for in-person and virtual students, which led to a lot of confusion the first two weeks. It was all fine in the end, and I think it was worth the confusion to have him. He is a very reasonable grader and grades assignments in a timely manner. Very nice guy. I would recommend!

Phillip Moses
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/20/2022

Philip (Scott) Moses is a well-organized teacher. He taught ENGL 393 asynchronously and it was very easy to keep up with assignments and know when due dates are approaching. All assignments were input at the start of the semester, so one could plan/write out when everything is due. Scott sends out weekly announcements on Mondays for when assignments are due, but if you wait until these announcements, it may be a lot of work to complete if you wait. He grades relatively fairly and mostly focused on how you improved between the rough draft and the final submission. As long as you do the work, and put effort into each assignment, you will be successful.

Elizabeth McClure
ENGL393

Anonymous
05/19/2022

Easily the worst professor I have had at UMD so far. From the things I have read on here I’m honestly not sure how she is still allowed to teach. Final grades are due tomorrow and there are three grades in the grade book from the beginning of the semester, so the entire time I had no idea what my standing was in the class. She gives no feedback on assignments. Everything was relied on peer feedback, even more stressful when it came to (potential) grades. I had no idea what was right or wrong in the work I was doing. We would have 2 different PROJECTS due almost every week, overlapping different assignments and overall an extreme amount of busy work. She was extremely hard to reach. Would take days to respond to my emails or just ghost me completely. When or if she did respond it was useless because we were already on a new assignment. She never lectured on HOW to do anything, just threw assignments at us like this was my only class. There was no way a gen ed technical writing class should have taken up the most time in my schedule, but it did. Overall awful, awful professor. She seems nice, but does not have the responsibility to be a professor here. Leaves students in the dark. I am genuinely concerned about my grade in this class, and I never leave reviews on professors but she was just that bad. Considering reaching out to the English department because my god, this woman should not have a job.

Robert Lucci
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/05/2022

There is so much slander about Mr. Lucci and absolutely none of it is true. He is very clear about the guidelines of the class, he makes sure that he is available to meet outside of class, and he is flexible with due dates. I learned many life skills from this class, and I do not think I would have with another professor. If you have the opportunity to take his class, DO IT!

Joan Mooney
ENGL393

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/02/2022

Avoid this professor. You will be doing more work in this professional writing course than in the other ones for the same grade. This class has a lot of busywork. It is very monotonous. Do yourself a favor and find another professor so that you can focus on the classes that actually matter.

Kisa Lape
ENGL393

Anonymous
04/18/2022

good

Daniel Saalfeld
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/14/2022

Although he is a fairly easy grader, I do not recommend him. He is extremely nit-picky and will take off even a quarter of a point for very little things. In addition, there are multiple assignments where you have to propose a topic, and he will most likely not let you do the one that you want to. Finally, he will also send out passive-aggressive announcements on ELMS about assignments. Overall, it's a 393 class, almost all of the asynchronous versions are the exact same, so the professor is the only real difference. In any async 393 class you can get an A if you put in any effort, but taking it with Professor Saalfeld will put unnecessary stress on you because of the way that he grades and how he converses with the students. I do not recommend.

Michelle Von Euw
ENGL393

Anonymous
02/27/2022

Horrible. The class does not focus on technical writing and instead focuses on a useless end of semester project that has students creating their own problems just so they can write about solving one.

Michelle Von Euw
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
01/26/2022

I thought Michelle was a great teacher, and the work wasn't overwhelming. The final project isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Just put in a little work and you'll be fine.

Sarah Dammeyer
ENGL393

Anonymous
01/23/2022

The other reviews aren't lying! She's super nice and genuinely understanding. Gives helpful feedback. I thought I'd hate the class but she made it enjoyable and worthwhile.

Cameron Mozafari
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/22/2022

Dr. Mozafari is a very kind and understanding professor. His classes are engaging and you can tell he cares about his students. He is very lenient when it comes to grades and due dates, so definitely talk to him if you are extremely stressed or falling behind. This class has a lot of assignments so don't worry about doing badly on one of them. I would definitely reccomend taking him!

Erin Green
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/17/2022

I'm taking Professor Green right now for the 3 week winter session. I definitely recommend signing up for this professor's class if at all possible. They are an amazing professor and give really good writing feedback. Makes this class super painless. Don't get me wrong, you still have to write a lot, but this professor doesn't gatekeep or nit-pick and take off points unnecessarily. Take Professor Green!

Marina Seamans
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/24/2021

ENGL393 tends to be a hefty amount of busy work however Professor Ellis does a good job of trying to keep you engaged. While the work is never hard there is a tremendous amount to do. Still an easier professor who will want to help point you in the right direction every step of the way.

Elliot Berger
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/24/2021

Really nice dude, it was genuinely fun to be in his class. He studied something relating to comedy in school, so he always cracks corny jokes to break the ice. He is always willing to help on assignments. He seems to be very lenient on grading, but I wouldn't know. The problem: None of his major assignments were graded when the semester ended, I mean ZERO. My final grade on testudo was posted... and I still have ungraded assignments on ELMS. It's not cool to leave students in the dark on their grades like this. I don't know anything about his personal life, but if they gave him a grading TA this course would have had no problems. I still enjoyed class with Berger, I wouldn't change professors if given the opportunity. He was laid back and cared. Slow (or non-existent) grading is a major pet peeve of mine as a student.

Dennis Winston
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/23/2021

Winston was a great professor. It's an english class, so expect to put in a fair amount of effort. I took the asynchronous section, so all assignments were posted in the beginning of the semester with the due dates laid out. The main assignments consisted of the core essays (instructions, proposal, infographic, ePortfolio), along with voice threads and discussions. I think the assignments were properly paced, and Winston was responsive to any concerns over email. Overall, a pretty straightforward english class that was graded quite fairly!

Michelle Von Euw
ENGL393

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/22/2021

Avoid her. She accepts late work but it's because she doesn't make everything clear. It is very difficult to get in contact with her as she doesn't reply most of the time. Every assignment is unclear. There is a lot of work that helps make your final better though. Overall, I would not recommend this to someone who isn't willing to put in the work for this class.

Daniel Saalfeld
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/21/2021

Very reasonable grader. Took an entirely asynchronous course that was organized well. Very much recommend.

Daniel Saalfeld
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/20/2021

I recommend taking this course asynchronously online. If you read his announcements and do each assignment, you will be more than fine. For the longer papers, follow the rubric and go to the writing center. I recommend taking it with him as long as you are asynchronous.

Aysha Jawed
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/18/2021

This is the best professor you can have for technical writing. She gives you relevant assignments that can be utilized in your future and always provides excellent feedback when grading your rough draft. Not only is Professor Jawed understanding, but she genuinely cares about your well-being while encouraging you to do your best in the course.

Daniel Saalfeld
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/14/2021

Really respectful and lenient grader. Would recommend

Sheila Lalwani
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/13/2021

Massive workload for minimal feedback, rough drafts are expected to be final drafts. Depend on peer reviews for feedback on major assignments. Mandatory conferences even though it is a asynchronous course. Harsh grader.

Sheila Lalwani
ENGL393

Anonymous
11/02/2021

DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS. I signed up for an asynchronous class but had mandatory synchronous zoom sessions where the only thing covered was material we had already read in our asynchronous work. Feedback was one of two paragraphs copied and pasted for all students with no justification for deductions. She ruined what should have been a useful class.

Michelle Von Euw
ENGL393

Expecting a B
DangerousSoup
10/15/2021

This class was a lot of work and everything was graded harshly. She didn't actually have lectures, just links to readings and occasional videos. With that being said, she didn't actually teach us anything we needed to know for assignments. Most assignments were unclear and she sometimes grades based on criteria that you didn't know about. Also, her elms page is not well organized. She is very supportive of your ideas, but what she says is inconsistent and she can be very mean. I had an issue where she approved my project topic, but after I wrote the proposal, she told me the topic was no longer valid.

Aysha Jawed
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
09/03/2021

Professor Jawed is a gem. As long as you follow her instructions and try your best, you're in good hands. After you complete your first draft, she'll review it and suggest corrections. If you correct it properly, she'll give you full credit. You can also send her your draft at any time, so be sure to utilize her expertise. It is up to you how difficult you want your research to be, so don't stress over the research project, just choose a topic you are passionate about.

Sarah Dammeyer
ENGL393

Expecting a B
Anonymous
08/16/2021

dude her entire existence makes me so happy. she is literally the nicest person on the planet. super forgiving if you're feeling overwhelmed or if something in your life messed up. she is super understanding, approachable, and helpful. responds to emails pretty fast if she sees it too. I hate english with a passion and she still made it alright, like the other guy said. taken during summer 2021 If you need to take a professional writing course (ENGL 39x). TAKE IT WITH DAMMEYER. TRUST. I BEG YOU, TAKE IT WITH HER

Justin Lohr
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/09/2021

Professor Lohr provides some of the best feedback I've ever received on a paper and also loves to help his students improve their writing. So long as you actually read the instructions for each assignment and meet all the assignments requirements you'll get an A. It's as simple as that. Pro tip: don't wait until the last minute to do the major assignments, trust me; It's not worth it.

Mrim Boutla
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
06/17/2021

Dr. Boutla is the only professor i've felt the need to write a review for in my three years i've been at the University of Maryland. Being Mech E, i really didn't care about taking ENGL393 at all but Dr. Boutla made me enjoy going to class. She realized that most of my class were stem majors and tailored a lot of the lectures to have stem-based writing samples, making the assignments much easier to understand. Dr. Boutla cares for her students and genuinely cares about teaching you. She doesn't grade hard and as long as you put in noticeable effort you'll get an A. She gives in-depth feedback on every assignment you do, and allows you to resubmit them for re-grading. Overall, phenomenal professor.

Dennis Winston
ENGL393

Anonymous
05/27/2021

Good professor with reasonable expectations. If you put in the effort that a 300-level English course requires and don't procrastinate then you will do well. Dr. Winston is probably one of the better ENGL393 professors available.

Brian Davis
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/20/2021

Davis is a nice and effective professor, and has done a pretty good job of running things online. Readings get to be a little much sometimes (this was more applicable in the first half of the semester), but other than that the workload is very manageable. There are several papers/projects throughout the semester; some individual, some group work. All of it can be done in a reasonable amount of time, and Davis is willing to listen if there are any issues with meeting deadlines. Grading is also pretty generous; grades tend to go from the high B to mid A range, tending towards the latter.

Sheila Lalwani
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/19/2021

She is a decent professor. This class was totally online and she was pretty hands-off. Final drafts were due 7 days after submission of the first draft, and she often did not get feedback to you until the day the final draft is due. You rely primarily on peer reviews to improve your papers, and honestly most of the peer reviews aren't great quality. However, her grading on final drafts is fair and not too harsh. The peer reviews and first drafts are graded harshly (top score is always an 85% at best) and will bring down your grade if you're aiming for an A. Overall, she is not as bad as some of the reviews online suggest and I would not mind taking her again.

Dennis Winston
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/04/2021

I had Professor Winston for online ENGL393. His assignments were very reasonable and he was an extremely fair grader. Some of the assignments are time consuming, especially the proposal paper, so don't leave that one till the last minute! Overall I HIGHLY recommend taking him for online ENGL393.

Sarah Dammeyer
ENGL393

Anonymous
04/06/2021

I really hate this class, but Sarah makes it tolerable. She's understanding of student's busy schedules and is pretty lax on deadlines and workload. Her grading system is also awesome. Highly recommend her for this class.

Nia Crawford
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/06/2021

She's very nice, but grades pretty harshly. Class is pretty pointless and boring imo but I think that's because the people in my class are robots. I haven't really gained anything at all from the class as a whole. All of the assignments are things I've done before and should be easy A's but since she's picky thats not really the case. I would say take it with a different instructor or just take a different professional writing course that's worth the time and $.

Mrim Boutla
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
03/28/2021

A STEM perspective on Boutla's 393 class: Dr Boutla does not teach this class like other professors. The review on this page from 2019 is pretty on-the-mark by claiming that her class is basically just an entrepreneurship writing course. That's not a bad thing. Allow me to elucidate. I took tech writing with Dr Boutla in Fall 2019. My peers in aerospace engineering are taking 393 now (Spring 2020) with other professors, so I have a decent data set to compare with. With most instructors, English 393 is a horrible class. The papers are long, tedious, pointless, joyless trash that will leave you more confused and agitated than anything, and the biggest assignments always seem to line up with the parts of the semester when you should be studying for exams for your major courses. I've had multiple peers miss several days of exam study to write pointless dreck like "annotated bibliographies" and impossibly detailed peer reviews. All to have the teacher give them a middling grade with copy-pasted feedback. Dr Boutla does none of that. She approaches the class from a goal-oriented perspective, challenging students to consider the professional path they most wish to pursue and tailoring their assignments to that end. She gives a handful of reasonable assignments throughout the semester and grades fairly. It is easy to get full credit on every assignment as long as you meet the posted requirements. My class had to do the following: - Resume and cover letter (write, and rewrite based on instructor feedback) - Industry paper (Write about the field and companies you intend to work for, focusing on a key industry issue) - Slide deck/Presentation (Prepare a powerpoint based on your industry paper, present it, and answer questions from your peers) - Some in-class participation exercises These are all reasonable assignments that mostly teach useful skills. Dr Boutla's lectures are laced with premium professional advice whether you're interested in grad school or employment post-grad. She's a neuroscientist and professional career coach which makes her highly qualified to discuss the course content, and I believe she's genuinely invested in her students' success. Also, she's just a very nice person. I strongly recommend Dr Boutla's section. I would even go as far as recommending shuffling your schedule around to get into it if necessary/possible. The horror stories from your peers in traditional 393 sections should be enough to prove you made the right choice.

Mark Fitzgerald
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/19/2021

Taken over a winter semester. There were three core assignments (100pts) all split over the duration of the semester, with small (1-10pt) tasks thrown in. He's a super light grader; If you submitted something, you got a passing grade on it. There were plenty of sections, and a lot of work for him to grade, yet he managed to provide real feedback on papers and writing discussions within ~1-2 days (even over the weekend). Fast response to emails as well. Overall, really a great guy, I would 100% take him again in a heartbeat.

Michelle Von Euw
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/19/2021

Everyone seems to not like her, but I thought this class was very self explanatory and she was very responsive. Read the announcements every week and you'll be set. Throughout the semester you do smaller assignments that lead up to a final research paper. Overall the assignments were pretty straight forward, but she was always willing to clarify through email if there was confusion.

Dennis Winston
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/12/2021

I had Professor Winston for ENGL393 and thought that he as a very reasonable professor. As long as you follow his instructions and look at the rubric, he always graded the assignments fairly. Although the course was not that difficult, the workload could be heavy at some points.

Kelly Cresap
ENGL393

Anonymous
01/08/2021

Please avoid taking ENGL393 with Cresap!! There is no rubric at all, and you will not know your grade unless you ask him or estimate based on your previous assignments. He asked us to fill out a mid-semester course evaluation and lots of students put that we wanted a rubric so we know what he expects for each assignment. However, he told us that "he doesn't believe in rubrics", so essentially it's just hoping that he likes your paper enough for it to be an A (which was a very slim chance after talking to other people in my class). The only chunk of feedback you can get is from peer reviews, but still they are unhelpful since they also don't know what he expects. The only perk to this class was that he lists out all things expected within the ELMS announcements, but there are a lot so you need to keep track of them. He might be helpful to take if you are a junior because of the resume and cover letter assignments. I am a senior, and he graded mine poorly (even though I got hired at a top company with both!!) just because it didn't meet his standard of the outdated textbook. If you'd like transparency in your grading and helpful feedback to actually learn professional writing, avoid him at all costs.

Patrick Nelson
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/29/2020

Prof. Patrick was fantastic! He was really accommodating and understanding during the virtual semester and made sure that we weren't being overwhelmed with material. His lectures were very short, concise, and entertaining while still getting the point across. I felt like I learned a lot about how to write better in his class.

Daniel Saalfeld
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/24/2020

Mixed feelings. I don't think taking ENGL393 with Professor Saalfeld is very difficult (his grading is fair), but it's a decent amount of work. Occasionally he would send us very passive aggressive emails when a chunk of the class missed an instruction, however some of these instructions are buried in large walls of text that he gives us for assignments, so I wish that he cut the students a little more slack at times.

Andrew Delfino
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/21/2020

Chill professor, I only spent a few hours per week on this class and easily secured my A. Style exercises are a cool addition to try and improve your writing.

Andrew Delfino
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/20/2020

Andy was a great online professor for professional writing. The videos he posted every week helped with understanding the weekly assignments that needed to be done. I loved the way he structured the online course and I loved the way he critiqued our assignments. He always starts off with a nice comment about our work and then politely comments on what we could work on. He is very understanding and overall an awesome professor!

David Miles
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/16/2020

Scott (David) was a super nice professor and had very easy and relevant assignments for students interested in technical work. Grading leniently and provided great feedback . Would recommend!

Elliot Berger
ENGL393

Anonymous
12/04/2020

Really nice professor. Lectures are sometimes a little boring, but he's really accommodating and tries to help every student pass the course. If you need help with papers he has weekly office hours. Only issue I have is that he takes a long time to give your grades back to you.

Dennis Winston
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/03/2020

ENGL393 is a decently time consuming class, but Dr. Winston was pretty good at responding to emails and concerns I had

Michelle Von Euw
ENGL393

Anonymous
11/13/2020

Absolutely awful. You write a paper for the class to bring a solution to a real world problem. This is fine, but she is very bad at communicating what she wants and the actual timeline of assignments. Her feedback was never helpful and overall you aren't going to gain anything meaningful from this class.

Elizabeth McClure
ENGL393

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
06/11/2020

Have you ever received a final letter grade at random? Because I'm pretty sure that's how she operates. On the last day of classes, only eleven out of 42 assignments were graded. Today, weeks after the end of the semester, I have a final course grade, but my final project has none. Get ready to spend 12 hours on every project for absolutely no reason. Astonishing that she is still allowed to teach. Praying that my course evaluation allows someone else to take her job.

Joshua Buursma
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/10/2020

A lot of the class seems to be commonalities you probably have already picked up or learned in the past - not a reflection on him though so much as the course. He is very laid back, somewhat dry of a lecturer but grades very fairly and cares about the well-being of students. He accounts for personal life problems and will accommodate you as necessary. He will also review any piece of writing you send to him if you do so before the due date (and if he has time that is) so there really is no reason you shouldn't get a good grade in this class. For the big group project (proposal) he lets you select whatever RFP you want, so pick something you like to write about and are interested in and it will feel less taxing.

Sheila Lalwani
ENGL393

Expecting a P
Anonymous
06/08/2020

I tried to give her a chance but she's a piece of shit. Coarse load is way too high. She makes you have a conference with her for every major assignment. She usually gives useless criticism because she doesn't actually read your rough draft. If you ask for specific instances of the issues she mentions, she'll dodge the question and in one instance got super passive aggressive with me because she "already told" me that I had the issue..... Lots of times we would get our grade and feedback for rough drafts AFTER the final draft was due. B1G brain. Avoid her class at all costs.

Mrim Boutla
ENGL393

Anonymous
05/23/2020

Great teacher, super knowledgeable, and the class helped immensely

Andrew Delfino
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/16/2020

Andy was awesome! (Our course was already online before COVID started). The organization of the online classroom was fantastic, and he gave meaningful assignments (Loved the style exercises). All that, and he's a fast grader.

Alexandra Calloway
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/15/2020

Professor Calloway cares about her students. She is very nice and understanding. She gives good comments and feedback in almost all her assignments but doesn't take many points off. If you do the assignments and show up to class, you will get an A even if you submit assignments late. Definitely an easy A course that I actually learned stuff in. She makes us read certain short articles and do simple assignments that teach you important aspects of technical writing and skills that you will definitely put to use in the workplace. She also gives a lot of extra credit opportunities. I was probably putting, at most, an hour of work per week in this course.

Kelly Cresap
ENGL393

Anonymous
05/01/2020

As nice as Cresap was trying to be, it was extremely difficult trying to understand what he’d want from us for any assignment. There’s no rubric, no sense of organization, along with the fact that you don’t know your grade unless you email or ask in person. I’m taking his course that was originally in person, now online due to the pandemic, and this situation goes to show that he’s truly not for online teaching. He took feedback on his spamming us with ELMs announcements (and us struggling to find what assignments were due that day within those 10+ announcements) and he minimized the amount and made them a bit more organized by listing everything due that day under one announcement. That was the only upside to this class. Otherwise, his critiques on my final drafts, although they should be helpful, I don’t read them because there’s no incentive for us to redo our papers when those are the final grades anyways. Whatever paper you edited after your peer review and submit to him the following week is the final draft you get graded on. He gives no direct feedback to your draft until it’s graded, so you just have to hope you magically wrote an A paper. Your grade relies on you knowing what he wants without him explicitly telling you, and hoping that the peer review somewhat helps you, and at the end only to get a nice B- for an assignment you thought you put a decent amount of effort on. I thought I could enjoy his class and get something out of it but it’s the most useless class I’ve taken. He’s also pretty good at responding fairly quickly to emails. If you’re looking for an easy A or some class to ease up your schedule a bit, I don’t recommend taking it with Cresap.

Sajeela Yaqub
ENGL393

Anonymous
04/08/2020

I had her for the online section for ENGL393 for abroad engineering students. Her section had way more work than the other sections.

Michelle Von Euw
ENGL393

Anonymous
04/03/2020

This is without a doubt the worst, most useless class I've ever taken at UMD. She forces you to do a project where you have to pick a real problem at one of the organizations you're involved in outside the university, and present a technical report/manual providing solutions to this problem. You are forced to interview people or give out surveys to a lot of people to get a passing grade. You are completely out of luck if you either don't have a problem or people to interview. There were a few assignments on cover letters, resumes and memos, which are great and what ENGL393 should be, but the biggest project is a completely stupid source of anxiety. I wish she would focus more on just writing formally than forcing you to bring your own life into this class.

Patrick Nelson
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/24/2020

great

Mrim Boutla
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/06/2020

Great Professor. Expect to put in moderate work, but the skills you will learn in this class are immense.

Sheila Lalwani
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/08/2019

Shes a pretty good professor. The class is busy work but it is a gen ed requirement. I really only spent 3 hours max a week on work aside from when we had big writing assignments due like the research paper and a 2 other major assignments. Aside from that, if you submit a decent enough paper you will do fine in this class. She even offers some extra credit at the end of the semester for doing course evaluations and going to the writing center. She really cares about her students and even though this was an online class, I really connected with her more than I do with other professors and she gives good feedback on your drafts to help you improve and get a good grade on the final draft.

Mrim Boutla
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
03/26/2019

Don't take Boutla for ENGL393. She thinks the class is an Entrepreneurship course. In the past, she has taught ENGL398B (Writing for Social Entrepreneurship) and she is too lazy to adapt the course or materials, so she teaches ENGL393 as if it were that class. I'm not learning the topic I signed up for and it's very frustrating. She is not a very strict grader, but there are definitely easier options out there for this class.

Elliot Berger
ENGL393

Anonymous
12/17/2018

Good teacher, fair to students and very courteous in class. Some lectures can be a bit dry, but he has some assignments (peer critque of papers, sentence rewriting handouts) that are a bit more interactive. Biggest issue with him is that assignments were never graded on time and that he's always late to class by 5-8 minutes. Also, he only accepts hard copies of assignments, and doesn't really use ELMS for submitting essays which is annoying.

Elliot Berger
ENGL393

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/13/2018

Very nice guy, easy going and fair with what to expect from students. He likes to interact with the class so make sure you are willing to participate. A slow grader however he is fair and is not extremely strict about assignments. Most of semester focuses on a final proposal which is not that enjoyable but he is willing to help in any way to get you through it.

Elliot Berger
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/19/2018

He teaches well, and usually has interesting things to do each day. The assignments are in the end graded fairly, but we didn't get anything back until the end of the semester.

Kelly Cresap
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/11/2018

Very nice guy who makes the class very interesting. His classes may be long, but he gives you a 10 minute break, and has interesting short stories to tell each class. He is willing to work with you to meet deadlines if you give him enough warning.

Daniel Saalfeld
ENGL393

Anonymous
05/01/2018

He's really not that bad, but the final project is individual and not as a group and he bans over a dozen topics for the final paper including on campus issues, curriculum changes, legislation changes, fraternity/sorority related, big issue/global issues, social problems, business plans, traffic on 495, and more.

Sheila Lalwani
ENGL393

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
04/26/2018

If you have a choice between taking Shelia's class and being attacked by a rabid raccoon, you'll probably have a better time and a better chance of success taking on the raccoon. She teaches nothing, most of the class is annoying busy work, and is a horrendously terrible communicator. On multiple occasions she has been unable to answer even basic questions by email, and often deducts large amounts of points from your writing without explaining why. She also provides rubrics but refuses to use them. When you peer review other students, she makes you research their topics and give them sources to include in their paper - literally doing their work for them. It's really hard to do well in her class but grades are inflated for the low end, so everyone is pushed toward a mediocre grade. This course was more time consuming than the overwhelming majority of my engineering classes, even though the material is much easier, because she assigns so much unnecessary work.

Daniel Saalfeld
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
04/17/2018

Amazing professor. Really liked his class. Even though it was too much work his directions and rubrics made it lot easier. Took it online

Joshua Buursma
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/13/2017

He is a great laid back teacher. The once a week 6:30 to 9:15 PM class was sometimes dry, but not too terrible. There are extra credit opportunities at the end of the semester as well. There is no reason you shouldn't be able to get an A in this class with ~2 hours of work per week.

Rebecca Ritzel
ENGL393

Expecting a c-
kellie0509
12/18/2015

shes not a good professor...as an adjunct she works in the day and at night came in to class...sometimes late...i had her last year in the fall and i see that nothing has changed (in the reviews below)..i recieved a c- for no reason at all...she would use my work as examples and yet i got this grade, she just doesn't care and UMD should honestly fire her.

Rebecca Ritzel
ENGL393

Expecting a C-
Anonymous
08/28/2015

Worst professor i had. She had a high expectation and she didn't even show half of the professionalism she asked. She's always late to class yet wants the students to be in their seats with the books open. For the summer, she easily could have just scanned the book page and upload it on the elms so that we can just print or save it on the tablet for the class. The incompetence just made us buy the book without notifying us beforehand. With 11 weeks of the first session, we had to buy the books which we barely used. She is also a horrible teacher with horrendous chicken scratch on the board. I didn't learn anything. Overall she's just so painful and the waste of time and money. Don't ever take her.

Rebecca Ritzel
ENGL393

Anonymous
08/25/2014

☆☆☆☆☆ 0/5 I put 1 star because that's the minimum requirement to leave the review. She is terrible. She nearly always came late, and was unapologetic. From the first day, it seemed as though she expected a lot from the student and that she'd show same kind of professionalism. Her excuse was, "It takes at least 50 minutes to get to the school". For a few times, she came late and just walked out of the class to get something. Her teaching style is so awkward as well. She uses a board when it's better taught by other method. She types things when it's better taught by other method, etc. You'll have a difficult time deciphering her chicken scratch on board and on your graded paper. She boasts that she is a tough grader, but is never fair. When i asked her why i lost points, she couldn't justify them (which i never got any point back). Every time i'd ask, she had the attitude of 'Oh i don't wanna deal with this'. One time i asked what grade i received (because she rarely updates on Myelms). She said, "I can tell you that you didn't follow the basic requirement, which was clearly stated in the instruction". She's so arrogant and insulting that even when i asked where it was stated in the instruction, she just ignored. She returned the papers few weeks into the semester, when we already handed in quite a few, so you do not get to find out until it's too late how her style is. She is so late in updating (or uploading the grades). Also, i followed the rules and turned my phone off, never had a side conversation, was never late. She gave me a C- for participation grade for not answering a few times. I asked her, and she said "There are many others who got that grade. Just be glad that you got some credit". She seems to favor those who just talk a lot (and not helpfully contribute to the class). Additionally, she occasionally sparks up a side conversation that is totally unrelated to the class material. So, for the participation grade, just disregard your classmates and talk a lot. Many times she'd say "Guys, i'm an adjunct, so i'll be busy writing for the Washington Post, so don't send me an email about the assignment". She also requires the textbook that she rarely uses. Lastly, she cancelled the class because she had a silly accident in the building, and told us to come on "reading day". On that day, she said, "Well, i hope you had a good extra time to work on your final paper. I hope no one complains about the extended day". Needless to say, she never even apologize. On that day, she barely came on time and said "Yay~ i'm not late!". I wouldn't dislike her so much if she showed a little bit of respect, but she has none. She doesn't take this job seriously at all. Without a doubt, she's the most horrendous professor i have ever had. She shouldn't be teaching.

Daniel Saalfeld
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/14/2013

Technical Writing with Saalfeld is an alright experience. Saalfeld himself is a good guy and he provides useful insight on technical reports. He can be boring as he likes to read word for word directly off papers to you in a rather monotone voice. The entire class revolves around a final project where you have to research and propose a solution to a problem. He grades pretty fairly, so do the work and you'll be fine. Don't be absent to many times, because if you are then 10% of your grade is gone.

Joan Mooney
ENGL393

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/13/2013

DO NOT TAKE HER. I cannot stress this enough. Drop english completely and take it next following semester if you have to. This women is insane. I received a B+ on an in-class writing assignment, where we had to write a set of instructions for people who have never used a shower before, because I did not write "warning: shower may be slippery!" She did not have an issue with anything else in my paper...that was her only comment. You may be thinking "oh pshh, I did well in AP English in high school, I'm not worried." I got As in AP english and a 780 on my SATs. This woman does not believe in giving out As. When asked what it takes to get an A, she will tell you that you need to go above and beyond what she puts in the rubrics. Too bad the rubrics are incredibly vague and very unhelpful. You can lose a letter grade for not including something that she never told you to include. If you do end up taking her, whenever you go to office hours to ask for help, write down everything that she says. I once went in and she told me not to worry about the page length. I lost points on the final assignment because my page length was off. She forgets everything that she tells you. The final semester project is not a group project in her class Albeit, it is a shorter project than you have to do in other classes...but it is just as much work. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS. She gives out way too much work and you will get lower grades than you deserve.

Alexandra Calloway
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/26/2012

Alexandra is a nice professor and if you put the necessary work into this class, you'll be fine. As another reviewer pointed out, she allows you to rewrite pretty much any assignment in the course for a higher grade, which is great when you get a lower grade than you expected. She will also give you a lot of advice on how to improve your work if you ask her, making the rewrite policy very nice. She does only teach the class one night a week, so the 3 hour block can be kind of a drag, but she tends to do a decent job of making the class go by somewhat quickly, especially in the second half of the semester where most weeks there will either be some sort of class activity or a peer review. My one complaint is that, at the very beginning of the course, I was confused about when certain assignments were due, since the syllabus would show upcoming due dates for assignments we had not discussed, but she corrected this and it got better as the semester went on. You're probably required to take technical writing, but if you take it with Alexandra, it won't be that bad.

Ann Mason
ENGL393

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/03/2012

I absolutely loved her. She was extremely helpful and kind. Her class is pretty interesting but the material can get pretty dry. (It is an English class after all). One of the best professors I've ever had. If I had a complaint, it would be that she takes a while with grading, but she is normally pretty generous when it comes to grading so I would say that evens out.

Phillip Moses
ENGL393

Expecting an A
OtG
06/04/2012

This is not a good class. It's not Scott's fault. Scott is largely a fair grader and a nice guy teaching a class forced on students by the University. He expects effort, and he's happy to address concerns and questions and to give advice to his students. If you can show that you put effort into your work, he'll grade accordingly. My main criticism is that Scott tends to read verbatim from presentations and handouts in class, using time that would be better spent peer-reviewing, and he has some odd criteria for some assignments. I'd advise taking the blended section if it's available; less time in class means more time to get the work done.

Phillip Moses
ENGL393

Expecting an A
zaqu413
05/28/2012

I took the Blended Learning section of this course, which was awesome because we only had class once a week for 75 minutes and then just had to do online reading and stuff instead of going to class the other day. Lecture: When we went we usually did in class peer review or Moses spoke more specifically about the current paper requirements. You are graded on attendance, but you don't get points for going, you only lose points for not going. Book: The book is MyTechCommLab which is an online book type thing. It is rather annoying, and is in desperate need of a competent webmaster to revise the site. Other than that I would say that about 50% of the assigned reading and activities were helpful, and all the rest were stupid (like stuff I knew in 5th grade, or repetitive stuff). Also it's mostly a completion grade, if your quiz grades are too low he takes off points. Papers and stuff: I thought he was a somewhat lenient grader, just compared to who I had for ENGL101. He was pedantic as other reviewers have said, but I didn't feel that he took off a lot of points, he just critiques everything. Suggestions: Start early on the final project, like start during spring break or in the fall semester start in October. I'm not kidding, just send some emails to your audiences and ask to interview them, it will REALLY help out. Also, I got a lot out of this class because I did all the readings and put a lot of effort in. Most of my classmates didn't, but I really do think that this class actually taught some important concepts. Despite being an English class, the content is very useful. Grading: Online stuff (turning things in on time and MyTechCommLab stuff): 25% Resume/Cover Letter: 10% Definition: 10% Proposal: 20% Instructions: 10% Final Project: 25%

Joan Mooney
ENGL393

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/22/2012

Avoid this instructor at all costs. She literally has NO teaching qualifications, and the major part of her career consists of writing articles for the auto industry. There are many assignments, including 2 presentations, 3 memos, an individual final project, and lots of little assignments in between. Oh and you have to attend every class because she keeps track of attendance and participation (10% of you final grade). Expect harsh grading, she will knock you a 1-2 letter grades down for "poor formatting" on an IN-CLASS writing assignment, despite having excellent content. Comments on returned assignments are not helpful, leading you to make the same mistakes again. Sometimes she just tells you to visit the writing center, instead of providing useful advice on how to improve your writing. As you can see by her stats, Mooney believes that everyone should get a B, and doesn't explain how to get an A. With no teaching ability whatsoever, she stands at the front of the class and informs you of upcoming assignments for 50 minutes. Once in a while, there is assigned reading, in-class writing assignments, or poorly explained grammar exercises. For some reason, she gives out a ton of paperwork in addition to posting assignments on elms. Towards the end of the semester, there are a LOT of due dates one after another, so it becomes very difficult to keep up with the work. More than half of your grade is determined in the last ~4 weeks, with 3 drafts for your final project, an oral presentation and 2 memos. Overall, this class was way too much work. And I definitely have not improved my writing skills at all.

Alexandra Calloway
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/15/2012

Alexandra is a good professor. She gives you a lot of freedom in writing your papers about topics that you care about, which makes the course much more interesting and bearable. Her lectures are kind of boring and not that helpful, but what can you expect from an English class? She often lets the class out early which is awesome. She is very nice and responsive to student concerns. She can be somewhat disorganized and there are too many documents and procedures for submission of assignments which is kind of annoying. But overall I enjoyed this course very much. Just make sure to pick a final project that is easy so you don't get bogged down trying to finish it at the end of the semester.

Rebecca Ritzel
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/04/2012

- Sit in the front - Participate - Do a good job on the light/fair amount of work that is given (it is fun work too since she will let you be creative. No papers either, just sweet projects) - Come to all the classes on time (she is lenient if you miss one or two) - Turn off your phone Doing all of that will lead to a good grade in the class. It is also a lot of fun for an English class. In my four years at UMD this is the only class in which I have never missed a day, and not because of the attendance policy, but it was because I actually wanted to go! I wish I could take this class all over again. Highly recommended.

Alexandra Calloway
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/27/2011

Work hard in her class and you should be rewarded. For your group project, make sure you ask her for advise before turning in your final copy. Make sure you attend class because it counts toward your final grade. She allows every graded paper to be revised and resubmitted, take advantage of that and you should be fine.

Rebecca Ritzel
ENGL393

Expecting an A
UMCPStudent
12/26/2011

I feel like the reviews for Ritzel are extremely mixed, which made it hard for me to choose her as a professor. From my experience, she is not biased towards women (I have no idea where that came from) and while she is consistently late for class and assignments take weeks to be returned, she grades fairly and tries her best to make class bearable. If you put effort into the class (and actually attend class), you will understand assignments and do well.

Michael Winett
ENGL393

Expecting an A+
pat
10/30/2011

Yeah this guy will definitely make you want to kill yourself when you listen to him talk for long enough. The class itself was actually really straight forward, and I found it to be very easy overall especially for a summer class. I would have given him a higher rating but I am sitting here, it is the last week of the class, we have had 4/5 assignments, and I have no idea how I am doing. He only returned grades for the first assignment, and then he just flaked off. Overall a really nice guy though, I'd definitely recommend 110 percent for technical writing. Easy!

Rebecca Ritzel
ENGL393

Expecting a B
Anonymous
10/10/2011

Worst Professor I have ever had at UMD. She doesn't grade fairly at all. When you ask her what you do wrong, she can't even tell you what is wrong with the paper. She just makes up excuses. When working in groups and the group had to pick the better example of the assignment, mine would be chosen and she would give me the lowest grade. I felt like I was back in high school with all of the presenting we did in front of the class. Points deducted for having your phone on your desk. Overall, she's just not a fair grader and definitely has her favorites in the class.

Phillip Moses
ENGL393

Anonymous
09/16/2011

Moses is a relatively nice guy, but definitely pedantic and can come across as a bit uptight. His criticisms are on point, but he does hold the bar rather high given the demographic of students taking his courses (non-English majors coupled with the average student writing level at Maryland). If we weren't upperclassmen, I'd say his class stands a chance at improving you writing. But as is, it just brings out the already-existing discrepancies in everyone's writing abilities.

Rebecca Ritzel
ENGL393

Anonymous
05/04/2011

STAY AWAY!!! My worst professor at UMD. She doesn't describe what she wants for her assignments but is a tough grader. If she was debating to give you a 89 or a 90, she will give you the 89 without a doubt. She was constantly late coming to class and returning assignments. She was bad in retuning emails. She has a poor teaching style. She is not helpful when providing feedback and anything I learned from this class was from the book. She is just the worst! STAY AWAY!

Rebecca Ritzel
ENGL393

Anonymous
04/27/2011

I'm not usually critical of professors; I do the work and get the A and I'm happy. But Ritzel's kind of a *****. It's not a dealbreaker if you need to take her section to fit your schedule but if you have a choice I'd recommend picking a different instructor. To give you an idea of what I mean, she actually deducts points for showing your phone in class or coming in late. Various such zero tolerance policies are frostily written all throughout her syllabus. This is really tedious in my senior year and makes me feel like a freshman. Attendance is absolutely mandatory, which is ridiculous since the useful content of 393 is stretched pretty thin- unlike technical classes the X on the attendance sheet is the only thing you'll miss if you skip, but there's still a grade tied to it. Every week or so there's some little thing you need to present to the class or your group. Like high school there's not really a grade attached to it; you just get an annoyed clucking and a careful Nurse Ratched scratch in the gradebook.

Rebecca Ritzel
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/23/2010

Ritzel was an amazing professor. Her comments were critical, but very fair. The same can be said about the grading for assignments. As long as decent work was produced, fair grades resulted. With music and an occasional joke, she made the class very captivating and worth attending. She does drill certain grammar items, but only to improve writing. Overall, one of my favorite professors.

Rebecca Ritzel
ENGL393

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/17/2010

Ritzel was a great professor! She's a lot of fun and is really laid back. She tries to make the class fun with candy, videos, etc. There's not a lot of work to the class, and we always peer review each others work when there are assignments. If you want, she'll look over all of your work before you submit it so that you do well. Pretty much as long as you show up, you'll do well. Take her!

Rebecca Ritzel
ENGL393

Expecting an A
bencbruno
12/12/2010

I didn't have the same experience as the other reviewer that says she is sexist. I am a male too, and felt no such vibe from her. She is a great teacher, and I learned a lot from her. As a Mech E. major, i generally don't like English at all, but this class was my favorite class this semester, even though it was in Tawes. It was worth, the walk, and i looked forward to class each day. She brings many interesting aspects to the course to keep your attention, and she makes the class fun, to the point it doesn't seem like class, yet you still learn. Great teach, my favorite at UMD yet.

Kelly Cresap
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/14/2010

I took this course with him over the summer which was great because he really reduced the amount of work we had to do. He's really nice and approachable, and it's quite easy to do well in his class. Just follow the textbook's examples and don't make stupid grammatical errors and you'll do fine.

Ann Mason
ENGL393

Expecting an A
katmariew
08/13/2010

She is an amazing professor who really cares about her students. She makes you want to improve your writing for the sake of improving it...not to just get the grade you want. I am a biology major, and I do have to say that so far this has been one of the most interesting classes I've taken.

Kelly Cresap
ENGL393

Expecting an A
jertor3411
07/13/2010

Dr. Cresap is a great teacher! He keeps things light and moving. He's not that harsh of a grader. Just don't be lazy... make a solid effort, and you'll be fine. He's very approachable and easy to get along with. Awesome class.

Daniel Saalfeld
ENGL393

Expecting an A
random
06/08/2010

This is a really easy class. He is a very liberal grader. And the class is mostly presentations and a project throughout the semester. You have to do a giant group research project and write about it. Most lectures were just student presentations about various weekly assignments. But quite easy stuff.If you have to take ENGL393, definitely take it with Saalfeld for an easy A. And as long as you don't completely ignore the assignments or coming to class, you will do fine.

Phillip Moses
ENGL393

Expecting an A
fiddlerkrt
05/24/2010

This class is a bit of a drag. As the other review says, the entire course revolves around one single project that makes up about 40% of your grade (the final paper is 25%). I would advise anyone taking ENGL393 with Moses to take this class seriously. When he asked the first day of class what people had heard about it, many said it was an easy A. To this day, I think he made it his mission to prove that fact wrong. He can be pedantic, fussy, and annoying at times with his comments but he was always right. Once you learn how he grades, you should do fine. As he always says, your audience is the most important aspect of your writing. He's your audience, so figure out how he likes things done to do well.

Phillip Moses
ENGL393

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
04/05/2010

I sort of went into the class with the mentality that it was just a stupid requirement, that the professor would be laid-back, and it would be a pretty easy A. Not quite the case. This guy will make you work. The entire course revolves around a giant semester-long recommendation report. Come to think of it, it's a really useful assignment, and it does a fabulous job of preparing you for the "real world," but I'm just too lazy for that. So far I've learned quite a bit, but most of the subject matter is about functioning in a corporate desk job and dealing with an administration. What a drag.

Kelly Cresap
ENGL393

Anonymous
03/31/2010

he nit picks at everything. doesn't show that he really knows the technical atmosphere as much as an engineering professor would. grades really hard bc of his nit picking. tries to be funny :/

Kelly Cresap
ENGL393

Expecting a B+
Xin
12/23/2009

Great teacher! He is kind of a harsh grader but very nice, approachable, and helpful. He wants you to do well and does whatever he can to make sure to you are successful.

Arthur Reynolds
ENGL393

Expecting an A
Argraybeal
08/04/2009

Professor Reynolds is one of the easiest teachers I've ever had. all you have to do is show up for class. He lets you work on all the assignments in class and then reviews them for you. unless you are really looking to learn a lot about technical writing, he is a good choice for a professor. he does spend a lot of time talking about completely random things, which can sometimes be interesting, but usually just end up wasting class time that could be better spent working on his assignments.

Joseph Wappel
ENGL393

Expecting an A
a778999
05/24/2009

This is not a hard course if you don't procrastinate. As long as you write decent papers you will get an A. He didn't even grade my final assignment (technically worth 25% of the grade) because I had an A already.

Michael Winett
ENGL393

Anonymous
05/27/2008

Although this professor gives the majority of his students good grades, as far as I am concerned he is a disgrace to the english staff. He gave me a bad grade in his class for no reason. According to his grading scale, I am in his bottom 3% As far as I am concerned, he is a horrible person and a horrible grader and should be removed from teaching at the english department because he contributed to the lowering of my gpa! I would not take his class again if he paid me to.

Reviews for ENGL393