Laidlaw, Rebecca  

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I really enjoyed Laidlaw's class, and I developed my public speaking skills quite a bit. Her enthuisiasm for the subject and encouragement made the class fun and entertaining. It actually influenced my decision to change my major to something involving public speaking.

SHES IS A WONDERFUL PROFESSOR... YOU WILL HAVE FUN IN HER CLASS WITH HER SPEECHES... JUST THAT MAKE SURE YOU STUDY THE KEYTERMS FOR HER EXAMS.... THAT WAS MY MISTAKE IF I KNEW THAT I WAS SUPPOSE TO STUDY ONLY THE KEY TERMS I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN A HIGHER GRADE... BUT REMEMBER STUDY THE KEYTERMS... AND OH YEAH SHES IS GREAT AND YOU WILL HAVE ALOT OF FUN IN HER CLASS

I don't understand all the hate. Laidlaw is GREAT. At first, I was worried that she was going to be super crazy psycho, but she ended up being really really great! She is hilarious and tells lots os funny stories. She makes sure that you read the book for at least the first 4-5 weeks, and then allows you to forget everything and focus on speeches only. The only complaint about the class is that there are only 250 points for the entire quarter and no extra credit, but the first two speeches are only 5 and 10 points, respectively (so you have time to improve). Then the last two speeches are 50 pts each. NO FINAL EXAM. She is a stickler on outlines, though! Make sure you follow her rules on outlines exactly or you will be docked points. But it really isn't even that hard...just follow the guidelines. And remember key terms! All of her quizzes and tests are key terms and nothing else...pretty easy if you ask me.

LAIDLAW IS AMAZING. YOU WANT TO GET HER. Her 4 hour class once a week is the way to go, you are never there for more than 2 hours. You give 3 speeches - self speech, demonstration speech, and tribute speech. She is a very tough grader, work hard on your speech and do NOT say uhm yeah like, you will majorly get marked down with that, along with going over time. Midterms are super easy pure memorization from her notes and the readings. YOU NEED THE BOOK. also her final is just writing a one page paper. She is hilarious and you enjoy her class. She makes you feel very comfortable while giving speeches.

She is a super cool person. She loved to tell us stories, and she made class very enjoyable. The speeches themselves are not hard, and I'd say she is a pretty fair grader. She gave us two midterms, and maybe five quizzes on daily reading. Those were very hard, and focused on very specific details, which is why I got a C in the class. I well on all of the speeches, but because of these quizzes and the midterms I did bad in the class. If you are good at memorizing things out of a book, you will be fine. For the rest of us, the tests and quizzes were very hard.

If you've read previous reviews, you probably get the gist that Laidlaw is a love/hate kind of professor with people. I will put it this way - she's extremely relaxed in class, and is very funny. Loves to joke around, talk about random things every now and then. However, she is VERY strict about her speech outlines, very specific about test material (which honestly makes the tests 100x easier), and very blunt if you're making mistakes. People seem to take her too lightly when she jokes around, and then freak out when she suddenly gets serious. Honestly, she is a great professor. She will take you out of your comfort zone with your speeches, but she wants you to succeed. She is a tough grader, but very clear about what she wants. If you end up missing something, it's likely your fault. There is very little homework other than writing speeches, and she often ends class early or cancels it altogether. Don't take it as a lack of professionalism, though, because she means business. Overall, she's great, loves what she does, and will help you do well. I highly recommend her.

I took this course first quarter last year. Made my transition into college so much easier. LAIDLAW is the freakin' bomb, I would take another class with her if I could. Damn, just a great class and great personality, I wish I saw her more though. TAKE HER!

Laidlaw is such an awesome professor! She's crazy, is a huge Star Wars fan, and has tons of stories to tell that help make the class easy to sit through. The quizzes and midterms were the most challenging part of the class, which is why I received a C. Speeches were tedious if I wasn't prepared, but were a blast to present if I was. Homework mostly consisted of reading with some random assignments that didn't take much of your time. I highly recommend her, and if you get her as a professor, don't procrastinate on the speech outlines and really learn what you're reading about. With those in mind, an A is very doable. And the class is fun!

This class was one of the classes that I actually looked forward to going to last quarter because of Mrs.Laidlaw. She is a tough grader but she does have her reasons and she will help you to the best of her ability if you ask for it. If you take this class prepare to be entertained with her outgoing, energenic attitude and her crazy stories. I highly recommend this professor.

It's a love/hate with Laidlaw. Her relaxed classroom environment makes the public speaking aspect of the class much easier. She's really chill and likes to joke around during class. She also goes off on side rants all the time that last pretty long. So if you're a student that likes that kind of stuff, she's your teacher. She's pretty young so she tries to connect with the typical college kid, talking about drinking and partying and what we do on weekends. 2 exams, a couple of quizes, and then speeches. Exam and quiz material is straight out of the book. Make flashcards and you're golden. She tells you exactly what you need to know. Do the homework for the easy points. Biggest downside: she's a hard grader. Especially on speeches and outlines. Proofread proofread proofread. Overall, I'd take her again.

Laidlaw was amazing!!! I had a little public speaking experience from high school but still would consider myself to be a nervous speaker. She made you feel like you were amazing! She would always just nod along with your speeches and truly does care about her student. Amazing professor even though i thought i would hate my coms class! Take Her!

Ms. Laidlaw is pretty overwhelming at first, but once you get used to her she is hilarious. She is very strict in her policies and her ways of doing things, but that makes the class fair. You will have fun with the speeches you give and that is a huge plus! Although she makes her class fun, she is a hard grader. I had experience in public speaking before taking her class and I still got a B. Overall it was a good COMS 101 class and it was pretty relaxed. If you can get her, I recommend her.

this lady is such a bitch. I can not stand her, she is extremely biased and her grading does not make any sense. Take another COMS professor, trust me, you will regret having to spend 2 days a week with this annoying lady

Ms. Laidlaw is straight up hilarious. Her stories are a riot. Her grading is pretty strict, but overall it's a class where the more work you put in, the more you get out. I thought it was a little ridiculous that the difference between a B and an A was literally like 5 points. But I did learn a lot and really like her, so highly recommended.

TAKE HER! the first few classes she seems psycho and gives a lot of reading and quizzes and 2 midterms but literally tells you exactly what to memorize. it all ends up being an awesome pool of free points. we had 4 speeches but she graded them pretty fairly and her stories are hilarious. she cancelled class a lot and when we did have class we got out an hour early or whenever everyone was done with speeches.

Laidlaw is a grade A badass. Yeah, she's got some crazy running through her veins, but that just makes for a more entertaining experience. I found her to be hilarious and looked forward to all her quirky antic and stories. Coms is an incredibly dull subject, but her lectures go by quite quickly. Anyone bashing her grading needs to grow the hell up, you realize you're in college right? She grades strictly, but if you are intelligent at all you'd realize that's to your advantage because you know exactly what she's expecting. No ambiguity at all. It's definitely quite a bit of work (5 speeches, two exams and a handul of quizzes) but the exams and quizzes are about as straightforward as they come and she literally tells you exactly whats going to be on them so again, if you have a sliver of intelligence you should be able to get an A on them. The amount of speeches is also to your advantage because if you mess one up, you have four others to make up for it. This relieves some of the nerves you have for each speech as well. To sum up, I was terrified of Coms and have been avoiding taking it as long as i can but Laidlaw turned out to be one of my favorite professors at Poly and actually allowed me to enjoy this class. Take her, thank me later

Ms. Laidlaw is a great coms teacher. Yeah she can be crazy sometimes, but when it comes down to it, her speeches are fun and her lectures aren't boring. Her class actually helps you become a better speaker and her quizzes are cake if you study the information she tells you you need to know. The people who don't like her are the people who don't like to try even though they are in college. WAKE UP! This is one of the easiest classes and all you have to do is a little bit of time into it. Laidlaw knows it is a boring subject but makes it so fun with demo speeches and interesting stories. Everything she wants from you is clearly stated in the syllabus or in her lectures. Take this coms class if you can, you'll learn a lot!

Easiest class I have taken. AND, I surprising learned a lot. Plus, she manages the writing requirement in such a way that you don't have to write papers all the time for a public speaking class. She front loads the class with the 'book learning' which is extremely nice for later in the quarter. Quizzes and tests are pretty straight forward and easy. Overall, great class!

Take Laidlaw, she is awesome. All the assignments are manageable if you put in the work and time for them. For the most part, none of it is �busy work� because you use all the information you study in giving your speeches and the information is very helpful. She does a good job of teaching the material utilizing the textbook and her own experiences from public speaking (and she has some hilarious stories). She is very helpful in critiquing the speeches and her advice is useful. I will say she seems intense for the first few days, but once she makes sure the class knows what the expectations for her class are, she is very approachable and friendly with almost anything you might want to talk to her about. This class is totally worth taking, it will give you confidence in your speaking and it will help you to be more attentive to others when they are speaking.

Laidlaw is literally the best teacher here on campus. She comes off a little rough on the first day but each day I loved her more and more. She does a wonderful job engaging her students and tells the funniest stories. For a class as boring as COMS 101, Laidlaw made it so much fun I looked forward to her class everyday. She also does a great job helping the class bond so you aren't as scared to give a speech. You only have to give 4 speeches and 2 are pretty much a joke. PLUS no final, done done and done.

I was really excited to take COMS 101 with Laidlaw, since I had heard nothing but good things about her. The tests are fine, but I got really frustrated in her class when it came to speeches. I am pretty confident in my ability in public speaking, but I would get Cs on most of my speeches for "not making enough eye contact" or "reading off cards too much" when I KNEW I wasn't. I felt like I was being marked down way too much for silly things. She works for some people, and not so much for others.

Laidlaw is awesome! I didn't like her so much at the beginning of the quarter because she seemed like a hard ass, but that's only to keep her students in check. Her class is easy to pass if you do everything she tells you to do. She tells you exactly what will be on the quizzes and midterms so you don't have to do all the required reading. She is a hard grader on speeches, but only because she wants you to improve as a public speaker. She cancels a lot of her classes which is awesome in my opinion, and most of the time she releases class early. She is very nice and would highly recommend her to everybody that needs to take this class.

Laidlaw is honestly one of the greatest COMS professors Poly has. I always seemed to have it better than all of my friends in other COMS classes. She is always very clear in her instructions and makes her exams extremely straightforward. Granted, she does expect a lot from you to get an A, but what teacher doesn't?

Ms. Laidlaw is an extremely nice lady. She is quirky, funny, and her "oddness" makes her a cool person to be around. However, her personality really takes over the class. We spent an enormous amount of time just talking and going over her life and talking about random garbage. It was fun for the first week, but I got really tired of it, and it shortly progressed to me wanted to just run out of the classes because she wasted an enormous amount of time. I honestly didn't learn anything in this class. It was just practice. She made us read the book and take quizzes on the material. Quizzes and tests were super straightforward and easy, and she really lays out what she expects on everything. She grades fairly hard on the speeches, but if you prepare you can get a decent grade. Honestly, the class really angered me becuase it was 50% socially talking, and 20% actually learning. The other 30% was me purely putting in time to do exactly what she wanted. If you are already good at public speaking take her, but if you really need an instructor who can guide you through what to say, and how to improve your delivery, I would take someone else.

Ms. Laidlaw is a super chill professor. She is approachable and knows how to keep her class entertained. But much like many people in my class feel, and previous comments indicate, she spends a lot of time on extraneous material like "Star Wars, or her family", which is cool to hear, but really comes at the expense of her class. Her assignments were not explained too well, and it was often confusing what she wanted. Also, her midterms and quizzes were very straightforward, but she grades speeches VERY hard. With the exception of the last speech, which I did very well on, she really grades hard on the first few, which really destroyed my grade. I would recommend Brown or another professor, but if you are forced to take her its fine, just be prepared to put in a TON of effort for a GE.

Honestly, I don't understand the hype. She has gotten pretty great reviews but I don't get it (a lot of people in my class agree). She rambles on about stuff COMPLETELY unrelated to COMS. Her class was honestly a waste of time. The class was 2 hours each day but I can't remember the last time I learned something. She assigned readings that taught everything, and she was just there to criticize you. She grades very hard, and it is very difficult to get an A. I somehow got a solid B because I aced her midterms. Her teaching style is weird. She tries to be one of the students and be funny and their "friend", but TRUST ME, IT DOESN'T WORK.

While I was already good at public speaking, Laidlaw was able to get me even farther out of my comfort zone with the different types of presentations we had to do. I believe that I definitely could have gotten a A in her class had I actually studied for her tests. I received As on all presentations, but a larger range of grades on the written exams and ultimately got a B+. Laidlaw clearly made an effort to help her students improve as opposed to be overly critical. It seemed like she wanted her students to develop their own unique styles. Full disclosure, I took her class as Freshman in Winter 2012, and I have since graduated in June 2014, but I saw her mentioned in a piece about polyratings. I am now a consultant, and her class really helped me develop my own personal style that helps me in my job every day.

A nice lady but an awful professor. She grades way too hard for a GE and is super biased. I do not feel like I improved on my public speaking skills. Take another professor

Laidlaw is a terrible professor. I should have seen the warning signs on Day 1 when she was super abrasive and encouraged you to just drop out now if you had the slightest suspicion that you may not like her. I thought I would like her because I try really hard to like every single professor because I find that it makes me really want to do well .... I was wrong. Her quizzes are rote memorization. Seriously. Don't bother "learning" the material, you have to memorize it. Getting the general idea or having an understanding doesn't fly - she wants the word-for-word definition and she'll mark you down if you don't get it exactly right. BTW HER QUIZZES ARE 100% FILL IN THE BLANK, AND IF YOU HATE THEM LIKE I DO, THIS IS NOT THE CLASS FOR YOU. She refuses to talk about grades. She has a very strong no-negotiation policy. Even when there was a quiz question where students wrote the exact book definition and she marked them wrong because she wanted an extra phrase added (woman, no one can read your mind!!), she yelled at the entire class when they tried to argue their point back (I just so happened to get that one right, but it still made me frustrated for everyone else) Her grading on speeches is super wacky. She gave me Ds on speeches for going a few seconds overtime. That would be her only reason, and the amount I went over would always be relatively insignificant. This isn't just me saying that because I'm bitter about a grade, the head of the COMS department agreed with me that it was ridiculous how much I got docked for a few seconds overtime ... this got to a point where I had gone to her for help several times and the final time I went, she told me that all of my speeches were "terrible" that I'm a "really, really bad public speaker." When I was trying to figure out how to raise my grade in the class, she simply told me how to withdraw. So, that's what I did. I'm still flabbergasted that any professor would treat a student in this way. I can't believe I had to pay money for her to discourage coming to office hours, not help me with speeches, not help me figure out my grade. I wasted hours and hours of tears after her harsh words and 6 weeks of my life on this class. Also keep in mind, I make a point to like every single professor I have. I don't write bad polyratings because I think they're rude and they're generally unfair. But, I think it's deserved in this case. Don't take Laidlaw. She may have been good a few years ago, but she isn't anymore.

I'll be honest, I started out a little irritated in this class. Maybe more than a little. But I ended up loving the class and really respecting and loving Laidlaw. First of all, with her quizzes, just do the readings, take good notes, and study hard and you should do fine. You will have to study a little harder than you typically expect to for a quiz. I made that mistake and should have studied harder for them. They are all fill in the blank so make sure that you feel confident on the material. Her expectations are laid out in her syllabus. Follow the syllabus properly and you will do well. If you go in and talk to her she's helpful. She'll help point out issues on your outlines for your speeches. Stay within the time limits on your speeches and don't talk too fast and you'll be okay. One of the coolest parts of her class is that you're going to get really close as a class. It's pretty neat. Not a lot of professors bother to make sure that their students bond. She does and it was one of my favorite parts of her class. The moral of this polyrating is that she's not a bad professor. In fact, I'd recommend her. It's a little more work, sure, but I think the pay off in the end is worth the work. Thanks for a good quarter, Laidlaw.

Ms. Laidlaw. She is absolutely incredible. She changed my four years at Cal Poly and no other professor had given me that experience. I'm jealous of all of you who get to take her. Just be sure to write some notes, follow her outlines, and be willing to make a fool of yourself. She's fabulous.

ABSOLUTELY AWFUL. AVOID AT ALL COST. But seriously, she is not the best professor! She was so strict about grading and she needed everything to be perfect. And when I finally heard her "public speak" at the WOW banquet I was not impressed! It wasnt even a "C" speech.

She talks a lot and is very upfront about who she is. I enjoyed that. The hardest part was the handful of quizzes we took, but she tells you EXACTLY what will be on them so just do the readings. We did five speeches and if you do the outlines correctly and have fun presenting your speech then shes does not grade hard at all. The last speech is teaching the class how to dance. I had so much fun in this class, made lots of friends, and she offers to write anyone a letter of rec if they ask.

She grades extremely hard on speeches and does not give constructive feedback on how to improve on future ones . Avoid taking this class if you actually want to improve your public speaking skills. If you care anything about your grade for this course TAKE ANOTHER PROFESSOR!

Rebecca Laidlaw is a really cool lady. What really sets he apart from most professors is she really CARES about how her students are doing and wants to help. She's got a strong personality which doesn't mix with some people. But she is very herself and I found her wonderfully refreshing.

She is very direct with what she wants and if you follow what she says and do the readings you should get a good grade. She tells her students exactly what will be on the quizzes so if you study the material then they are easy and straight forward. She grades less on the content of the speeches and instead more on if you were within the time limit, did the outline correctly, talked at a good speed, and don't move around or say um. There is no homework other than the speeches and the final is very easy. If you have concerns about the class or public speaking then email her or go to office hours. Shes always open to talking and loves getting to know her students.

just awful. don't take this class if you care about your GPA or improving your public speaking skills. ridiculous for a GE

Laidlaw is really nice and funny, personally. Professionally, I wouldn't want to have her again as a teacher, just because of how picky she is over little things. I know I'm a good speaker and for one speech, I went over the time limit by around 5 seconds and got docked 5-7 points. All of her quizzes are fill in the blank and I (honestly) thought I didn't need to study that hard for them. DEFINITELY STUDY FOR THEM!! Not that I did that poorly on her quizzes, but I definitely could have done better if I took it more seriously. The demonstration dance speech wasn't as scary as we all thought it was and it was probably the most fun speech we ended up doing. Laidlaw is funny -- crazy about Star Wars -- but an okay teacher.

TAKE REBECCA LAIDLAW. This is the professor to take for COMS 101. She is very clear on what she wants. There are two midterms and a final and even though it covers a lot of chapters from the book, they are super easy because she tells you exactly what to focus on. Laidlaw makes the class so much fun. Going in I was so scared but she makes everyone feel really comfortable around each other. And she is extremely funny and is always telling the funniest stories. Her class was so good, I was sad when the quarter ended. And I do not even like public speaking.

Laidlaw is the best. She's super entertaining in class. She tells you all kinds of stories and loves to talk with us. There are 4 speeches, 2 midterms and a "final". She is always really clear about her expectations of the speeches and midterms. That being said, she isn't an easy grader on speeches (difficult to get an A), but she's willing to help you improve if you're willing to put in the effort. Not even done with the quarter with her yet, but I can definitely say that if you take her class you won't regret it! (Especially if you love star wars because she is obsessed! ... wears star wars tshirts every single day, multiple stars wars quotes on all the handouts, etc. Seriously she's the bomb.)

I personally loved Laidlaw. Yes, she is a little picky about her grading, but I earned a solid A by carefully following all her directions. You'll definitely need to put effort into the class if you want an A, but it's pretty easy to get a B. Her quizzes and tests are all fill in, so you can't just wing them. Practice your speeches and carefully prepare your outlines. I enjoyed going to her class every day. She's definitely a one of a kind professor with a one of a kind personality. She really wants her students to succeed and genuinely cares about us improving. There basically isn't a final either. I recommend her.

Ms. Laidlaw is very enthusiastic and cares about her students doing well on their speeches. As great as this may sound, her grading is absolutely terrible. It is truly the worst. My classmates and I worked extremely hard just to stay out of the C range. Even after spending hours on preparing for her speeches, her misguided and subjective grading came back to bite you. Even if you execute a speech perfectly, if she does not believe you gave a speech that met her unrealistic standards, then you will receive an undeserved score that may hinder your chances of getting a decent overall grade in the class. She also lacks an understanding in students needs and their outside lives. For a 101 GE, this course required far too much time. She also hardly put in any effort herself. If you would like to gain an understanding as to what I mean, take her class. If you want to take a professor who has a great personality, then take Laidlaw. If you want to take a course in which you will actually learn something and improve as a speaker without getting stage fright knowing that your grade is going to plummet after giving the speech you stayed up all night practicing, then take someone else.

Laidlaw is really chill. She loves Star Wars, like loves it more than anyone I have ever met. She started out the quarter really cool and seemed like she would grade super easy, but I was wrong. Not an easy A unless she really likes you. There were 4 speeches total, not too bad. Pretty interesting topics. The last speech is 1/5 of your total grade and you have to teach the whole class a dance. It isnt graded too harshly but if you dont want to dance in front of a class I wouldnt take Laidlaw. There were also two tests and like 5 quizzes the first half of the quarter. Super easy though if you do the reading and take the notes on the stuff she tells you to. All in all decent class and a pretty easy B even if you arent a good public speaker.

LAIDLAW IS THE SHIT! Love this professor. You're an idiot if you don't take her class. 4 speeches with super fun topics (self, tribute, persuasive where you plan a class event and try to persuade people to go to it, and demonstration where you teach the class an assigned dance). Some quizzes on reading at the beginning, two midterms and a "final". She's so entertaining in class, and is clinically obsessed with star wars its hilarious. I'm talking star wars tshirts every day and multiple star wars quotes on every handout. TAKE LAIDLAW.

DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR IF YOU VALUE YOUR TIME AND OR WISH TO ACTUALLY IMPROVE YOURSELF. She wastes 95% of class time talking about herself and then for the last 5 minutes throws all the important information at you and then expects you to know exactly what you're doing. She is also extremely subjective with her grading and lacks professional conduct. In addition, she doesn't maintain a PolyLearn supposedly due to the effort required which is strange because she teaches maybe 16 hours a week. Bottom line: waste of time, horrible professor.

Holy fucking waste of time. This course is 1 unit worth of info spread into a 4 unit class. The 3 additional units is her spewing bullshit. You sit at the edge of your seat all class because it feels like she could dismiss you at any second-- something that eventually drives you to insanity. She does not maintain a PolyLearn and will not allow you to keep your quizzes and tests (because she uses the same ones every quarter), which convinces me that she does not actually do anything. I wish I could more eloquently say this, perhaps if my COMS teacher was better I could.

Don't take this class unless you're okay with getting low grade after putting in hours of work for a speech that will get only a C because you spoke a little fast and looked at your notecards a couple times. Laidlaw seems chill outside of class, but she is one of the worst professors here on campus. Do not let her high polyratings deceive you.

Sooooooo ridiculous with her grading. Doesn't care about how her students do at all and doesn't want to put any work into the class. Biggest regret of my quarter was wasting my great registration time on her garbage class.

I was very nervous going into this class but I pleasantly surprised by Laidlaw. She's extremely funny, approachable, and nice. She truly cares about making her students better at giving speeches. Because of this, she is a very harsh grader except for the Demonstration Dance Speech at the end of the quarter. The tests are easy as long as you study the notes the night before. If you really want to improve your public speaking skills, take this class with Laidlaw. I highly recommend her.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS CLASS AND THE PROFESSOR, and despite not getting an A, I would much rather take a B in this class than an A in another COMS class. "What? Wouldn't you want the A?" Honestly, I'd much rather go to a class I ENJOY and get a B than endure a class I hate and get an A. But that's up to you. Laidlaw is a hilarious, very spunky young teacher who has a TON of funny stories to tell you. She'll usually spend most of the class making you crack up. Try not to take it in the morning, she told my 12-2 class that her morning class was usually quiet and boring. But my class was super fun!! So the course grade is made up of quizzes, midterms, speeches, and participation: QUIZZES/MIDTERMS: you NEED to read what she tells you in the book. It's not a lot of reading at all, just some hardcore memorization of lists. This sucks, but it's word for word what's on the tests, so if you memorize these few lists then you're good. (I got a B because I suck at memorization) SPEECHES: Omg, I frank loved the speeches. Every time. The topics are always super easy going and we can choose our subject, usually something fun like a tribute (I did mine to mangoes), a persuasive (getting the class to go on a hike with you, and then doing it), and a really fun demonstration speech where she assigns you a dance (I had Soulja Boy) and she has you teach it to the class! I LOVED the speeches, every single one was super funny (maybe I just had a good class) but these were a main reason I loved the class so much. PARTICIPATION: show up to class or you will lose points. She won't hate you if you don't show, you'll just lose points. Also, don't show up late. Laidlaw is an amazing lady, just a bit of a harsh grader. But you'll improve your speaking skills and you'll have so much fun doing so, I promise! Just follow the outlines perfectly, try to memorize info for the tests, and have fun with the speeches!! :)

Laidlaw was a really cool and chill professor. I got a B in her class because I didn't prepare well enough for my speeches and am not really a good speaker. She doesn't require much work and had like no final. The only work you have to do is your speech outline and take notes occasionally. Every time there is a quiz or test she'll tell you basically exactly what's the test. If you don't do well on a quiz or test it's literally just your fault. Would recommend her as a professor for COMS 101!

rebecca is the best!! literally so chill and wears star wars clothes to class every day. she's awesome and fun and the class is easy. personally, i suck at public speaking so i automatically hated the fact that i had to take coms, but she made it bearable for me :)

I am sure she is a good and cool person outside of the classroom. However, in the classroom she is sexist and so not understanding of any excuse you have to miss class. Even if you have a doctors note, or a really legit excuse to miss, she will give you a zero for whatever you miss. SO you cannot miss a single class. I would highly recommend NOTTTT taking this class! you will probably get a C or lower.

This class is a complete waste of time. First off, I just want to say that you lose 4% of your grade for each class you miss. Yes, 4%. Since you have to go to class, expect to spend half the time rolling your eyes at what she says (most of which is pointless stories about herself), and the other half staring at the clock. The material you "learn" in this course could be taught in about 4 class periods, but unfortunately it is drawn out over an entire quarter. That being said, there wasn't much work to do in this class, especially compared to what I have heard about other COMS 101 classes. As long as you go to EVERY class, it should be easy to get an A (i missed a few which is why I got a B). I'm not sure how she is qualified to teach at the collegiate level, but it is a pretty easy class.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. unless you want to work your butt off for a C. honestly one of the least favorite classes I have taken at CP. I seriously regret taking COMS with this Professor

Super funny, entertaining teacher. She made COMS a lot better than I thought it would be. We had occasional quizzes that you would basically get an A because she told you exactly what pages to read, mostly vocabulary. I'm not a fan of public speaking but she made it a lot easier than I think most teachers do. Most speeches were fun and she made a good class vibe to make it more comfortable. Hard to get an A on a speech but that's most COMS classes. Our final was to teach a dance, which was a little stressful but fun to watch!

She is harder than all the other coms teachers from what I hear. She grades you really hard and rarely gives out A's. The only A's she will give out is usually on the last speech of the quarter because it is a horrible dance speech that we all have to learn. Most comms teachers don't make their students learn a dance and teach the class however she does. She is a funny lady and a good person but not the easiest of teachers.

I've been trying to get into COMS 101 since I was a first year. This year it seemed like I had an outside shot because of a new class opening. This class was taught by Laidlaw and I was genuinely excited to have a chance at attending her class. The reviews seemed generally positive and I liked that she was an outline/rubric stickler. I don't appreciate teachers that don't present clear rationales to justify your grade. Cut to me walking into her classroom around 5 minutes before it was supposed to start. Before the door was even all the way open Prof. Laidlaw starts yelling "we're full we're full we're full thank you we're full" (no exaggeration she said it that many times in quick succession at shouting volume). I wanted to say something back but she was giving me the worst glare I've received from any teacher (and I was a prick in elementary school), so I turned on my heel and left right away. I was shocked at how rude she was being to somebody just walking into the class. Obviously, she's a teacher and has some kind of status over us students, but there's a general level of respect that I think should be provided for every individual. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't get into her class.

I was nervous about having Laidlaw for Coms 101 (and taking the class in general since everyone says Coms 101 sucks) but she did not disappoint! She is a strict grader but she makes it ridiculously clear what she expects from you so it's easy to meet all the necessary requirements. The first 6 weeks of class involved reading and there were two exams from the reading and four quizzes. She will tell you what parts of the chapters to focus on so it's very little guesswork and more rote memorization. There were four graded speeches -- a self speech, a tribute speech, a persuasive speech, and a demonstration speech. She chooses a dance for you to learn and teach the class for your demonstration speech which sounds intimidating but is actually super fun. There are a few miscellaneous assignments as well. The biggest thing is to make sure your outlines have no errors and that your speeches fall in the given time limit. She does not allow you to have a timer so it's just practice to guarantee you won't go over or under on time. Overall, I actually enjoyed the class. She likes to share crazy stories about herself which keeps class interesting. Also, if we ever finished the classwork early she would let us leave. We got out early a lot which was nice. Oh and the final exam was just a letter to her about what we took away from the class. The class was great and relatively easy. It'll keep you entertained. I definitely recommend taking Laidlaw!

Having Laidlaw as a professor it seemed like she gave everyone a grade two letters lower than they initially deserved on their speech and slowly raised the grade for each following speech in order to have data that suggested she was a marvelous teacher that changes each student's abilities. I did not learn a thing.

Laidlaw is seriously one of the most amazing professors you will ever meet. I think that this class is a lot better than other Coms classes because you get all of the difficult exams completed by the middle of the quarter, and the longest speech you will have to give is 5-7 minutes. You do have to do a 5-7 dance speech, in which she assigns you a specific dance, but it is usually super easy (depending on which dance you get). Other than that, she lets you pick whatever topic you want to talk about, as long as it's ethical and isn't calling anyone out. She really prefers to keep the class happy and lighthearted, which I really appreciated. She can be a difficult grader, but if you do what is asked and pay attention you'll be alright. The final, which I won't spoil, is honestly just great. You need to take this class if you want to become a better and more confident speaker. I promise, it's worth it.

In terms of other Coms professors, Laidlaw is great--she doesn't include a ton of work outside of class, and she's a huge fan of Star Wars...an obvious perk. The only thing that was frustrating was her quizzes; she assigns a lot of them (usually once a week or every other week) and she grades them pretty strictly. This gets annoying when her quizzes end up counting for a similar amount as her speeches, even though it's a public speaking class. Bottom line: don't expect this to be an easy A, but expect some sweet dancing skills

You will get tons of free time after each class. She doesn't even give full 2-hour lecture, sometimes her lecture is even less than 30 minutes. But, Ms. Laidlaw is a tough grader; don't be sad if you get a D or C on your first speech. I'm just telling you that the final speech is a demonstration speech; she assigns you a dance in a music video and you actually have to learn it and teach it to your classmates as a speech. She is a great fan of Star Wars. Two midterms, some pop quizzes, and one letter which is the take-home final. Study hard with the midterms! They are not that hard but requires a lot of memorization! Highly recommend Laidlaw.

Laidlaw grades like she means it, but you truly earn what grade she gives you, she grades fairly. READ THE BOOK! Most of the info on her quizzes are direct definitions from the book. She's a really entertaining lady and she tries hard not to make the boring material suck.

I was blocked into Laidlaw's class fall quarter and I loved her. She wears a different Star Wars shirt everyday, tells the craziest stories, and genuinely tries to make an environment everyone is comfortable in. I was terrified of public speaking but as long as you follow her directions you'll do fine in the class. Each speech is very straight forward and she even gives you good types of speeches in which you pick your topic. If you are looking for a COMS professor thats insanely cool take her.

If you like looking at chicks, take her class she is hot

Professor Laidlaw is definitely kind of crazy when you first meet her. She's obsessed with Star Wars (not kidding there hasn't been one day where she hasn't worn a Star Wars t-shirt). In the beginning, the course is frustrating, she talks a lot about random stuff, and the quizzes and tests are really hard. She is very clear in what she expects of you though, and clarifies how the quizzes and test are laid out. You HAVE to do the reading and TAKE NOTES or you WILL fail the quizzes. They're all fill in, no multiple choice questions nor true/false. It's easy if you go over everything over and over and over again for a few days lol. Once you get past those, the classes are super short and easy. All you do is turn in the outline and leave pretty much.. unless it's a speech day then you give your speech/listen to everyone else's. About the speeches, I'm a very average public speaker. She expects a lot of you from the outline, but hates marking points off.. Make sure you go over the rubric she gives you so you know exactly what to include. When it comes to presenting, as long as you pace yourself well within the time frame, make a decent amount of eye contact and aren't monotone, you'll be okay. The first 2 speeches are 1-3 minutes and the last 2 are 5-7 minutes. The last speech is you teaching the class a dance that she assigns you which sounds horrible at first, but it actually was pretty fun. So yeah, definitely not the easiest teacher, but she does genuinely care about her students and wants to see you succeed.

My favorite class of the year. She finds a way to make every student feel at ease in sometimes difficult situations. Would definitely recommend.

Laidlaw was a very interesting teacher who loves Star Wars. Her class was always interesting, but a little too difficult for just a COMS class. She grades hard on your outlines required for your speech and the information to study on for the test were never very clear. As the class goes on she gives more points to speech's than test and the final was only 5 points and an easy letter to her. Overall, it was an okay class.

Great. She showed up to class on time. Understands the difficulties of public speaking. First half of the quarter is mostly fill in the blank tests/quizzes. Aka, if you don't do the readings, GG to your grade. Most of the speeches happen during the latter half of the quarter. FOLLOW THE GODDAMN OUTLINE. JUST DO IT. You will get docked points for the slightest grammar errors too. (Nearly a whole letter grade to be exact) Some of the speeches are a little hard to practice when your not-so-close dorm mates are around. You'll see what I mean...

I got the flu and bacterial pneumonia for a week and could barely make it to the bathroom let alone a class, and had to miss one of her class periods where there was a 20 point quiz (worth 6% of my grade). She refused to let me retake it. Also, she told me I would get a zero on the midterm if I missed the next class. It turns out, the midterm was just a carbon-copy of the quiz I missed, so I did poorly on that, and I nearly passed out on my way to class. Hilariously however, she made me sit 10 feet away from the rest of the class so I wouldn't get anybody sick. Also, -4% if you miss one class for any reason. So I missed 10% of my grade with the flu. In a 101 class. From then on I decided to be as nice as possible rather than be rude and get an even worse grade. I emailed her asking about her grading policy on this subject and if I could come to office hours and discuss, but she said "it would not be in my best interest" to discuss my grade any further at the office hours. Completely unreasonable. In terms of class, I had an absolutely dreadful time in her class, and I actually enjoyed public speaking and I got better at it. Unreasonable and irrational with grading, policies, and completely unwilling to work with her students about things she has to put in extra effort for. Consistently either gives no effort during class periods or goes for hours telling the class about her personal life. This class is not about being a good public speaker, it is solely about pleasing Laidlaw.

Laidlaw is very clear about what she wants from her students. However, she does not allow you to miss class & will doc you down a letter grade for every class you miss. She is strong and I liked her for that but also very self absorbed which got kinda annoying. If you're stuck with her, she's not the worst. But if you have the option to take a different professor, I would go for the other (unless it sounds worse). She's not a bad professor, just makes you want to roll your eyes into the back of your head. FOLLOW FORMATTING GUIDELINES TOO

Laidlaw ROCKS! Although it is a ton of busy work in the beginning, it is totally worth it. She keeps the class super entertaining and she always brings so much energy to the class. I recommend her all the way!

Alright, listen. For anyone telling you not to take this class, please do not listen to them. They are probably lazy, or even a little sentimental. She gets to the point 99% of the time, and she lays out the entire course in the first class. Sure she is very particular with how she likes the class to run, but I wouldn't call her strict, and it is absolutely NOTHING that isn't capable of handing. I think that people are too lazy to study the VERY simple tests that she gives out. Her tests are word for word people, all you have to do is flashcard memorization. It's a COMS 101 class, i'm confused what kind of life changing education people are expecting from her. I think people just give her too harsh of a review. I am here to tell you that I recommend nothing but for you to take her class if you have the chance.

As far as Coms professors go I think Laidlaw is probably one of the better ones. She has a somewhat ridiculous attendance policy which stipulates that you have to be practically on your death bed to miss class, but other than that she is very understanding. Unlike many other coms teachers she doesn't critique students in front of the entire class, but instead she smiles and says encouraging things during/after speeches. This might sound just like a normal human thing to do, but a lot of my friends who had other coms teachers were practically verbally assaulted in front of their peers, so Laidlaw's supportive approach is actually something to be considered. Also, most other coms classes had to do a huge research project on a boring topic of the teacher's choosing, but we just did a persuasive speech about something we like to do...much easier and less painful.

Laidlaw was awesome. Yah she is very strict and grades hard but it's nothing you can't handle. The tests are easy as long as you do the reading and study. The speeches are very doable if you practice a lot and follow the outline WORD FOR WORD. I was very nervous for COMS but Laidlaw makes you feel very comfortable and really cares about her students. She made COMS so much fun and her personality is great. Highly recommend her.

Professor Laidlaw is most likely the best Comms 101 teacher. In the beginning of the year, she seemed like a hard grader and the four short quizzes and two tests are straight memorization, but in the end, you can't beat her comms 101 class in terms of how easy and laid back it is compared to the other teachers. The best part is that we never have to do ANY serious topics for the speeches and nobody did in my class. I gave the two highest-point speeches about $2 sushi and then I did a demonstration speech on how to dance to Despacito (which everyone got an A on). I could thoroughly say that I enjoyed the class, and even though I was worried about not passing in the beginning, I was very certain by the end that she wants everyone to get an A or B in the class. The way she taught her class made the atmosphere enjoyable and I would recommend her Comms 101 class to anybody.

Ms. Laidlaw is a great professor to take. Coms 101 with her is an easy A if you study for the small quizzes, which is just super easy memorization. Her speeches are easy and they are always about something you choose or are passionate about, and that makes them more bearable. Also, after the quizzes end about halfway through the quarter, class only meets for literally 20 minutes unless its speech day. Very much recommend and just study for the quizzes and proof read your outlines!

laidlaw is strict and uptight about your outlines. if an outline for a speech has any mistake she will take points. she grades really hard on delivery too, but is a nice person. not super helpful with content and didn’t really teach very much at all. the demonstration dance speech at the end of the quarter is a good idea, takes a lot of creativity and people typically do pretty well. she is obsessed with star wars, and you have to be on time and present, attendance counts.

I wish I could write more positive things about Laidlaw as a professor because I really do like her as a person. However, I just had a lot of problems with the way she conducted her class. Overall, I really didn't learn a whole lot about becoming a better speaker. The speeches she assigned were so boilerplate and had to follow a ridiculously rigid format. This made for a lot of two-hour classes full of almost indistinguishable, painstakingly boring speeches. Also, she took off half the points for one of my speech outlines because I used parentheses after my subpoints [a), b), c)] instead of periods [a., b., c.]... Seriously... For the final, you have to teach your class a dance and she grades it very generously which I appreciated. The annoying part is that she picks your dance for you so it just depends on luck because I got a super hard and fast dance that took me forever to learn while a girl in my class got a super easy line dance. With all this being said, I really do like Laidlaw as a person. She is super sweet and funny and cares a lot about her students. Take her if you want a cool professor, not if you actually want to improve substantially as a speaker or want an Easy A.

The one thing I appreciate about Laidlaw is that she actually dedicates herself in pronouncing names correctly. She is the only professor I've had who actually does that. For me, this class was a very straightforward class. She has each day planned out and wants you to follow her syllabus. The quizzes and exams rely on memorization which was a good thing for me. She grades fairly on her speeches but make sure you make eye contact with your audience and if you get stage fright then make sure to present in the beginning in class so you don't anticipate your turn. Another thing I liked about this class is that if you're bad at speeches, you can kind of balance your grade out with tests and quizzes but the speeches still do matter more. PROOFREAD YOUR OUTLINES. I suggest going to the Writing & Rhetoric center so that they can catch the errors that you do not. Also, she is very strict with attendance so make sure to attend every class. Goodluck!

Laidlaw is AMAZING! She is so sweet and funny. She made COMS class so enjoyable and it was not a hard class at all - not much work and fun!

If you want to get an easy A in COMS 101, don't take Laidlaw. There's way easier (and better) professors out there, like JP. Honestly though, her test and quizzes are cake, just pure memorization. But you have to know the exact terms and phrasing or else she will mark you down. She is even more strict on the outlines of her speeches and has no problem marking down half of your speech grade for an outline that isn't formatted to her liking. She also tells you that you can have notecards with bullet points up with you when you do your speech, but if you ever look down at them she will dock points for "not enough eye contact." So honestly the notecards are useless and you might as well not even make them, except for the fact that you'll lose points if you don't have notecards. The worst part of the class is the grading breakdown. There's a fixed 250 points in the course. Speeches start off at 5 or 10 points and then go up to 50. The two midterms are 50. Quizzes are around 5 or 10 points each. So if you miss 18 or points in the total course, which I assure you is not hard to do, you already don't have an A. She also SUBTRACTS 10 points from your total if you miss a class for ANY reason. And you can't make up any quizzes, tests, or speeches. So if you miss a class, that's already -4% from your grade. Just be weary of the grading, she can be a stickler and it's very easy to slip to a B or even a C in a GE coms class that should be an easy A. As far as her personality goes, it's either hit or miss. I wasn't particularly a fan. She's extremely loud and always talks like she just did a couple bumps of coke or something. She's always trying to tell the class these embellished/fake stories that she thinks are hilarious. She's also pretty egotistical and thinks she's hot shit. She always tries to brag how she got chosen to do some speech at Cal Poly or how she used to teach at Cuesta but now she really made it big because she's at Cal Poly. TL;DR: Don't take Laidlaw if you want an easy A. Personality/teaching style is a hit or miss. Super loud and energetic. Kind of psycho/bitchy.

Laidlaw is amazing. She's extremely supportive and creates a good environment to grow in. Her quizzes and tests are straight out of the readings, and she even tells you what specific questions on the study guide are going to be on the test. She grades pretty hard on speeches though, which is why I got a B. Expect to put in about 2-3 hours a week in the beginning. Overall, I loved COMS 101. Definitely gonna miss it.

This class made me cry once a week *minimum*. Her grading is based on favorites and is super unfair. She tries to justify why she fails you but she can't come up with anything. She takes this GE way too seriously and expects you to dedicate your life to this class. Run the other way... this lady is psycho.

Laidlaw’s class is great. Her grading is out of 250 points and is about half speeches, half exams, with a few “free” points just as long as you did an assignment. also no final. I didnt study or really prepare for the exams except right before so that is why i got a b in the class. If i put in a slight bit more time I would have had an A for sure. Personally, i thought her grading on speeches was very student friendly. The lowest grade i got on a speech was a b+. I didnt prepare but five minutes tops for each speech. Im not the best public speaker but you only loose a point for things like eye contact or filler words like um. The meat of a speech’s points were from the outline which she is tedious about grading. Just follow her example outline for each speech and youll be fine. I highly recommend her as a teacher if you are looking for a chill atmosphere. Talk and participate in convos ( which are all quite spontaneous and random) then youll be cool with her and you won’t really worry about any assignment. She is really supportive of students. Oh there is a group dance speech where you teach a dance to the class which seems stressful, but i think everyone got a 50/50. Also dont miss class or youll get marked down 10 points each class. Overall i really recommend her as a teacher, she may be a little crazy but all in a good way. If youre a super serious person she may be much for you.

Laidlaw bounces around the classroom like a cartoon character. She always tells personal anecdotes and tries to keep the class entertaining. The exams and quizzes she gives are EXTREMELY easy if you take the time to memorize the material but she is very picky on outlines. If you make even a slight mistake on the outline it will come back to bite you so make sure you check your outlines!

Ms. Laidlaw is very strict when it comes to outlines, but she holds high expectations for her students. If you are not organized and disciplined, do not take the course. However, she truly helps develop speaking ability for her students and is fair in grading. While the class is very challenging, its very engaging and enjoyable. I finished the course feeling very confident and fortunate to have taken COMS with this instructor.

Laidlaw isn't that bad of a professor, but she is a very tough grader. She puts way more emphasis on the little things while giving speeches instead of focusing more on the actually speech itself. She is super outgoing all the time also, and it gets really annoying. Plus, since we were the Honors class, she said that she expected more out of us. There wasn't really a final so that was the only good part of the class. The exams are pure memorization but they are really easy. Not an easy A because the outlines and speeches are graded very harshly. She's ok, but take someone else if you can.

Laidlaw is insane. She's one of those people that probably secretly have coffee running through her veins instead of blood, and sometimes it can be a little overwhelming. She goes on a lot of rants and tells you a lot of life stories, which cause you to question why you even waste time going to class. (Attendance is mandatory though.) If you can handle that though, her class is fairly straightforward. A few quizzes and written exams which questions straight from the book, and a few speeches. Even if you don't like her as a person, you can't deny that she knows her shit. She'll pick favorites, but she'll definitely give you credit when credit is due.

Mrs. Laidlaw created an awesome classroom environment. The best thing I can say is that I learned the names of everyone else who had my class section, and I like having almost 30 new friends I can say hello to around campus. I didn't expect to find such a welcoming professor in my first quarter here at Poly.

Mrs. Laidlaw is a great teacher. We had to give 10 speeches but most of them you could do w/o researching too much for. The 2 big speeches were fairly easy. There is one multiple choice midterm which was really easy if you read the book. At the beginning of the year there was a lot of reading but after the midterm there was no reading at all. She would always answer questions and would stay after class and discuss your problems with you. If you want to become a better public speaker and have a lot of fun doing it take Mrs. Laidlaw.

Professor Laidlaw is a great professor. SCOM-101 (public speaking) is an intimidating class for most people (and she talks about this). It's downright scary! But Professor Laidlaw is very friendly and relates to each student well. She will make you feel comfortable, not intimidated, when you step up to give your speech. She is also very helpful in aiding you to prepare your speeches. Just make sure you put a lot of preparation into it! I'm sad to read all the bad reviews of her on this website, because most people define a "good" teacher as someone who's easy and gives you an A; you don't learn anything that way! In this class, you have to work to earn your A, but doesn't that just make sense? In order to learn and succeed, you need to prepare and practice, practice, practice your speeches. She is a great teacher, and I highly recommend her. NOTE: she tries to scare off slackers the first day of class by overwhelming the class, and they drop, which is good. But the next classes after that, she is super friendly and comforts the class and reminds us that although there's a lot of work to be done, she'll help us every step of the way.

Laidlaw makes you think that she is the fairest person alive, until you get your grade back and you realize you're in for a shitty quarter. All I can say is good luck. I'll be the first to admit that I suck at public speaking, but she could have eased up on her grading. It was never consistent and pretty much screwed my GPA.

The reading bit of the homework is super easy. Seriously just read the headings and summary and you'll be fine. Most of the quiz questions are general knowledge. Most people say she grades unfairly, but I think if you follow her guidelines you'll easily pass or score high. I mean, the subject isn't brain surgery. It just takes a lot of practice. If you throw together a crappy speech and don't practice, yeah, you're going to get what you deserve. But if you put in a little effort in prep and memorize your speech you'll ace it. I'd say that when you can present the speech without your notecards you're good to go.

Ok so if you want to work hard for a GE feel free to take Laidlaw. She has a great personality and the class can be fun sometimes but she expects perfect speaches. She doesn't grade on content so much as delivery. I would spend lots of time making sure my speach had lots a great content only to end up getting a C because I had "distracting movements" that no one I asked could seem to recall seeing. Honestly, don't take her if you're just looking to get this class over with.

Overall, she was a very good teacher. She related to us very well, and I think she did a good job making everyone feel comfortable about speaking in front of the group. Watch out, because she LOVES assigning speeches. ALL YOU DO is give speeches. I think there was a total of 16 by the end of the quarter. I don't think she ever gives an A on a speech, either. She is very picky about the speeches you give, but if you like talking in front of a group and you are thinking seriously about being a SCOM major, take her, because she REALLY gets you prepared.

Professor Laidlaw is awesome. She is a nice person, that is always willing to help out and give advice. She always has a smile on her face, which helps out when giving your speeches. The class itself is not hard, but be prepaired to make LOTS, and LOTS of speeches, we had one everyday we met. She also makes you feel comfortable when giving your speeches, overall I recommend her.

At first, I didn't really like this teacher. But by the end of the quarter, I had a lot of respect for her. She grades pretty hard for a 101 class, but not ridiculous. She's willing to work with you before you give your speech in order to to a really good job.

This is a fun class (if you make it). She is a really nice lady and provides a nice class atmosphere, but she grades very, very hard. I guess the trick is to practice your speeches a bunch before you give them to the class. Don't expect to get bye on your good looks and sense of humor (though she does enjoy the humor in speeches, when used appropriately). Basically she is cool and LAID back (get it? like Laidlaw, but laid back... a pun? i dunno!), but grades like... someone who grades very hard. Just practice more than the night before like I would and you'll do good. Oh, and show up a lot!

Tough grader, good teacher. It was my favorite class, but its all gonna depend on the kids you have in your class. Their personalities basically dictate the time your gonna have. I gave some speeches where i thought i absolutely tore shit up, had the class and her laughing, great responses. Then i get a C or some shit. Dont do things during ure speech it says not to in the book like use the chalk board. cuz she actually takes that shit into conideration. There are easier teacher though i hear. if you have to take her its not bad at all she's a cool cat.

Laidlaw's speech class was one of my most enjoyable classes. I was kind of worried about giving speeches, but she creates a very welcoming environment and the kids I had in my class were awesome. The only real complaint I have is the way she grades. She constantly told me to work on my eye contact, so one speech I memorized the entire thing literally. Not looking at the cards, I was guaranteed an A....not quite though. It is extremely hard to ace speeches though it is possible I'm sure. I would recommend her definitely though because the midterm is just memorization and it is the only test you really take. Just be prepared to give 8 or 9 speeches which can be a little heavy. Thankfully she probably is a little more leniant with the time window for their length as opposed to most teachers.

Rebecca grades VERY VERY hard. I am by no means what you would call a "natural" public speaker and I was nervous about going into this class. Bottom Line: Take Rebecca. She grades hard but her class will make you more comfortable with public speaking.

Mrs. Laidlaw is one of the best professors I have taken at Cal Poly. She creates a very relaxing environment for the speeches, and turns the class into friends. She truly cares if you understand what you are reading in the text. If you are nervous of giving speeches, take Rebecca Laidlaw.

Laidlaw is a really really cool person. I liked her stories and loved her humor but was very taken aback at her grading. She was overly aggressive for the limited directions she gives. I ended up with a C+ but she didn't give us a final which defs would have helped (EASY tests, hard speechs) I naturally love to give speeches and could have gotten an A w/ another prof. Take w/ caution.

Laidlaw is overall a nice person but her grading scale is ridiculous. It is almost impossible to get an A and she chooses favorites, who, even if their speech is mediocre, get good grades. In any other class I would have gotten and A, but with Laidlaw, I was struggling to get a B. She also never uses the computer so getting in touch with her on the weekends is impossible.

I took SCOM 101 with Ms. Laidlaw. It was a great class, Rebecca really cares about her students. She makes the class fun as well. She does grade hard, and you have to give 8 speeches, but doing so will definitely improve your speech and presentation skills. Two of the 8 speeches are impromptu, which are graded only on organization, not length.

I had Laidlaw for SCOM 101. She is a great teacher, however, be prepared to work for your grade. ALWAYS come to class, take good notes, and just do what she tells you to do.

First of all this class wasnt really as hard as everyone makes it out to be. Yes Rebecca does grade rather harsh, but shes just looking for effort, and not a last minute speech thrown together 10 minutes before class. There is only 2 real things you need to know in this class to get by with a least a B. The first is eye contact, I personally just memorized the speech and delivered them without ever having to look at my note cards. Having to look at your notecards is her biggest pet peeve, if you dont use them and make direct eye contact the whole time, youll get at least a B on every speech. Second is to never pause or use umm... on your speeches. This immediately kills your grade. There is also a midterm in this class, however its the easiest test ever. Its a 50 multiple choice exam, where she gives you everything you need to know before the test and all the answers.

rebecca seems cool and nice at first. but for an entry level speech class she sucks- expects you to give amazing speeches- i was usually hung over for friday speeches- if u can take anyone else i would, she grades fucking hard

Rebecca is a good teacher who cares about her students and makes you earn your grade. You cannot expect to skate through this class and get an a. If you are willing to put in a little bit of work a few days before your speech and make sure that your outlines are good you will get at least a b in the class. The final is easy and so is the midterm. Class is always enjoyable and very comfortable, but be expected to work and dont just expect to get an a in the class, its difficult to do. I recomend taking her class because its a good time, even though it is difficult to get an a.

Mrs Laidlaw is a very good speech teacher. She makes the class welcoming, enjoyable and makes a very good environment for giving speeches. Don't let the first day of her class scare you, she comes off as a real ruthless teacher but she really is not. Yes there is no doubt about it that she grades harshly, but as long as you do what she asks and practice your speech ahaed of time you'll do fine. If I had the opportunity I would without a doubt take her again.

Laidlaw is awesome! She makes speech fun! I never thought speech was going to be difficult. Be ready to work though; she's a hard grader. If you give a speech that is crap, you will get a speech that is crap. She's also a big fan of Wedding Crashers, and Ace Ventura and she'll include them in her lectures. She also schedules lots of research days so you can work on your speech out of class. So if you want to learn a lot about public speaking, take Laidlaw! She's rocks for sure.

Mrs. Laidlaw is a fabulous professor. I thought I was going to hate her, but after the first week, my anamosity turned to pure love. Yes, her class is challenging, but if you understand her and her teaching style than you're in the clear. She's extremely fun and energetic! There are quite a few speeches to be given in comparison to other professors, but the longest one you do is 5 minutes...other professors make you do a 10 minute! Take Laidlaw! She's great!

laidlaw was possibly the laziest teacher i have ever had in my life. she canceled 35% percent of our classes and doesnt have office hours. you have to call her between certain hours and she calls you back like four days later so pretty god damn worthless. it not a hard class, she just does everything by the god damned book, no personality to her class. she got all angry cause i tried using my imagination for a speech and gave me an F because i didnt have a bibliography. i dont know how that works if i didnt do any research but obviously she has a single tracked mind full of worthless horse shit. if you are a person that doesnt really think out of the box this is the perfect class for you.

I had Ms. Laidlaw from 8-10 in the morning, and never once dreaded going to class. The speeches are fun, and she really promotes a community in the classroom. Even if you are a terrible nervous speaker,(like me) you will end up with a B. She doesn't respond to emails, (only phone calls, and she is good at getting back to you!)and you have to make an appointment in to see her in her office hours. She is fair, nice, and tells great stories. Follow her directions for the outline or you will be in trouble and the speeches will go down from a A-B grade to C-D grade, which stinks! She gives a lot of opportunities, the class is fun. I reccomend her 100 percent!

Laidlaw is HARD. There are lots of speeches, one every week or two. Her grading is really hard, and not easy to anticipate. Speeches I had worked DAYS on got C's/D's, but kids who SUCKED got B's? Make sure you have good eye contact too, and that your speech is mostly memorized, that seems to be her pet peeve. But the class is not boring, and she has lots of energy. It was a 8-10 AM class, and I never had problems staying alert. I wouldn't recommend going to her office hours without an appointment, and DO NOT challenge her grading, she WILL drop your grade instead. But overall I am much more comfortable speaking in public now because of her class. It became a little bit of a community, more so than any of my other classes here at college, more like high school (in a good way) where you knew everyone and almost everything about them. Take her if you have time to write lots of speeches and want to put a TON effort into them, if not, try someone else as a professor.

There's one way, the Laidlaw way. If she thinks you did poorly, she'll kill your grade. Don't expect to get higher than a C+ unless this is the only class you're taking. My first impression was positive, she seemed nice. ... Save yourself a lot of wasted time and take someone else.

Don't take Laidlaw. She's not worth the effort. Trust me.

At first I thought she was awesome... she really has a great personality... but as a teacher she sucks. Its definately her way or the highway. I started out strong but as the quarter went on she got harder and harder on her grading. What pissed me off the most is that I went into the final speech with an A but ended up with a B in the class. Lame. Expect a ton of essays and harsh grading... its all about eye contact... so memorize

Laidlaw made the class very enjoyable. She is a great teacher and makes an effort to reach out to each student individually. I am also saddened by the bad reviews on this website about her, because I looked forward to her class everyday. She's enthusiastic and really fun! As long as you follow everything that she tells you to do point blank, you will do great!

As long as you do what she expects you should do fine. This was the only class I looked forward to last quarter. She won't downgrade you for lacking experience but she will give you credit for taking in her criticism and doing better the next time around.

laidlaw is a fun teacher who has alot of energy, and wants her students to do well. I have had a lot of speaking experience so this class was not very difficult. Just do the work, and try hard, because i would give a speech that was dramatically better than others and she would give me only a few pionts higher because she knew i did not try very hard. She grades mostly on you effort which is helpful for those studnets who are not that skilled at speaking. she is a good person, and teaches an easy class.

Laidlaw was a great professor. She makes class interesting. As long as you prepare for your speeches and do the work you'll be fine.

Laidlaw is bright, intelligent, and has an amazing personality. She explains exactly what you need to do to get an A. I slacked off because it was a morning class but I still managed a nice B. You put a lot more work than you think you should for a speech class but it's well worth it, considering that after good speech you feel so good inside and you get to learn a lot about your professor and your peers. There's work but there's also a lot of room to have fun. That sounds really stupid. But if you're within ethical bounds (or you make your sarcasm blatantly obvious), you can pretty much say whatever you want. Her outline format bothered me a little bit but that's only because I wasn't used to it. The outlines make sense and they help. Don't do your work last minute. Give it the ol' college try. This isn't senior year of high school. You're wasting time and money if you're not delivering genuinely hard work.

Laidlaw is a great teacher. She does what she says she does. She doesnt bend the rules for individuals and treats everyone equally. By no means is this and easy A but she is a good teacher. As long as you listen to what she wants in your speeches you will do fine.

Well, laidlaw is a very fun, energetic, and interesting Professor. She always made class entertaining. Her energy gets the class going and she has many good stories to tell. However, she grades VERY hard. I have past experience with public speaking and am very good at it. However she like to mark lots of points of for small things. Summary: exciting and fun but a tough grader

I think I spent maybe 90 minutes total preparing speeches for this class the entire quarter. Easy class

I signed up for this class from 6-10 pm one night per week and thought it would be brutal, luckily Laidlaw�s unmatched laziness and infinitesimally short attention span made it the easiest class I�ve ever taken . She rarely kept us past 7:15, just barely long enough to get through 20-3 min. speeches. Her lectures never lasted more than 10 min. and consisted of her writing page numbers on the board that we needed to memorize for the midterm. At the end of every class she would make up some bullshit excuse so she could cancel the class for the next week (she happened to cancel class every night that had a new episode of The Office). Instead of handing back our midterms she handed back slips of paper that had our midterm scores on them, so that no one could waste her precious time asking her about their grades. She has no office hours and �does not correspond with students via email�, the only way to contact her is to call her during a 2 hour window 2 days a week and leave a message and if she feels like it she MIGHT call you back. On the first class �dismissed� anyone crashing despite the 15 empty seats about halfway through the class, which actually makes sense because if she lets more students in she�d have to listen to more speeches wasting ever more of her time (but apparently the 45 min. the crashers sat through and could have used to get another section was worthless). She basically does everything in her power to minimize the time she put into this class. If you�re looking for the easiest section of COMS 101 look no further, sign up for the 4 hour night class with Laidlaw. Since class was canceled half the time all you�ll need to do is come up with a speech every two weeks and you can forget about the class for the rest of that time, but if you want a teacher that will give you your money�s worth, don�t even think about registering for the class. It�s been a year since I�ve taken this class and I haven�t had a teacher anywhere near as lazy as Laidlaw, not only does she not earn her paycheck she makes absolutely no effort to hide the fact that her students are dead last on her list of priorities.

She seems scary at first but she really isn't at all. Go to class. Review the terms for the regurgitation quizzes. I had this class from 5-9 at night once a week, which sounds like Hell but it wasn't bad at all. Do not text in her class! Prepare for your speeches. Follow the outline that she gives and if you are having trouble with presentation call her and ask for help. It really helps to speak with her because it shows that you are making an effort. TAKE HER! She ended up being really cool and cancelling a class and making it managable. Plus there really isn't a final.. GOOD TEACHER! I feel more confident.

I think people are really hard on Mrs. Laidlaw, she is a good teacher. She totally understands if you are nervous and public speaking isn't your thing. She is nice, down to earth and understanding. If you have something going on and need to miss class she will figure something out with you that works for both your schedules like she did for me. However, I highly recommend NOT missing classes. The test were hard because half of it you totally had no idea what it was and never saw it before. However, the other half was stuff she repeats over and over so you know it pat. But if you do amazing on the speeches, (which isn't hard), you just have to follow the guidelines for the speeches, you'll do fine in the class. Be nice to her and respect her and she'll do the same back.

Laidlaw is my favorite teacher at Cal Poly. I took Coms 101 with her freshman year and got an A-. I regularly apply the public speaking abilities I gained from this class in other classes, with my Fraternity, at work, and with friends. She is well organized and has great people skills. She had the ability to motivate students to do well and deliver "wow" speeches. "Wowing" the class and Laidlaw meant you had prepared, made an outline, and practiced the speaking skills she preached. If you pay attention to the syllabus or schedule (don't procrastinate) and listen in class, you will be able do deliver great speeches with confidence. By the end of the quarter, all students showed huge improvement in speaking skills. This class was a very fun "learn by doing" class and I still apply what I learned today. Also, if you can memorize a speech, and have some baller visual aids, you're pretty well set to get a high A.

I had never taken a public speaking class. I was really nervous at first because she seems like a rock-n-roll babe. She had blue hair on the first day of class. It turned out to be great. There are six speeches. She is a great teacher. There are two midterms and a final. The final is a take home paper. The mid-terms are straight from the book. She tells you everything that is on the test. They were a little hard but doable. Do the outline correctly! A lot of people think it is stupid that she grades hard on the outlines but it is because she has to do a writing requirement. So she grades difficult on the outlines but does not assign any essays. When speaking keep your hands behind your back. This will help your grade. I took the four hour class once a week and it was awesome. I only stayed four hours once. If she is teaching the four hour class, I recommend taking it. Take Laidlaw if you can!

Laidlaw is ridiculous. The class is based primarily on the outlines you write for the class. It really has nothing at all to do with your ability to give a speech. She by no means measures your progression as a speaker throughout the course and only really cares about how well you can outline. They really should rename this class speech outlining 101. Furthermore, not only is she an inadequate instructor she also personally encourages and engages in academic dishonesty. I know for a fact that a kid in my class who had stayed after to talk to her multiple times about the poor state of his social life(which she sympathized with) was given a thorough outline of a big test several hours before we took it. He had forgotten about the final completely and in complete desperation called her to ask for tips on what to study. Instead of a few tips however she told him in detail EVERYTHING that was going to be on the final. A couple hours before the final I asked him if he had studied a certain portion of the class material and he smugly responded that I didn't need to worry about that section. I asked him how he knew said that Laidlaw had told him. He then proceeded to describe the rest of the test in its entirety. He was able to tell me literally EVERY question that was on the exam. I found all of this particularly interesting especially because of her repeated emphasis on ethics in the class. You tell me how ethical it is for a teacher to give one specific student a competitive advantage over every other student in the class because she felt sorry for him because his girlfriend broke up with him. If you want a HYPOCRITICAL, SUBJECTIVE, LOUSY instructor this is the professor for you. The one upside to the class was that the actual final was just another speech that was scheduled for a week or two before finals week. Meaning there was nothing to turn in or do during the actual week of finals, giving us one less class to worry about.

COMS 101 with Laidlaw is a HUGE joke. There's two midterms that are fill-in-the-blank and not too hard. The "final" is a take-home one-page paper that is easy. It's the speeches that kill you. She requires outlines with rigid guidelines. I didn't get bad grades on the outlines like the others below are talking about, but I do agree that this class is not graded on your ability or progress. I'm not a great public speaker, but I'm decent. When it comes to grading speeches, she's a bitch. Even the people in our class who I thought were great got C's on the speeches. She goes off on tangents all the time and it's a waste. We only got out early a few times. You have to schedule office hours because she had a "stalker." She only lets you dispute grades by writing a paper (also with rigid guidelines) and, in her own words, "I'll read it, but I won't change your grade." She's ridiculous. Not the worst prof ever, but avoid her if you can!!!

For those of you browsing your possible COMS professors and their ratings here all you really need to know is, don't take Laidlaw. Now that that's out of the way, here's why: She has literally no attention span. She can't even pay attention to her own lectures, how does she expect us to? Her lectures were unorganized and incredibly rushed. The board usually was just a mess of scribbles by the end and my notes didn't look that much better because I had little clue as to what information was actually important. I think part of this is because she teaches a bunch of sections of the same class so she's bored and knows it all by heart, but come on, at least pretend to give a shit for your students benefit would you? If you have to take her and want to do well in this class practice your ass of for the speeches, edit your outlines several times over to make sure they are EXACTLY to her format and ABSOLUTELY error free, and figure out how to make her laugh, but don't do it intelligently because sophisticated humor just isn't her bag. Giggling and fart jokes are, so try to be cute and she'll go a little easier on you. Oh, and do the reading, and take notes well ahead of time, unless you have a photographic memory, because she asks specific questions on her midterms and quizes, and there are 2 of each, plus a bull shit take home final essay of "what did you learn". I wish i had taken this for Credit/No credit so I could have spent even less time on the class and just gotten the C without worrying about my GPA and a stupid GE class. She's a nice lady, personally I don't have anything against her, but I had trouble respecting her fully as a teacher because she is kind of obnoxious. Oh, and she doesn't use email or blackboard which is a huge pain in the ass,so you have to call her if you want info or help, and yeah, there's some BS about a "stalker" and her not having regular office hours. She would have made a good junior high drama teacher, but that's about it.

You are all ridiculous and undoubtedly horrible students. Ms. Laidlaw may have rigid guidelines for the speech outlines, but she CLEARLY states all of them prior to you having to ever turn one in that gets graded. Wouldn't you rather have a teacher that has CLEAR but RIGID guidelines rather than what most teachers have; unclear rigid guidelines? Everything she presents during lecture is there to make speech-giving a little easier for those of us that aren't that great at it. If you actually read the books that go with her course you would find that she is largely simplifying the material and giving the students an easier way to approach something that many of us find very frightening. Like many of you have noted, the tests are basically BS; that seems to be because she wants your grade to actually depend on how well you can improve your speech-giving ability. The first couple speeches are worth next to nothing for your overall grade, but she gives you enough feedback for you to improve. Most of the kids in my class that didn't do very well simply weren't taking her advice. They only became more comfortable in front of the class, which isn't the point. All in all you really can't bash Ms. Laidlaw for any of what most of you have. She is one of the best teachers I have ever had at my time at poly and I don't think that's going to change any time soon.

Laidlaw was a pretty good teacher. I had it once a week and since she can't stay focused for long we never stayed to whole time, she cancelled classes, and didn't make us do some speeches. She isn't a bad teacher, but she has a different sense of humor.

She was funny and I liked her a lot, but she grades really harshly. I got a B/B- on most of my speeches that I thought I did well on.

she is penelope from snl. love her sense of humor, she makes the class a comfortable environment to give a speech in. i was nervous about public speaking but she is definitely the type of teacher that anyone would want in a speech class. all tests and quizzes are ridiculously easy and she makes it that way so that it can boost your grade. make sure outlines are perfect according to her format and you will get an A or B. i recommend to anyone who is nervous about speaking and looking for something fun instead of another stuffy old professor!

Rebecca Laidlaw is the greatest prof I have had at poly. She was fun and the speeches were simple because you got to pick your own topics. The midterms are basically just the bold print headings in the book and it\'s only a few chapters. She has some really funny stories that help ease then tension and relax you especially on speech days. She is great take her!

Ms Laidlaw was an awesome teacher. I really enjoyed her classes and looked forward to going every week. Only 4 speeches, a couple quizzes from the book, 2 fill in the blank mid terms, and a final \"essay\". She\'s hilarious and makes class fun. She only lectures 3 days total but make sure you read the assigned chapters as well. I would recommend her to anyone!

Laidlaw isn\'t that bad. She\'s an easy B but definitely not an easy A. I felt like she grades much too harshly on speeches, and if you don\'t \"improve\" from previous speeches then you get a B. It wasn\'t too bad of a class and I definitely didn\'t put much effort into it. She was always really lazy and canceled class a lot, which I had no problem with.

Laidlaw is awesome. I absolutely loved her. I hate all my GE classes and im honestly trying to squeak by in them all just to finally get into a major I like and to start taking those classes. So I\'m always looking for the easy way out. But I got into any coms class i could regardless of rating cause i had such a crappy registration rotation. So what im saying is this class is not hard. But its not a walk in the park. This is one of the only classes i actually wanted to go to in my first year. She makes everyone feel really comfortable and makes the class really close. You only have 5 SPEECHES! and follow her outline and technique exactly and you\'ll be golden! and she takes all her furloughs its glorious! and your midterms are just lists of the info she gives you so just memorize the lists and you\'ll be good! TAKE THIS CLASS! PROMISE YOU\'LL DO GOOD!

To Whom it may concern: Professor Laidlaw remains to this day one of my favorite educators at California Polytechnic. I had her first quarter freshman year and wanted to let you know what to look forward to if she still teaches public speaking. Laidlaw is very easy to communicate with, very approachable, and very well organized with her course. The objectives are clear and what you are expected to do is obvious. You really learn to speak well in this class if you incorporate what you learn into your speaking. As with all classes, stay on your shit and try not to procrastinate too hard and you will do well.

So, some people hated this teacher, but I actually liked her a lot. She was a good lecturer, crazy, and very entertaining. She tends to go off on random tangents, but it made it interesting. I thought that she was hilarious, probably because she reminded me of myself. She is a self proclaimed freak, but it makes her funny. I thought that she was nice as well as fair. Most people only didn\'t like her because she was a hard grader. But honestly, it is not that hard to follow an outline! If you do that and practice your speeches, you will do well. She never gives extra credit, but you can still do well without it! I would definitely recommend her, so take the bad reviews with a grain of salt.

she gives you a solid C or B after a speech you work on SO hard. and even after she herself seems so enthused about the speech. she won\'t let you talk to you about WHY you got the grade. bullshit grading. brought down my GPA and its by far (at least I thought) the easiest class in my Cal Poly curriculum

Honestly, Laidlaw's class is ridiculously easy as long as you have the capacity to pay attention to your outlines and speak somewhat coherently. She's really rigid on outlines, but there is hardly any other work at all. A couple of quick activities, and quizzes that are cake as long as your read the main points in the book. The speeches themselves are very straightforward, and you don't need to dress up or any crap like that. On top of that, Laidlaw's hilarious and always lively in class. Anyone that complains about this class probably 1) thinks too highly of themselves and 2)cannot write a high school level speech. Take this class. Not necessarily an easy A, but it's just a GE, and it's enjoyable.

Rebecca Laidlaw is a very dumb, lazy woman who has figured out a way to make money doing nothing. Just don't take her. If you have to, then you should consider that God's punishing you for something.

Laidlaw is one of the best teachers I have ever had so far. I wasn't looking forward to speech at all before I had her, but she made the class fun and comfortable to be in. There were only 4 speeches and a few other nothing assignments that help boost your grade. As long as you pay good attention to your outlines and proofread you'll get an A.

Laidlaw is an excellent Coms 101 professor. She actually understands that public speaking is almost everyone's greatest fear and works w/ you to overcome that! The class was supposed to be 4 speeches (Self-Speech, Tribute, How To, and Persuasive), but b/c my class was once a week, we had 3 and the 4th was optional. There were a handful of quizzes, 2 Midterms (directly from the book), and a page on what you learned was the Final. Take Laidlaw, follow her instructions, do the readings, and it's an easy B.

Laidlaw dosent' waste your time. She will not have class quite a few times a quarter, so you can "practice your speech". She tells you want she wants you to know for the tests, exactly what to read in the book, and exactly what she will grade you on for each speech. She seems like an abrasive hardass at first, but you will grow to love her.

Easiest COMS teacher ever. The tests are a joke, she makes you memorize like ten lists of five words each, and if you can do that, you will ace both midterms and every quiz. As far as speeches go, she grades easy as well. If you can stand up there, and get the words out of your mouth, you will get a B. If you can do slightly better and appear only slightly nervous or comfortable, you will get an A. On my final speech I had a 10 second pause in the middle of my speech where I just blanked hardcore, and still got an A on the speech. Not even an A minus. TAKE LAIDLAW!!!

Laidlaw loves her stories and they're a nice break from the little that she actually teaches in the classroom. She's a funny lady, and she has a great personality! Totally the type I wouldn't mind going to a bar with or something in the future. Her exams aren't difficult at all since she tells you exactly what to study for and they're mostly fill-in-the-blank tests. The hardest part I think most people would say were the speeches. I had a lot of experience with public speaking beforehand so it was incredibly easy for me, but she does try to help you in the last two by having forced group practices. However, she is extremely strict in her grading of speeches themselves, and the OUTLINES I cannot stress the importance of. You can have a perfect speech but one mistake on your outline and you lose 10 points of 50. I thought this was a pushover class but if you're looking for easily graded speeches and no work involved, this isn't the class for you, though she IS easier and a MUCH better option than most of the other options. And she's hot for a 30-something :)

One of the rudest people I have ever met. Laidlaw is very strict with her policies (late work, etc) which is fine, but she was unnecessarily disrespectful in how she handled requests. She is absolutely neurotic about her outlines. If you miss punctuation, or don't have the right number of bullet points, you lose points. The quizzes and midterms aren't hard, just straight out of the book. Be sure and write down what she says on the first day, it shows up on a midterm. On the speeches, she docked points for little things, which is a problem when there aren't many points to begin with. She also refused to ever demonstrate how to actually give a speech, which seemed very odd in a speech class. She cancels class a lot, which was really nice. You are expected to keep track of your own points and she never activates Blackboard which is pretty much the height of laziness.

She is great! She may come off crazy at first but she is a great Speech teacher! She is willing to help you improve and makes speech giving fun. Totally recommend taking her class!

She is a very cool teacher. She makes you feel comfortable speaking in front of the class. You will give 8 speeches throughout the quarter. Two of the speeches are 5-7 minutes long and the others were about 2-3 minutes long. She grades pretty tough but it was a fun class. I am very shy and don't like speaking in front of people but her class helped me overcome this fear. There are no tests or no final, just give speeches.

I think she is awesome! She does make you work for your grade, but you can't complain about that. She tells you straight up what you need to work on to make yourself better for the next speech, and there are so many that you do that by the end you should be kicking ass. Everyone in the class improved a lot. There are no papers or quizzes either, just your outline for the speech. Take her- you won't regret it!

Ok, don't let the face and personality fool you, she's a tricky one. First Rebecca leads you to think you're actually gonna get by in the class, but don't think that. She grades tough. For my ability giving speeches, I got ripped. I should've at least got an A-. Don't get me wrong she's not hardcore on the grading scale, but I'd definitely take a look around before choosing.

I am not the best speaker in the world, and going into this class I was definately not looking forward to it. It was early - 8 am - but on the first day Ms. Laidlaw was spunky and peppy, which made my outlook more positive for the class. I soon knew pretty much everyone in the class, or at least their names, and I really learned alot. I took this class before the necessary English 134 and I really think what I learned in my speech class will help me with that class and later in my life. These are valuable skills well taught by Ms. Laidlaw. I do recommend her, although prepare to work for you grade!

Laidlaw is an awsome teacher!!!! shes easy show up put a little effort into your speeches and you will get in an A. only one test in the class. written midterm study the stuff in the book and youll be fine. its rite out of the book, word for word. if u need help with your speeches go to her office hours or stay after she'll be glad to help!

If you hate speaking, she may scare you with the eight speeches that you are required to do throughout the quarter. DONT WORRY! Most are short, simple, and usually funny. Homework is only an outline that goes along with the bigger speeches and the only test is one simple midterm. You wont be afraid of speaking at the end of the course and may actually like performing speeches. Oh, and Laidlaw is really, really funny...Take her.

Rebecca is a very nice teacher who creates a welcoming environment in her class for speeches. However, she does not lecture much and when she does, it is basically a summary of the reading. Reading isn't much but you're expected to know some of the things mentioned and incorporate them into your speeches. She allows you to have as many 4x6 index cards with you when you make your speech but she will dock you if you look at them too many times. If you want a good grade in this class, you'll have to make your speeches creative and original since she grades your speech on what she thinks you should get so you have to impress her. For an intro class, her grading is rediculously hard. If you dislike making speeches and lack creativity (like me) and are hoping for a B or A, I wouldn't recommend her. The midterm is very easy and she'll tell you everything you need to study to do well on it. The final is an "after dinner speech" and it's basically like the other 8 speeches you'll make in her class. Personally, Rebecca didn't help me improve my public speaking. If you want to improve your public speaking in this class, you'll have to do it on your own.

This teacher is COOL. She is very down to earth and is a fun teacher. She won't make you feel uncomfortable and she builds up the class so you will be friends with everyone. This is a great class for first years. She is a good teacher, a fair grader, and her midterm is common sense. The speaches were easy to write and you could write whatever you wanted. I would recommend her.

Laidlaw is a really cool teacher who really makes the atmosphere fun and comfortable in class. But she can be a really tough grader during your speeches. You give a lot of little five point speeches and then two 50 point speeches and then two 100 point speeches. This class is doable because the little speeches are easily graded and the midterm is the easy. But with any other teacher I feel I would have gotten an A.

Had her at Cuesta. Don't like her class. No feedback, no inside. Doesn't seem to care. Would not take again.

She is the best coms teacher hands down. She is an entertaining person to be around and always is willing to help you with your speeches. I wish she taught another class so I could take her again. Take the class seriously and actually study for the little quizzes and you'll get an A.

What else is there to say? Fine person, nothing interesting. Class was meh... Blah, blah, blah... Fine person.