| Information | Review |
|---|---|
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Mark Fitzgerald
ENGL391 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/27/2025 |
Ok, Professor Fitzgerald is an okay professor. He is probably my least favorite, though, since I have been at UMD. I unfortunately had him from 6:30 pm - 9:10 pm, and he talks extremely slowly with a monotone voice. This made it very difficult to stay awake in that class. I despise the way he grades; instead of his rubrics being specific to what he wants, they are "flexible." They focus mainly on ethos, pathos, logos, and audience awareness. This proved difficult when it came to writing papers and trying to figure out what he wanted. There are 3 major assignments, with the last being a 35-page group paper that is meant to act as a guidebook. Along with that, you and your group must do a 40–50-minute presentation on your location based on your paper. The work is all so tedious, and he doesn't provide great feedback that you can apply in the future. You must do these long readings before class, and during class, there are 30-minute writing assignments. They can be useful when you start your paper, but like everything else in the class, they are tedious. As an education major, this class focused on travel writing, was not all that helpful for me. Even creating a portfolio proved to be a waste of my time. Professor Fitzgerald is fine as a professor, but if you can find a better one, take them instead. |
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Mark Fitzgerald
ENGL398A Expecting an A Anonymous 12/04/2025 |
Chill professor if you come to class and do your work. Definitely long and easy to use at a study session. VERY focused on the arts, even though the description says it's also for "advocates, administrators, and educators" (Testudo) so that was misleading. |
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Mark Fitzgerald
ENGL398A Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/03/2023 |
If you're artsy and don't want to take a professional writing course that's stale, take this class. His lectures are definitely easy to be distracted from and class is skippable at times. All you have to do is 3 major assignments, write 2 paragraphs about a reading passage every week and do a few peer reviews that require low effort. You get enough time to turn in assignments and he's flexible in terms of turning in assignments late and extending work. Class discussions are nice discussions about art that you can follow and contribute to and I can say my writing has improved from this course. |
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Mark Fitzgerald
ENGL391 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/09/2022 |
There was little to no formal direction with each assignment, so many of them consisted of guessing what he was looking for. He would not work one-on-one with students, and his feedback on papers was cryptic and usually boiled down to buzzwords. He sometimes lashed out at students during lectures for asking questions. This course was intended to be a general/argumentative writing course, and he changed the topic to travel writing without any indication of this during course registration. I would not recommend risking it with this professor. |
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Mark Fitzgerald
ENGL391 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/13/2022 |
This professor talks so slow it makes me want to put him on 2x speed in real life. He appears to wing every class and does not actually have a formal plan. He gives students undescriptive rubrics and expects them to succeed. Does not offer one on one help with your writing and will not work with students on personal improvement. |
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Mark Fitzgerald
ENGL391 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/20/2022 |
Avoid this professor if you can! Firstly he takes forever to grade, I would often be waiting 2 weeks or more for feedback on assignments. Secondly, he does not tell you why he takes certain points off, he just does under the guise of a "flexible rubric". Thirdly, this course has insane amounts of work, compared to other FSPW classes my friends are taking. Fourthly, the content of the course is absolutely awful in general, it's just reading about a bunch of spoiled rich people prance about the world living rich people fantasies, and is completely insufferable to read about constantly. DO NOT TAKE THIS ENGL391 WITH HIM. |
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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. |