ENGL398N | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
David Todd ENGL398N Expecting a B Anonymous 10/22/2024	Please Please Please DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR. I wish I read the reviews before registering. He makes the class wayyyyyyy more complicated than it's suppose to be. He is a tough grader and when he fails you on something, he doesn't take the time to to explain why. He will just say "check the lecture notes". He is also VERY SPECIFIC about the way he wants the assignments done. If you don't do it his way, even if your way is right, he will grade it wrong. Finally, the final project is unnecessarily long and too much work. It has to be like over 20 pages. Please save yourself the stress and mental breakdown and avoid this class. I am literally so annoyed every time I walk in to that class and I can't wait to be done
Michael Schmidt ENGL398N Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/30/2024	Professor Schmidt is extremely nice and passionate about teaching this class and is always willing to help students. There are 4 main writing assignments throughout the semester that he explains thoroughly. He also sets aside a session of online office hours instead of class before the assignment due dates to ask any questions. These assignments do take some effort, however, he is a very fair grader and provides rubrics to help you succeed.
Rachel Cote ENGL398N Expecting an A Anonymous 05/24/2024	Professor Cote was a very kind person and she genuinely cared about us as people. This semester was "labor based," where if you turn in completed work and met the requirements, you will get full points on an assignment. She is huge on participation; attendance and in-class participation are things she tracks (she even looks at laptop/phone usage), which means she takes off a lot of points at the end for participation. Late work is accepted and she is very flexible in her teaching. We did a lot of in-class peer reviews and sometimes she would lecture on the genre of writing we were doing. She gives extremely detailed feedback & you can take it with a grain of salt generally because they are stylistic comments.
David Todd ENGL398N Expecting an A Anonymous 05/22/2024	Don't take this professor if you want an easy A. This professor is pretty strict with grading and gives out a lot of assignments so his class isn't going to be a gen-ed course that you can finesse your way through. That being said, I think Dave Todd is a great professor. As long as you go to lectures, take notes, and submit everything on time, you should be fine in the course. He communicates pretty clearly in his lectures how he wants the assignments done and how to do them. As long as you follow his guidelines and show that you tried on the assignment, he will give you a good grade. He has a lot of good tips and advice when it comes to professional writing as well. I learned a lot in this class and I really think it was a valuable part of my education. I do have some complaints though. The ELMS page for this class is a nightmare. It's obvious he doesn't know how to use it because every single ELMS post he makes (assignments, announcements, documents, class objectives) he posts as an ASSIGNMENT with due dates and everything. Every week my ELMS app would ping me saying I have 6-8 assignments due for the course when really only 1-2 of them were assignments. And yeah, I can confirm what the other reviews say about him showing up late to almost every class. To be fair, none of the students showed up to that class on time either and a lot of the time he would have to wait for more people to show up to start class.
Rebecca Holden ENGL398N Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/15/2024	Professor Holden is so so sweet and always willing to help people out/have meetings for assignments, and she'll bring snacks or coffee to class sometimes. You get 2 unexcused absences and if you're not feeling well you can just go on Zoom which is nice. But this class is a RIDICULOUS amount of work. At least 2-3 assignments due per week with unnecessarily long and complicated instructions, 2 big group projects, peer critiques for almost every class, and readings. And you have to submit a memo for every single assignment to explain what the assignment you're turning in was. She's an incredibly harsh grader too and takes off points for seemingly arbitrary reasons. Final was two separate memos due 24 hours after a really big project was due. Do not take this class, even if you love nonprofits because it will make you hate them.
Kevin Wisniewski ENGL398N Expecting an A Anonymous 05/11/2024	Professor Wisniewski is such a kind professor who truly cares about all of his students. He made professional writing easy and an enjoyable experience. In class, he tried his best to get to know everyone. I really liked the writing prompts that we had. These allowed us to start class with some writing and we had many fun discussions as a class which became a community. The assignments are not too bad. This semester we had an application package, a white paper, a marketing campaign, a grant proposal, and an e-portfolio. My only criticism would be that sometimes he talks a lot and gets sidetracked, but his stories are interesting. I would recommend Prof. Wisniewski for professional writing.
Michael Schmidt ENGL398N Anonymous 05/08/2024	Amazing Professor - loves to talk. Just make sure you go to class for participation. Very understanding and overall very chill. Def would take another class with him!!
Gerard Holmes ENGL398N Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/29/2023	As a CS major, this was an easy/rewarding course. Professor Holmes is an amazing professor and makes every step of the process extremely clear. The assignments fall into two categories: discussions and assignments. The discussions are pretty self-explanatory and very reasonable. The assignments aren't too lengthy (expect 1-2 pages per assignment). The final grant-proposal (the majority of your grade) is a culmination of all the previous assignment with some tweaking you've done along the way. Overall, great course if you're looking to fill your FSPW requirement or just looking for a great class to learn about the non-profit sector.
Gerard Holmes ENGL398N Anonymous 12/01/2023	Gerard Holmes is the GOAT, I cannot say enough nice things about him. If you have the option to take him absolutely do, one of the nicest and most understanding professors I have ever had he is an engaging professor, doesn't take himself too seriously and is willing to work and help you with anything that you need an absolute king.
Rebecca Holden ENGL398N Expecting an A Anonymous 09/19/2023	Prof. Holden is a good professor teaching a tough class. She was very friendly and helpful throughout my time in 398N. She does assign a ton of work per week and makes sure you stick to the rubric like glue. If you’re not even the least bit interested in the nonprofit sector, find something different for your professional writing req. However this was not a bad course and if you get cracking on assignments as they’re released, follow the guidelines, and don’t procrastinate, you will be fine. I promise.
Rebecca Holden ENGL398N Anonymous 09/08/2023	Don't take this class. It is so much work and she is a strict grader- way too strict for the amount of assignments we have. I am a senior and this class reminded me that some gen eds are just a collection of meaningless assignments. The assignments and their directions have such long instructions it's actually absurd and only serves to stress you out. Emails are way too long as well. I really don't recommend this class in the slightest, and I'm only on week 2. Every assignment that you're graded on is so meaningless it's honestly a little disrespectful...
Gerard Holmes ENGL398N Expecting an A HashedString 05/26/2023	The actual GOAT. His class and rules are exceedingly simple: You do the assignments with a modicum of effort and you get an A+ in the class. (The reason I have an A and not an A+ is that I skipped a lot. Now before you sound the alarm bells over attendance!! hear me out) Grading: 1. Bi-weekly discussion posts and mini-writing assignments. May seem an annoying time chore but these are graded on COMPLETION only, so you just need to write something. It's free points and takes like 20 minutes of your day. 2. About 3 big papers split up into multiple sub-sections. These are graded VERY leniently (esp the drafts) so as long as you stick with the deadlines (which are fair as you have weeks to complete assignments) you will get 90+ on everything 3. Effort grading. Show up at least twice for the in-class peer review (end of semester), and at least once a week. Also, make sure to provide peer feedback whenever assigned on elms and you get both of these credits for free. That's literally it. No exams no nothing. Holmes grades pretty much everything on completion more or less as long as it looks like you tried decently well. As long as you keep up and do the work on time this is a free A. The sole difficulty of this class is just that there are a lot of little weekly assignments (the discussion posts and other minor mini-writing assignments) so you just need to remember that they exist and do them. Look at your Canvas calendar every day and you will be fine. Class Content: It's about non-profits and as a CS major it wasn't terribly interesting or applicable to me. The content itself is also somewhat surface-level and easily learned from Google and can be seen as an intro to writing grant proposals and public relations papers. Not the most exciting of content but hey you're here for the free GPA and the PW credit anyway. tl;dr: Easy A, W prof, he's the goat take this class. (Also like no one ever signs up for this since it's so obscure so if he is teaching this or any PW class take it)
Rebecca Holden ENGL398N Anonymous 02/09/2023	it's only the third week of class and i already hate it here tbh. holden's a really nice professor but there's just SO MANY assignments, each with super long and complicated instructions that it makes it confusing for me and others with learning disabilities. i've come to dread having to do each assignment that's due almost everyday with inconsistent times. this honestly feels like a high school class but wayyy more work.
Sarah Goodson ENGL398N Anonymous 12/18/2022	Rating 2 stars only because this is Professor Goodson's first semester teaching at UMD and maybe once she settles in things will improve. Also, she is peppy and engaging during lectures which is helpful for a 5pm class. Otherwise pretty bad. Pacing of assignments was way off. The semester started off with two class sessions dedicated to peer-editing and revising a single paragraph(!) and ended with three concurrent projects that accounted for 45% of the final grade. Instructions and deadlines for these assignments were not communicated until midway through the semester, well after the add/drop period. There was no semester calendar- instead we got sporadically updated handouts that covered about 3-4 weeks at a time. I also spent hours (plural!) simply locating assignment instructions and hand-in methods, since practically every one was housed somewhere different- terrible organization. Communication was also bad. Echoing other commenters, Professor Goodson did not respond to emails or enter grades in a timely manner. There were assignments from the first month that were graded in mid-December with no feedback! The real kicker is that this professor presents early on as someone caring. She is quick to bring up the importance of self-care, checking in, and how she is always here for students. However, when other students and I came to her with legitimate grievances like illness or personal loss she was completely inflexible. She's not so much a wolf in sheep's clothing as a candy-coated pedant.
Rebecca Holden ENGL398N Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2022	She is a very nice professor and she is lenient with due dates due to COVID (Not sure how she will be in the future). Obviously, there is a lot of writing in this class but Holden gives ample time to complete the work in my opinion and lays out due dates that help you along the way to each final draft. Very helpful with questions and takes the time to work with each student if you need help.
Rebecca Holden ENGL398N Expecting an A- Anonymous 03/09/2021	Gives way too much work for a gened
David Todd ENGL398N Anonymous 02/25/2021	Literally the worst professor ever. Is always at least 5-10 minutes late to every class, and is NOT clear at all on any instructions whatsoever. We are doing class online and he spends at least an hour explaining what is due and changing due dates and deadlines when he could just make a SCHEDULE ON THE SYLLABUS and an ASSIGNMENTS TAB. His writing is incoherent even though he’s a lawyer. Very disorganized and nobody ever knows what is due. Do not take his class.
Rebecca Holden ENGL398N Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/02/2018	This is an amazing course, and Professor Holden is an excellent professor. Yes, there is an assignment due nearly every time the class meets. But the assignments build on each other and it makes sense why they are part of the course. Holden is a clear speaker and speaks with purpose in class. I learned a lot of applicable information for future jobs.
Rebecca Holden ENGL398N Expecting a B Anonymous 01/08/2014	Professor Holden was a great professor I highly recommend her class! Although there are assignments due almost every class she returns assignments in a timely manner, with feedback and is always open for discussing work.
Rebecca Holden ENGL398N Expecting a B Anonymous 12/08/2013	Do not take this class. She is a nice enough teacher but not when it comes to grading. She bombards you with so many writing assignments the entire semester that you are writing almost every class. She even takes attendance every class and takes points off for being late. This class took so much of my time. This class sucked.

David Todd
ENGL398N

Expecting a B
Anonymous
10/22/2024

Please Please Please DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR. I wish I read the reviews before registering. He makes the class wayyyyyyy more complicated than it's suppose to be. He is a tough grader and when he fails you on something, he doesn't take the time to to explain why. He will just say "check the lecture notes". He is also VERY SPECIFIC about the way he wants the assignments done. If you don't do it his way, even if your way is right, he will grade it wrong. Finally, the final project is unnecessarily long and too much work. It has to be like over 20 pages. Please save yourself the stress and mental breakdown and avoid this class. I am literally so annoyed every time I walk in to that class and I can't wait to be done

Michael Schmidt
ENGL398N

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
06/30/2024

Professor Schmidt is extremely nice and passionate about teaching this class and is always willing to help students. There are 4 main writing assignments throughout the semester that he explains thoroughly. He also sets aside a session of online office hours instead of class before the assignment due dates to ask any questions. These assignments do take some effort, however, he is a very fair grader and provides rubrics to help you succeed.

Rachel Cote
ENGL398N

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/24/2024

Professor Cote was a very kind person and she genuinely cared about us as people. This semester was "labor based," where if you turn in completed work and met the requirements, you will get full points on an assignment. She is huge on participation; attendance and in-class participation are things she tracks (she even looks at laptop/phone usage), which means she takes off a lot of points at the end for participation. Late work is accepted and she is very flexible in her teaching. We did a lot of in-class peer reviews and sometimes she would lecture on the genre of writing we were doing. She gives extremely detailed feedback & you can take it with a grain of salt generally because they are stylistic comments.

David Todd
ENGL398N

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/22/2024

Don't take this professor if you want an easy A. This professor is pretty strict with grading and gives out a lot of assignments so his class isn't going to be a gen-ed course that you can finesse your way through. That being said, I think Dave Todd is a great professor. As long as you go to lectures, take notes, and submit everything on time, you should be fine in the course. He communicates pretty clearly in his lectures how he wants the assignments done and how to do them. As long as you follow his guidelines and show that you tried on the assignment, he will give you a good grade. He has a lot of good tips and advice when it comes to professional writing as well. I learned a lot in this class and I really think it was a valuable part of my education. I do have some complaints though. The ELMS page for this class is a nightmare. It's obvious he doesn't know how to use it because every single ELMS post he makes (assignments, announcements, documents, class objectives) he posts as an ASSIGNMENT with due dates and everything. Every week my ELMS app would ping me saying I have 6-8 assignments due for the course when really only 1-2 of them were assignments. And yeah, I can confirm what the other reviews say about him showing up late to almost every class. To be fair, none of the students showed up to that class on time either and a lot of the time he would have to wait for more people to show up to start class.

Rebecca Holden
ENGL398N

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/15/2024

Professor Holden is so so sweet and always willing to help people out/have meetings for assignments, and she'll bring snacks or coffee to class sometimes. You get 2 unexcused absences and if you're not feeling well you can just go on Zoom which is nice. But this class is a RIDICULOUS amount of work. At least 2-3 assignments due per week with unnecessarily long and complicated instructions, 2 big group projects, peer critiques for almost every class, and readings. And you have to submit a memo for every single assignment to explain what the assignment you're turning in was. She's an incredibly harsh grader too and takes off points for seemingly arbitrary reasons. Final was two separate memos due 24 hours after a really big project was due. Do not take this class, even if you love nonprofits because it will make you hate them.

Kevin Wisniewski
ENGL398N

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/11/2024

Professor Wisniewski is such a kind professor who truly cares about all of his students. He made professional writing easy and an enjoyable experience. In class, he tried his best to get to know everyone. I really liked the writing prompts that we had. These allowed us to start class with some writing and we had many fun discussions as a class which became a community. The assignments are not too bad. This semester we had an application package, a white paper, a marketing campaign, a grant proposal, and an e-portfolio. My only criticism would be that sometimes he talks a lot and gets sidetracked, but his stories are interesting. I would recommend Prof. Wisniewski for professional writing.

Michael Schmidt
ENGL398N

Anonymous
05/08/2024

Amazing Professor - loves to talk. Just make sure you go to class for participation. Very understanding and overall very chill. Def would take another class with him!!

Gerard Holmes
ENGL398N

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/29/2023

As a CS major, this was an easy/rewarding course. Professor Holmes is an amazing professor and makes every step of the process extremely clear. The assignments fall into two categories: discussions and assignments. The discussions are pretty self-explanatory and very reasonable. The assignments aren't too lengthy (expect 1-2 pages per assignment). The final grant-proposal (the majority of your grade) is a culmination of all the previous assignment with some tweaking you've done along the way. Overall, great course if you're looking to fill your FSPW requirement or just looking for a great class to learn about the non-profit sector.

Gerard Holmes
ENGL398N

Anonymous
12/01/2023

Gerard Holmes is the GOAT, I cannot say enough nice things about him. If you have the option to take him absolutely do, one of the nicest and most understanding professors I have ever had he is an engaging professor, doesn't take himself too seriously and is willing to work and help you with anything that you need an absolute king.

Rebecca Holden
ENGL398N

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/19/2023

Prof. Holden is a good professor teaching a tough class. She was very friendly and helpful throughout my time in 398N. She does assign a ton of work per week and makes sure you stick to the rubric like glue. If you’re not even the least bit interested in the nonprofit sector, find something different for your professional writing req. However this was not a bad course and if you get cracking on assignments as they’re released, follow the guidelines, and don’t procrastinate, you will be fine. I promise.

Rebecca Holden
ENGL398N

Anonymous
09/08/2023

Don't take this class. It is so much work and she is a strict grader- way too strict for the amount of assignments we have. I am a senior and this class reminded me that some gen eds are just a collection of meaningless assignments. The assignments and their directions have such long instructions it's actually absurd and only serves to stress you out. Emails are way too long as well. I really don't recommend this class in the slightest, and I'm only on week 2. Every assignment that you're graded on is so meaningless it's honestly a little disrespectful...

Gerard Holmes
ENGL398N

Expecting an A
HashedString
05/26/2023

The actual GOAT. His class and rules are exceedingly simple: You do the assignments with a modicum of effort and you get an A+ in the class. (The reason I have an A and not an A+ is that I skipped a lot. Now before you sound the alarm bells over attendance!! hear me out) Grading: 1. Bi-weekly discussion posts and mini-writing assignments. May seem an annoying time chore but these are graded on COMPLETION only, so you just need to write something. It's free points and takes like 20 minutes of your day. 2. About 3 big papers split up into multiple sub-sections. These are graded VERY leniently (esp the drafts) so as long as you stick with the deadlines (which are fair as you have weeks to complete assignments) you will get 90+ on everything 3. Effort grading. Show up at least twice for the in-class peer review (end of semester), and at least once a week. Also, make sure to provide peer feedback whenever assigned on elms and you get both of these credits for free. That's literally it. No exams no nothing. Holmes grades pretty much everything on completion more or less as long as it looks like you tried decently well. As long as you keep up and do the work on time this is a free A. The sole difficulty of this class is just that there are a lot of little weekly assignments (the discussion posts and other minor mini-writing assignments) so you just need to remember that they exist and do them. Look at your Canvas calendar every day and you will be fine. Class Content: It's about non-profits and as a CS major it wasn't terribly interesting or applicable to me. The content itself is also somewhat surface-level and easily learned from Google and can be seen as an intro to writing grant proposals and public relations papers. Not the most exciting of content but hey you're here for the free GPA and the PW credit anyway. tl;dr: Easy A, W prof, he's the goat take this class. (Also like no one ever signs up for this since it's so obscure so if he is teaching this or any PW class take it)

Rebecca Holden
ENGL398N

Anonymous
02/09/2023

it's only the third week of class and i already hate it here tbh. holden's a really nice professor but there's just SO MANY assignments, each with super long and complicated instructions that it makes it confusing for me and others with learning disabilities. i've come to dread having to do each assignment that's due almost everyday with inconsistent times. this honestly feels like a high school class but wayyy more work.

Sarah Goodson
ENGL398N

Anonymous
12/18/2022

Rating 2 stars only because this is Professor Goodson's first semester teaching at UMD and maybe once she settles in things will improve. Also, she is peppy and engaging during lectures which is helpful for a 5pm class. Otherwise pretty bad. Pacing of assignments was way off. The semester started off with two class sessions dedicated to peer-editing and revising a single paragraph(!) and ended with three concurrent projects that accounted for 45% of the final grade. Instructions and deadlines for these assignments were not communicated until midway through the semester, well after the add/drop period. There was no semester calendar- instead we got sporadically updated handouts that covered about 3-4 weeks at a time. I also spent hours (plural!) simply locating assignment instructions and hand-in methods, since practically every one was housed somewhere different- terrible organization. Communication was also bad. Echoing other commenters, Professor Goodson did not respond to emails or enter grades in a timely manner. There were assignments from the first month that were graded in mid-December with no feedback! The real kicker is that this professor presents early on as someone caring. She is quick to bring up the importance of self-care, checking in, and how she is always here for students. However, when other students and I came to her with legitimate grievances like illness or personal loss she was completely inflexible. She's not so much a wolf in sheep's clothing as a candy-coated pedant.

Rebecca Holden
ENGL398N

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/17/2022

She is a very nice professor and she is lenient with due dates due to COVID (Not sure how she will be in the future). Obviously, there is a lot of writing in this class but Holden gives ample time to complete the work in my opinion and lays out due dates that help you along the way to each final draft. Very helpful with questions and takes the time to work with each student if you need help.

Rebecca Holden
ENGL398N

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
03/09/2021

Gives way too much work for a gened

David Todd
ENGL398N

Anonymous
02/25/2021

Literally the worst professor ever. Is always at least 5-10 minutes late to every class, and is NOT clear at all on any instructions whatsoever. We are doing class online and he spends at least an hour explaining what is due and changing due dates and deadlines when he could just make a SCHEDULE ON THE SYLLABUS and an ASSIGNMENTS TAB. His writing is incoherent even though he’s a lawyer. Very disorganized and nobody ever knows what is due. Do not take his class.

Rebecca Holden
ENGL398N

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
01/02/2018

This is an amazing course, and Professor Holden is an excellent professor. Yes, there is an assignment due nearly every time the class meets. But the assignments build on each other and it makes sense why they are part of the course. Holden is a clear speaker and speaks with purpose in class. I learned a lot of applicable information for future jobs.

Rebecca Holden
ENGL398N

Expecting a B
Anonymous
01/08/2014

Professor Holden was a great professor I highly recommend her class! Although there are assignments due almost every class she returns assignments in a timely manner, with feedback and is always open for discussing work.

Rebecca Holden
ENGL398N

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/08/2013

Do not take this class. She is a nice enough teacher but not when it comes to grading. She bombards you with so many writing assignments the entire semester that you are writing almost every class. She even takes attendance every class and takes points off for being late. This class took so much of my time. This class sucked.

Reviews for ENGL398N