Pierce, Todd  

He is the most boring teacher ever (thank god it was only 50 min classes). He grades essays so hard and I don't think he knows how to teach a class. We watched videos or read articles most of class and I learned nothing from him. DO NOT TAKE

This professor fucking sucks. If you get him, just know you will not get an A. Egotistical and doesn't recognize student problems. His voice is also pretentious and he eats ass. If you get this teacher, drop out and become a stripper because this class is gonna ruin your GPA.

Pierce goes over each text and is usually good about covering everything. However his quizes are very different from tests. His multiple choice questions on quizes are way simple then on the midterm/final they are a more specific and it threw me off. And for a GE he grades your writing entirely too hard. I got owned by the multiple choice on the first test then I got to the essays and I totally knew the answers and i felt i wrote them very well and he gave me half credit on both parts. It was lame, i knew everything going into the midterm and i got a 65. If you want to take this class, just plan on writing exactly what he wants, if you can figure that out.

He is a fantastic professor. Take him if you can. My class was 8-10PM! and it was well worth it. We read great books and had great discussions. He gives quizzes about once a week but if you skimmed the reading you would be able to get them right. There is a midterm and a final, multiple choice and a short essay. Also, one paper that is only 4-6 pages and he will help you with it. He is funny and keeps the class interesting. I highly recommend taking him.

This class was 8-10pm but Pierce made it pretty interesting overall. He\'s a pretty funny guy and the class isn\'t too difficult. There are no homework assignments or papers, just two midterms and a final (that is cumulative) as well as pop quizzes. The pop quizzes are really easy as long as you did the reading (or at least sparknoted it) and he drops your two lowest quiz grades. The tests are a little harder than I imagined it would be, if you want an A then you really have to go in depth with the material. I would take Pierce again, hes interesting and the class didn\'t take much effort.

Great teacher. Made 8-10pm class bearable. The reading material wasn\'t bad either. I\'m not a huge English person, at all really, but I enjoyed this class and didn\'t find it too difficult. Getting a A is difficult but getting a B isn\'t too hard if you just read and show up to class. I never studied but I did all the reading and showed up to class and got a B+. Probably the best of the GE classes and the best teacher for the courses. I would take him again.

Caution! Quizzes are 10% of your grade, but you're overall grade cannot be higher than your quiz grade. If you are playing volleyball on dexter lawn for 4 hours a day every day, you have time for this class, if you are a 3rd year architecture major, and work in studio 17 hours a day and sleep for 4, this class is certainly not for you. during the bulk of the quarter you have t read a book a week, many of them including the short stories are audio books online. During the quarter he posted to video lecs online since he couldn't be in class, I watched those while making a model in studio and it worked great. I wish I had learned to record the lectures and watch them again later. The Quizzes are IMPOSSIBLE if you dont read the book, sparknotes won't get your far either, maybe a 3/10. if you read the books expect a 8or 9 out of ten easy. Going to the lectures is crucial especially if you dont read the books that much. no skimming either. after the lectures you should be able to do good on the midterms but I still bombed the second one because I only did about 2/3rd of the reading. I studied a lot for the final (all day, since it was my last final) and got an 80%, the final was a bit easier than the previous midterms because of the type of questions were different. Also, he isn't on campus MWF or maybe just MW, he commutes from SB. buck the guachos. not that he cares. and it seems he's only there at night. also he made us buy his book, but we spent about .1% of class on it. despite all that the lectures weren't that bad and i hate literature, this was the GE from the day I got to poly that I dreaded. I'm lucky i got a C i was seriously looking at what grade you needed to pass a GE. If you expect anything better than a C you must read and go to all the lectures, and study. if you miss out on one of those you will get a C.

I didn't do that great on the first midterm, so I started going to his office hours. I finished the assigned reading and wrote down questions I wanted to ask before going to his office hours. He answered all my questions in detail which was very helpful. I ended up getting a B+ on the second midterm and an A- on the final.

By far the best GE class I have taken at Poly because of an EXCELLENT professor. I am a bio major and have avoided any other subject but science throughout my four years because Im TERRIFIED of anything but. Not only was this professor entertaining, witty but he presented material so straightforward-He understands we are not English majors! My recommendation: go to class. Write down every word he says and you will do fine on the analysis/conceptual questions on his exam. He does ask some detailed questions on his exams as well. I did not read a single book (read 3 of the four in high school) but read spark notes, cliff notes and other sources because I don't have time or patience. If you do not read, reading from one source is not enough for quizzes or exams! Also, I found that for the people that read the books, it was beneficial to read a summary source as well. Class breakdown: Quizzes-30% (we had 5 pop quizzes):read books and review with online sources. He asks questions like: "what subject did this character teach?" (mentioned only twice in the book) or "what did Huck Finn use to fake his death?" Pretty detailed but you quickly catch on to his style. Exams-50%: some identification which were incredibly obvious, details of novels/short stories, comparisons between stories, conceptual and true or false. Incredibly simple except a few questions like "T/F: All of the following characters were employed.." He lists 20 characters from different novels. An example of why cliff notes were more helpful than reading novels. Participation: sit in front one day of class and answer one question. Come semi prepared and he will talk you through any struggle you have. Overall, I was interested in every lecture, enjoyed the professor, and an EASY A (2 hours prep for quiz and 8 hours prep for exam). As a bio major, I can actually tell you about American Literature!!

This was probably the best G.E. class--or at least the best lecture I've taken at Cal Poly. You need to read the books because the quizzes and tests can be very specific. But the books aren't so bad. I enjoyed most of them--except for The Awakening. Don't Spark Note it. Don't think that because you read the book in high school you'll remember it. Like someone else said, you need to take good notes. A lot of the material from class shows up on the tests. It's probably not that easy to get an A, but a B is reasonable. The professor sent around a grade distribution chart for each test. Maybe 15 to 20% of the class got As. But he gave a lot of Bs. A LOT. Maybe 40% or so. I can live with that, especially as I was dreading finishing my C area requirements. The professor was funny and approachable. He answered emails, but usually took a day or two. I never went to office hours. All in all, a good class.

The pros.....the class was entertaining and interesting. I'd read a couple of the books previously (in other classes), but now I feel like I understand them. I went to office hours twice (to check my midterms) and found the instructor helpful. The class seemed.....I'm not sure how to put this.....well organized. We didn't just read random stuff. I mean, the ideas and books we studied in the first couple weeks helped with the ideas and books we read at the end of class. The cons.....The QUIZZES. If you don't do well on the quizzes, you can't do well in the class overall. I was more worried about my reading quiz grade than I was the grade on my tests. Final thoughts......as long as you keep up on the reading, you'll probably do OK in this class. The professor is far better than the one I had for my Area C requirement.

Pierce is a good teacher to have for a GE, because the work that you do actually helps you learn something interesting. I'm an engineering major, so English is a bit out of my comfort zone, but Pierce makes the books and short stories you have to read very understandable, and he teaches them differently than you might have learned in high school. There's a reading quiz every week or two, and if you do the reading (not Sparknotes!) you'll be fine. If you don't do the reading, be prepared to basically fail the quiz; though he does drop the lowest two scores. The midterm is just like a long quiz, but can be challenging if you don't review class notes or the reading. The final is also like a long quiz, just like the midterm. There's a paper due at the end of the quarter during finals week, but you can only basically start it during week ten because you need to write about the stories discussed during that week. In all, Pierce teaches a great course about American literature, and it is much more informative than high school English or other GE's if you're willing to put in some work.

I'd definitely recommend taking him for a GE. His lectures are fairly entertaining, there was no writing (I was in a large section), and the reading quizzes and two midterms were easy *if you did the reading* (I didn't at first and my grade suffered). I was able to find audiobooks of the books and found that way easier and less time-intensive than physically reading the books.

Pierce's lectures were always entertaining and interesting. The reading material was very reasonable and so were the quizzes. In order to do well on the quizzes it is important to actually read the assigned material. Make sure to take well written lecture notes because a lot of that material will show up on the midterms and final (all of which were multiple choice). I was in the smaller section, so I had to write the 4-6 page paper at the end of the quarter. This may seem daunting but it's pretty straight forward, and Pierce will read your entire paper in office hours and provide feedback. Overall his classes were always a joy to go to and wasn't complete unless he opened a pepsi everyday.

He was such a great professor! He gave manageable reading and explained things really clearly. His midterm was totally fair and based off of class discussion and readings. I learned so much in his class, I would definitely recommend this class to anyone who is willing to put in a medium amount of work and go to class. You would most definitely get an A if you tried.

This class wasn't hard if you read the materials and went to class. We read 4 books and 2 of them I had already read in high school so it was just a matter of clarification and re-reading. The class was super interesting too because he brought up aspects of the stories that I never would have thought about before! The tests weren't that bad if you paid attention in class and took notes. The only thing that got me was quote identification. Other than that, easy B and if you work at it, not too hard to get an A.

Dr. Pierce is an amazing instructor and one of the nicest professors (esp for a GE) that you will come across. He is extremely understanding of student difficulties (I'm a DRC student, so he let me record his lectures for playback at home). What sticks with me about him? First day of class he acknowledged that we are all from different majors and backgrounds. He does not treat this GE like those asshats at poly who teach other GEs and think that their class should be mostly D's and C's. He's a very knowledgable guy who will encourage you to think about the texts you read. Now onto how his class is. The class itself is a bit boring. Why? Because there is a lot of reading and the classroom has over 100 students and because our class time was 8-10pm T/R. We would read the assigned readings (though most classmates actually did not) and he would 9 out of 10 times re-read what we read. Sometimes he'd offer reflection on the passages read. But it would be very boring nonetheless. There are surprise quizzes and you do not want to miss those. They are very easy and will help your grade immensely. Usually they are within the first 10minutes of class, but when people started to leave immediately after the quizzes, he started to have the quizzes in the last 20 mins of class. haha. So show up every night. Bring a laptop and sit in the back if you can't focus on him. Honestly, the class was very dull and drab when he spoke. No PowerPoints, very minimal writing on the board. But... that was the point. Just sit back and listen. Of course take notes of general concepts, but it's very relaxed. I think there were more quizzes than listed on the polylearn grade book. He dropped two of the lowest for us. There are 2 or 3? midterms and one final. The midterms are more book/reading-oriented. The final had a lot more questions regarding romanticism vs idealism vs modernism etc etc. Basically, for the quizzes and midterms READ THE BOOKS. Not spark notes!! Summaries will NOT help you in this class. A lot of questions will be "who said this quote?" and who was this quote directed at? One question was even, "what is the opening quote of the book, the Great Gatsby?" So yeah, read the books slowly and just enjoy/make mental notes of things that happen. His lectures, though extremely boring are very important to take notes on. Mainly when he compares literary periods. So read the books and readings. Don't summarize them or read summaries. Takes notes in his lectures. It's an easy class, but not a class that you can pass if you don't attend class regularly.

Unresponsive to repeated e-mails. Ignored even a letter taped to the door of his office (I had to have an athletics grade check by a certain day, and could not attend his office hours because they conflicted with my practice hours). Questions on exam often absurd: "In what order did we read the books?" Questions also poorly written (e.g. with typos). Did not distribute lecture notes for review of concepts (Romanticism, Modernism, PostModernism). Scantron inaccurate: 3 correct answers registered as incorrect. No phone contact possible.

The one thing you need to know is that you need to read the books. I wasn’t a fan of the regular reading quizzes. But the lectures were clear, sometimes entertaining. For the tests, you need to know the books (quotes especially!!!) and the stuff Mr. Pierce talked about in class. You don’t need to know dates so much, but you need to know the ideas. This class was better than other classes I had to take. The teacher had a lot of knowledge about the things we read. I went to office hours a couple of times. The teacher was helpful.

I actually looked forward to this class.. and I had it from 8-10pm! Pierce is a straight up type of guy who isn't here to waste your time. He makes the readings very easy to understand (he goes over them in lecture, scene by scene). His tests are multiple choice/true false and he adds 3 points to everyone's score in case there was a scantron error. There are random reading quizzes (usually on the second lecture of the week) that covers what you were supposed to read that week. I got A's and B's on these by using Sparksnotes & Shmoop. I would definitely recommend reading two different summaries of the chapters (if you don't plan on reading the actual books) in order to pass the reading quizzes. Only looking at Sparksnotes won't give you all the information you need. However, don't worry, he drops the two lowest scores. For tests, as long as you make outlines of the characters, general plot, ages of characters, relationships between characters, and map out the literary time periods, you'll be able to pass no problem. Overall, I would highly recommend!

Todd Pierce is the man. I have to say, this might have been my favorite class of all time. He must've been a voice actor previously or something, because the way he reads aloud during class and during audio lectures are so expressive and engaging. He has the deep voice of a Disney villain but is generally a very nice, reasonable person. There were weekly reading pop quizzes, worth 10% total, and two midterms each worth 25%, with the final worth 35% and participation 5%. (the class had 200+ people, so we didn't write any essays, it was only multiple choice). I highly recommend this class!

Pierce is fucking sick. His class wasn't that hard and if i actually tried i could've gotten a better grade. Go to every lecture because he has like 7 random pop quizzes that are really easy if you spark noted the material. the quizzes consist of 10 objective questions based on the readings. the midterms and finals are a little bit harder because you have to relate shit in the books to themes we learn about in lecture. If you read the books you'll do really well. Overall, a great teacher.

My only problem with professor Pierce is that I took his ISLA 320 class online over the summer and it was more work than the majority of my in class major classes. He was a really good professor but could not realize that students have full time jobs over the summer and can't be dedicating over 15 hours a week for his online class. If anyone is thinking of taking ISLA 320 for a C4 I would recommend taking a different one.

Todd is a great teacher. He always is eager to help you and the reading is easy. There is a paper about 4 pages due at the end of the term and a midterm as well as a final. The midterm is straight forward and if you attend class you can get a B+ or A. There are quizzes every week but you can drop two and if you did the reading you get 100%. If you haven't fulfilled your C4 or/and GWR take this class with Todd Pierce. He is a great teacher!

great teacher! really enjoys the material he teaches and is extremely funny haha! this class fulfills gwr credit if you did not know. won't regret taking him!

If you have the chance to get into one of Professor Pierce's classes... I highly advise it! Great books and fun discussions during class. You take a few quizzes but if you read the books it is actually hard to fail them. He is really understanding and tries to accommodate the students at all costs. Attendance is required but you get a few free days. If you like to read books (about 5-7 novels in one quarter) you will love this class.

You have to read the material, but if you do, you will do great in this class. Prof. Pierce is a very interesting man and a great teacher. I thoroughly enjoyed his class and learned a lot. I would take him again if I were not graduating in June!

Todd is the man. I have always disliked English courses but this class was different. There is a substantial amount of reading but Todd makes it enjoyable, and thoroughly examines the main themes and ideas of the texts in class which prepare you for his essay question exams. He is a good man, and very approachable and has an incredible ability to clarify/answer questions. Really enjoyed his class even if it was four hours long. Highly recommended.

He may be a good guy, but this quarter's class with him was awful. He gave us a syllabus and then ignored it. Didn't complete the material, didn't give quizzes, didn't grade like he said he would, and rarely responded to email requests. This class amounted nothing more than a total shot in the dark for those who wanted to get more out of it and maintain our hard earned GPAs. About half of the class got B grades, which totally tanked all of our GPAs. Complete disorganization. Didn't learn squat about some authors and novels. But we got to sit around for 3-4 hours once a week, chat about stories and acquire lots and lots of frustration. If you want to sit around, read stories, listen to him talk about stories and buying one of his books, and screw your gpa, this guy is your man. Needs to offer more than being "nice" to serious students.

Interesting, helpful, nice - what more could you ask for? Oh, and easy!

Dr. Pierce is THE professor to study with if you have any interest in writing fiction. He reads your stories and finds the most important strengths and weaknesses that you might not have even considered. He has an incredible understanding of the short story as a form and applies that knowledge to every story handed in to class. You produce about twenty five pages of original fiction to turn in at the end of class and depending on size of workshop, you'll probably get to share about two stories with the class. You write a critique of every story turned in. Pierce guides discussions by asking probing questions to multiple students about the story in question to give the writer the best possible feedback. He is also very generous with his time and really helpful in office hours. Plus, he is great writer himself, which is a nice bonus.

God, this guy rocks. Tod, can I marry you, please? Whatever your writing needs, he pinpoints it and lets you know! BUT, he also makes everyone feel special and smart, which let me say, is nice of him considering some stuff we had to read. He doesn't just give you busy work; the work that he gives is thoughtful and has a purpose. That said, I would recommend Pierce to ANYONE for ANYTHING -- Tod's the MAN! ps - yes, drunken evaluation. I just got my grade... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Todd is a good guy, but he was distracted all quarter long, said something about homelife etc. Didn´t get much out of the course that I didn´t already learn from Hill in 387. Half the time he seemed like he was unprepared and making stuff up. Maybe just a bad quarter.

Dr. Pierce is a really good guy. He is approachable and always willing to help out, even if it means reading his students terrible story drafts. He goes above and beyond to give his students good input and guidance. I also loved how he brought in guest speakers from the writing world. This was both inspiring and helpful. I only wish that the class consisted of more individual skill building workshops because I went into this class pretty blind - I learned nothing in my 387 class. I also didn't learn much from reading and critiquing everyone's stories in this class since most of them learned just as little in 387. Anyway, I like Pierce and would recommend him to anyone. He is a very laid back, down to earth kind of guy.

Dr. Pierce is a really good guy. He is approachable and always willing to help out, even if it means reading his students terrible story drafts. He goes above and beyond to give his students good input and guidance. I also loved how he brought in guest speakers from the writing world. This was both inspiring and helpful. I only wish that the class consisted of more individual skill building workshops because I went into this class pretty blind - I learned nothing in my 387 class. I also didn't learn much from reading and critiquing everyone's stories in this class since most of them learned just as little in 387. Anyway, I like Pierce and would recommend him to anyone. He is a very laid back, down to earth kind of guy.

Impressed me as an instructor. It's hard to find a professor that will read everyone's 21 page story thoroughly and leave notes and Dr. Pierce did that all quarter long. He provided insightful and accurate constructive criticism to our stories and is very easy to talk to during office hours. This is a great class to take to strengthen your writing.