| Information | Review |
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Christopher Crane
ENGL256 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/14/2025 |
Overall a good professor that is passionate about the books he taught and excited to nerd out. Do have some issues with his organization/lecturing. During the class, we spent the first few weeks reading LOTR, which went well for the most parat, but the pace could be brutal at times and as a student with heavy STEM workload, I found it difficult to keep up with most of the books discussed in class. He was very clear about what he wanted us to take away from the reading each week and class was usually very discussion based. There was one pop quiz (evil) and a second in-class on paper quiz, but most other grades came in from discussion baords (and one online quiz). The man was an incredibly generous grader, and save for some final assignments (a paper and a project, the final and pariticpation points) in, I'm sitting at a solid 99% having bullshat my way through some of the work. It is definitely not a difficult class to get through if you're comfortable thinking a little about the things you have read and sharing out in class. I am a little miffed at his disroganization. Frequently would come into class late and held almsot every single class at least a minute or two over, once inviting a student to promote his club and go more than 5 minutes past the class endtime. We had a few weeks of student presentations too, and he frequently forgot which days had students signed up to present and never gave them the opportunity. These presentations then had to be moved later, which shifted other things and yada yada. He also liked to ask dicussion questions in class that I found really useless, since we didn't have the context to answer them. For example, he would show short video clips of movie adapations of the book we were reading and want us to analyze them, which I found incredibly difficult without the context fo the full movie adaptation. No I can't do much of an analysi of the fantasy of KPOP Demon Hunters from just the first five minutes. I can do it because I've seen the full movie, yeah, but not from just one little scene? I have virtually none of the information to actually analyze this well? Not that deep but it annoyed me. Also why would you waste my day by having me watching a bajillion trailers in class one day and pretend there's meaningful analysis to do there. Again, we don't get any worldbuiling from the trailer alone to really do a good analysis of the fantasy!! I will also say that the reading syllabus for 256 was a little disappointing. We read: LOTR, The Lion, Witch and the Wardobe, A Wizard of Earthsea, Harry Potter 1, Equal Rites, Emperor's Soul, and Incarceron. Maybe I forgot something. Too lazy to indlude authors, but all fairly big names save for Catherine Fischer with Incarceron? We also watched the Ghibli animation of Howl's Moving Castle. I found it annoying that we were supposed to have discussions about eastern vs western fantasy, when for eastern examples we only had 1. a white american writing a vaguely asian fantasy 2. an asian studio adapting a *western* story/novel. Girl what about trying to actually diversify the curriculum for realsies if you want to make that comparison. Overall chill guy, I liked him and the class was easy. Not too many grades total, but there's many points you can earn from discussion posts and only 2 papers. He DOES do a final exam, which consists of identification questions + a final essay |
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Christopher Crane
ENGL479D Expecting an A Anonymous 01/18/2024 |
Dr Crane is amazing!!! he is very flexible with assignments and lets you turn things in late, lets you revise papers, and overall creates a lovely atmosphere for learning. He genuinely wants his students to learn and isn't as focused on tests and things like that. I genuinely think he is one of the best professors I've had so far. not to mention his personality is great as well. he also brought us breakfast on exam day! highly recommend. |
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Christopher Crane
ENGL377 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/03/2020 |
Great professor who knows his stuff upside down and inside out. He is very passionate about English and Tolkien in particular, which is clear in the high quality of both his in-class/online discussions and assignment feedback. A very pleasant and approachable professor. Great class, was definitely worth the hard work! Read, write good notes, and ask questions and you'll succeed. |
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Christopher Crane
ENGL377 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/20/2019 |
Fantastic teacher. Here's just five (and a bit) reasons why: 1) Great availability outside of class, with availability over email, Skype, phone call, etc. (So important for a class with a heavy workload like ENGL377!) 2) Wants his students to know and understand all course material. 3) His enthusiasm makes more "boring" material like Beowulf fun, interesting, and relevant, which is pretty hard to do IMO. 4) Creates highly productive and engaging in-class discussion that isn't high brow or exclusionary. 5) Provides constructive and nuanced commentary on assignments **Also allowed our class very cool extra credit opportunities! |