ENGL398V | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Elizabeth Chang ENGL398V Expecting a B+ Anonymous 10/28/2024	She assigns a ridiculous amount of work a week (think: 3-4 submissions of varying difficulty a week) without a break. Mostly focuses on peer review during in-class time and has a confusing canvas page. She grades papers based on how much you changed from her suggested edits and peer review, not on the quality of work. The class does not focus on environmental writing but rather buzzfeed-esque articles masked as explainers and op-eds. Not an enjoyable class. She does seem kind though and is willing to take meetings or offer help.
Jesse Brooks ENGL398V Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/19/2024	Jesse is very kind and understanding! He’s lenient with deadlines and is overall super chill and supportive. I can tell he’s passionate and enjoys teaching this course. The class consists of two essays and mostly readings and discussions in class on non-writing weeks. The essays are based on self research about an issue. Participation is important and he looks for effort. Don’t stress about grades as long as you try, Jesse is a generous grader. He put in final grades and gave me an A before grading my second essay haha. I recommend this if you’re looking for a more relaxed writing course to take
Jesse Brooks ENGL398V Anonymous 12/06/2023	He's a nice guy and all, and I'm sure his creative writing classes are great, but specifically for this class (ENGL398V) I am extremely disappointed in what he teaches us. This was advertised as a professional writing class, writing about the environment, but we aren't really doing any writing to prepare us for respective professional fields, unless you're maybe doing journalism or advocacy work where creative writing comes in handy. You can tell he really doesn't want to be teaching this and only really has us do creative writing assignments, so if you want to get something out of this class that will help prepare you for writing in an actual career, this prof/class is definitely not what you want to be taking.
Ruth Phillips ENGL398V Expecting an A Anonymous 12/13/2022	Professor Phillips has been one of my favorite professors over my time here at UMD, she really cares for her students and is super understanding of your situation. the class consists of : Final Cover Letter 15% Final Resume 15% Final ePortfolio 10% Press Kit and White Paper 15% Oral Pitch 15% the class can be a bit busy at times, with a lot of outlines/drafts and peer review, but go through the motions and you'll be good! the press kit and white paper are about an environmental problem of your choosing and a hands-on solution/mitigation of your choosing. I personally am not an environmentalist, but did fine! professor phillips is very sweet and can be rather funny! i couldn't imagine taking another class instead of this one for FSPW
Anna Josephson ENGL398V Expecting an A Anonymous 12/06/2022	Anna is incredible! The course load is heavy, but she makes it significantly better. She provides in-depth comments/feedback on all assignments and genuinely wants her students to succeed. Anna makes note of common mistakes students have in their writing and provides helpful in-class examples of how to resolve them and improve our technique. My writing had improved tremendously because of this class.
Ruth Phillips ENGL398V Expecting an A Anonymous 04/05/2022	I don't think she made this class necessarily the easiest, giving lots of busy work and activities, but never have I ever had a professor who genuinely probably put just as much (probably more) effort onto assignments as I have. This course doesn't really teach you writing (there are some snippets here and there) but is rather a broad class that sort of just lets you try and convince others to do a sustainable thing of your choice. It's an interesting class I don't mind going to every week and Dr. Phillips is always very nice and understanding. She does take the whole class time period though, which is my only peeve. She also does have a small assignment due each week but it's literally no stakes writing in which you just reflect for 20 minutes and you get a guaranteed 100%.
Jesse Brooks ENGL398V Expecting an A Anonymous 02/14/2022	I loved him! I feel like my writing improved so much in this course, he focuses on straying from regular cut-and-dry rubrics (which was hard for me), but really helps with writing and expressing ideas/communicating in general. Really loved the content of this course, if you're looking for a professional writing course to take, I'd highly recommend 398V (especially with Jesse). Great course and great professor! Never talks down the class and really tries to relate and build connections with everyone (not in a cheesy way).
Jesse Brooks ENGL398V Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2021	I took this class in Fall 2021 Pros: + Class is mostly pretty chill when an essay isn't immediately due. Classes mostly consist of discussing readings, but since there are no grades that rely on having you read the readings you don't really have to do the readings. + Prof, all in all, is pretty chill. Even if you miss assignments, just talk to him and you can normally reach an arrangement + Also I guess he's changed a lot from December 2017, he allowed us to have laptops in class Cons: - Essays are very anecdote-based, if you're used to writing research papers, get ready for some whiplash
Ruth Phillips ENGL398V Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2021	I really enjoyed taking this course. Professor Phillips attempts to get to know her students and encourages success in the class. She gives ample time to complete the different projects and will work with you to get the grade you would like.
Ruth Phillips ENGL398V Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2021	Amazing instructor. Professor Phillips takes a huge amount of her personal time and energy to ensure that the class is run fairly and equitability, and aims to assist all students in getting the best grade possible.
Kevin Wisniewski ENGL398V Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/10/2019	By far the best professor I've every had. He really understands his students and is very empathetic to the amount of work they put in for other courses. He assigns deadlines based on when he feels everyone in class is ready and is more than willing to push that deadline back if students are having difficulty.
Ann Mason ENGL398V Expecting an A gashes08 12/14/2013	Absolutely an amazing professor! The things she teaches will significantly improve your writing. Writing for the environment can be tedious but she keeps it interesting. BUY THE BOOK! Not because you will need it but because it is worth reading. I am so glad I was able to take her class.
Ann Mason ENGL398V Expecting an A Anonymous 04/13/2011	She is a very nice lady and is very helpful if you want to improve your writing. Most people take this class to graduate, but she improves your writing whether or not you are interested in the environment.
Marybeth Shea ENGL398V Expecting an A Anonymous 04/10/2010	I've never enjoyed an english class before 398V. An english class without any books, the "text" is an online blog. Writing assignments are geared for the work place and will turn out to be good writing samples for interviews. She is very reasonable with extenuating circumstances in terms of turning in assignments. Her main goal is to have you improve as a writer, not to make you jump through hoops. I highly recommend this class and anything that MB Shea teaches. I can't imagine a better junior english class.
Marybeth Shea ENGL398V Expecting an A Anonymous 03/31/2010	I enjoy this class, and it is easy. The writing assignments are useful, and we have many opportunities to rewrite them until they are good enough to be used as writing samples for interviews. I would agree, though, that she is disorganized. We get to do a good amount of our homework in class. You don't have to be interested in the environment to take this class, it is only loosely environmental. I would recommend this class to anyone.

Elizabeth Chang
ENGL398V

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
10/28/2024

She assigns a ridiculous amount of work a week (think: 3-4 submissions of varying difficulty a week) without a break. Mostly focuses on peer review during in-class time and has a confusing canvas page. She grades papers based on how much you changed from her suggested edits and peer review, not on the quality of work. The class does not focus on environmental writing but rather buzzfeed-esque articles masked as explainers and op-eds. Not an enjoyable class. She does seem kind though and is willing to take meetings or offer help.

Jesse Brooks
ENGL398V

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
06/19/2024

Jesse is very kind and understanding! He’s lenient with deadlines and is overall super chill and supportive. I can tell he’s passionate and enjoys teaching this course. The class consists of two essays and mostly readings and discussions in class on non-writing weeks. The essays are based on self research about an issue. Participation is important and he looks for effort. Don’t stress about grades as long as you try, Jesse is a generous grader. He put in final grades and gave me an A before grading my second essay haha. I recommend this if you’re looking for a more relaxed writing course to take

Jesse Brooks
ENGL398V

Anonymous
12/06/2023

He's a nice guy and all, and I'm sure his creative writing classes are great, but specifically for this class (ENGL398V) I am extremely disappointed in what he teaches us. This was advertised as a professional writing class, writing about the environment, but we aren't really doing any writing to prepare us for respective professional fields, unless you're maybe doing journalism or advocacy work where creative writing comes in handy. You can tell he really doesn't want to be teaching this and only really has us do creative writing assignments, so if you want to get something out of this class that will help prepare you for writing in an actual career, this prof/class is definitely not what you want to be taking.

Ruth Phillips
ENGL398V

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/13/2022

Professor Phillips has been one of my favorite professors over my time here at UMD, she really cares for her students and is super understanding of your situation. the class consists of : Final Cover Letter 15% Final Resume 15% Final ePortfolio 10% Press Kit and White Paper 15% Oral Pitch 15% the class can be a bit busy at times, with a lot of outlines/drafts and peer review, but go through the motions and you'll be good! the press kit and white paper are about an environmental problem of your choosing and a hands-on solution/mitigation of your choosing. I personally am not an environmentalist, but did fine! professor phillips is very sweet and can be rather funny! i couldn't imagine taking another class instead of this one for FSPW

Anna Josephson
ENGL398V

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/06/2022

Anna is incredible! The course load is heavy, but she makes it significantly better. She provides in-depth comments/feedback on all assignments and genuinely wants her students to succeed. Anna makes note of common mistakes students have in their writing and provides helpful in-class examples of how to resolve them and improve our technique. My writing had improved tremendously because of this class.

Ruth Phillips
ENGL398V

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/05/2022

I don't think she made this class necessarily the easiest, giving lots of busy work and activities, but never have I ever had a professor who genuinely probably put just as much (probably more) effort onto assignments as I have. This course doesn't really teach you writing (there are some snippets here and there) but is rather a broad class that sort of just lets you try and convince others to do a sustainable thing of your choice. It's an interesting class I don't mind going to every week and Dr. Phillips is always very nice and understanding. She does take the whole class time period though, which is my only peeve. She also does have a small assignment due each week but it's literally no stakes writing in which you just reflect for 20 minutes and you get a guaranteed 100%.

Jesse Brooks
ENGL398V

Expecting an A
Anonymous
02/14/2022

I loved him! I feel like my writing improved so much in this course, he focuses on straying from regular cut-and-dry rubrics (which was hard for me), but really helps with writing and expressing ideas/communicating in general. Really loved the content of this course, if you're looking for a professional writing course to take, I'd highly recommend 398V (especially with Jesse). Great course and great professor! Never talks down the class and really tries to relate and build connections with everyone (not in a cheesy way).

Jesse Brooks
ENGL398V

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/24/2021

I took this class in Fall 2021 Pros: + Class is mostly pretty chill when an essay isn't immediately due. Classes mostly consist of discussing readings, but since there are no grades that rely on having you read the readings you don't really have to do the readings. + Prof, all in all, is pretty chill. Even if you miss assignments, just talk to him and you can normally reach an arrangement + Also I guess he's changed a lot from December 2017, he allowed us to have laptops in class Cons: - Essays are very anecdote-based, if you're used to writing research papers, get ready for some whiplash

Ruth Phillips
ENGL398V

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/08/2021

I really enjoyed taking this course. Professor Phillips attempts to get to know her students and encourages success in the class. She gives ample time to complete the different projects and will work with you to get the grade you would like.

Ruth Phillips
ENGL398V

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/18/2021

Amazing instructor. Professor Phillips takes a huge amount of her personal time and energy to ensure that the class is run fairly and equitability, and aims to assist all students in getting the best grade possible.

Kevin Wisniewski
ENGL398V

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
04/10/2019

By far the best professor I've every had. He really understands his students and is very empathetic to the amount of work they put in for other courses. He assigns deadlines based on when he feels everyone in class is ready and is more than willing to push that deadline back if students are having difficulty.

Ann Mason
ENGL398V

Expecting an A
gashes08
12/14/2013

Absolutely an amazing professor! The things she teaches will significantly improve your writing. Writing for the environment can be tedious but she keeps it interesting. BUY THE BOOK! Not because you will need it but because it is worth reading. I am so glad I was able to take her class.

Ann Mason
ENGL398V

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/13/2011

She is a very nice lady and is very helpful if you want to improve your writing. Most people take this class to graduate, but she improves your writing whether or not you are interested in the environment.

Marybeth Shea
ENGL398V

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/10/2010

I've never enjoyed an english class before 398V. An english class without any books, the "text" is an online blog. Writing assignments are geared for the work place and will turn out to be good writing samples for interviews. She is very reasonable with extenuating circumstances in terms of turning in assignments. Her main goal is to have you improve as a writer, not to make you jump through hoops. I highly recommend this class and anything that MB Shea teaches. I can't imagine a better junior english class.

Marybeth Shea
ENGL398V

Expecting an A
Anonymous
03/31/2010

I enjoy this class, and it is easy. The writing assignments are useful, and we have many opportunities to rewrite them until they are good enough to be used as writing samples for interviews. I would agree, though, that she is disorganized. We get to do a good amount of our homework in class. You don't have to be interested in the environment to take this class, it is only loosely environmental. I would recommend this class to anyone.

Reviews for ENGL398V