Bartel, Jon  

Bartel is a GREAT teacher! He is a grad student still, so he really understands his students well. I WOULD DEFINITELY RECOMMEND HIS CLASS TO ANYONE. Discussions in his class are actually fun, he usually gives us interesting assignments. There is a ton of room for creativity in his class as well. If you don't do so well on a paper, he also gives you the option to revise it and turn it in again for a better grade. If you have to take english, TAKE BARTEL!

Bartel was an awesome teacher, really fun and nice. He\'s around 30 years old, doesnt have his PhD, but does have a 1 year old kid that he loves talking about, we got out of class 30 mins early every day, and you will get an easy B in the class. He only assigns 3-4 big papers and you wont get below a C on them. TAKE BARTEL!!

Bartel is a really cool instructor. He\'s very chill and down to earth with his students. I\'m a horrible writer, but he was really helpful during office hours. Plus he lets students revise most of their essays. So I was able to revise which definitely helped my grade. Also, I had an 89.6 at the end of the quarter. I emailed and asked him if there was anything I could do to get an A, and he just added three points to my final essay which put me at a 90.2. He\'s really awesome and I would totally take him again if I had the chance.

Very helpful at office hours, and made class fun. Take bartel!

I really enjoyed Bartel\'s class! My english teachers in highschool always talked about college classes like they would suffocate you with reading and constant assignments, but it wasn\'t like that at all. The assignments are pretty light and straightforward, and as was mentioned, there are only 3 big papers and several smaller assignments. For the final we made our own magazines with the essays as articles, which was a lot of fun! Since he does let you revise your essays it\'s easy to raise your grade up, and he\'s good about telling you exactly what needs to be corrected. Class discussions were always interesting, and since he\'s fresh out of grad school he can easily relate to the students. The only thing that I didn\'t like about the class is that the main book we had to buy wasn\'t used at all. So that was like $40 down the drain, but besides that he was a great teacher. I definitely recommend taking his classes!

Bartel is the man! If you have to take Engl 134 TAKE BARTEL! Hes a super chill guy. Doesnt really teach english according to conventional methods but thats why hes awesome. Hes definitely a hard grader but he really prepares you for your essays. His assignments are actually a lot of fun and it actually made me enjoy writing for english. Hes and awesome poet if you get the chance to read some of it its pretty sweet. I personally enjoyed his class and his stories and tangents about his life and general antidotes about life in general are awesome. Take Bartel hes awesome!

This guy is awesome. he is hilarious. his class is typically always fun. the discussions can be so fun. There were two 5 page essays and like two or three 2-page essays. it was a pain to write but they always are. he grades sorta strict but he is consistent with how he grades. i got a c- on the first essay and an A- on the second one because i took the advice he put on my first one and made changes on the next one. There was no actual final. there is a final project. but all you have to do is take the essays you have already done, put them together, add two "ads", a cover page, and turn it in. its called a zine. but yeah, its really easy. Take this professor. he is legit. and has a legit beard

AMAZING 134 teacher. Made a 6-8PM two-hour class (English, of all things, coming from an engineering major) actually something I looked forward to. Crazy, right? He graded fairly, and he was very encouraging. About halfway through the quarter he took a week from classes in order to meet with EVERY ONE of his students one-on-one. Very friendly, very personable and approachable. 3 main essays and a compilation work, but the first essay is kind of a writer's history and the other 2 are about what you're interested in: music, sports, fashion, animals, even computer operating systems (did I mention I'm an engineering major?). Essays are revisable for an improved grade. Yes, he is one of the younger professors, but he has a great sense of humor and a great personality. I would recommend him to anyone, even someone who isn't particularly interested in English.

Jon is the best professor I have had thus far. He always was available to give advice on my essays and ways I could improve. I felt my writing ability significantly increase with him. And besides being a really good professor, Jon is such a laid back and nice guy. If you have the opportunity choose Jon as your professor!

Take him. He's a young professor, super chill, and the class is easy and fun. He's laid back, understanding, and the work load isn't very high. I can't see an ENG 134 class being easier.

Mr. Bartel is one of the best English teachers I have ever had in my life. He encourages a positive learning environment to make everyone in the class feel involved in discussion regardless of how much they participate and he knows how to handle his class. Very understanding of students' problems and always helpful when going to his office hours. The class is set at the perfect difficulty level for being a GE; it's not hours upon hours of writing every night, and it's not like he only gives one or two essays for the whole quarter. You get 3 major sequences and a final compilation project and you get to write about things you actually have interest in. In my opinion Bartel is the only choice for a ENGL134 teacher. Oh, and his beard is AWESOME!

Bartel's class was one the best english classes i have ever had in my life. He made english interesting when I hate english. The 3 papers and final project weren't hard at all. He is a definite choice for students taking 134

Jon teaches english the right way. His classes are interesting and fun, encouraging discussion about anything and everything. Every so often he'd throw in an actually lecture on what we needed to know for our papers, but for the most part the class was all about the essays and discussion. The 3 major papers and final project were not super time consuming, but don't expect an easy A; Jon grades fairly and if you don't put the time in, you wont get an A (easy B, however). What really made this class great for me was the freedom he gives his students to write about what ever they want (as long as it fits the overall essay style). This made the essays much easier and even interesting to write, making my least favorite subject into something I didn't mind. Overall, if you get a chance to take Jon's class, do yourself a favor and do it; he is a great guy.

Jon's a young teacher who understands his students and wants them to not only succeed but have an enjoyable time doing so. He lets you write about what you are interested in and creates engaging assignments which encourage you to think and are catered to student interest. Always happy to offer feedback and allow revisions to improve your grade, Bartel is an excellent teacher with a great sense of humor and teaching style. I would definitely recommend Bartel.

Bartel does a good job of teaching 134, and he doesn't assign a lot of work. Your grade is mostly your 3 essays and final project, and was able to get a B+ without having turned in some smaller assignments. And he allows you to revise essays and turn it in for a higher grade, which I didn't take advantage of. Make sure your essays are well edited when you turn it in and you can easily get an B in the course.

As people have stated previously, Bartel is an amazing english professor! He is super funny and entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed his class and thought he graded very fair. He allows you to edit essays and turn them in again for a higher grade. And his final is a lot of work, but you work on it the entire quarter, as it is a project. In my opinion, that is much better than taking a test. I highly recommend taking Bartel for ENGL 134!

I really like Bartel. He was super chill in class. In class we barely did anything. There are about 4 essays and one project. He allows you to revise your papers after he grades them! He's not the easiest grader at first but if you go into his office hours and ask for help, he's cool. I think i will end up with an A- or B+. I recommend him for sure!

Jon Bartel is a very laid-back and humorous professor, who sincerely wants you to improve your writing abilities. There are three sequence essays that are 4-6 pages--a personal narrative, profile essay in which you interview someone, and a rhetorical analysis. There are also short assignments that are worth less points than the sequence essays--a cultural analysis, letter to the editor, product review, and two advertisements. All of the assignments are combined in a "zine". All of these essays adhere to a theme that you pick in the beginning of the quarter. Jon is a hard grader, but he allows revisions and will help you immensely if you go to his office hours. Ultimately, Jon teaches you to develop your own style of writing, and improve on your current abilities.

Ok people, this is my favorite Poly teacher and in the top 5 of my all time favorites. He is extremely bright, but not the slightest bit arrogant or ego-driven. His lectures are engaging, interesting, and moving. Bartel made me laugh every class and was always willing to meet with students to work out course questions, issues, etc. He is just a regular guy, but a phenomenal teacher and writer. If you can fit his class into your schedule... or like even drop a class to make it work; do it.

TAKE THIS CLASS! Jon is awesome. Such a nice guy, easy to talk to and very helpful. You write 3 essays that you can revise and have no final!

Professor Bartel is a pretty hard grader. Coming into the class I thought I would have done fine, but the essays were rough. He expects a lot from our writing, which is fine. He really enjoys teaching about English though. At the end of the quarter, we basically turned in a portfolio of all the works we done throughout the quarter. We also had revisions available to be done if we weren't content with our essay grades which I failed to take advantage of. He's a great guy who you could somewhat relate to. Also I bought the three books he required in the course: MLA, Bird by Bird, and Fresh Voices, and in the end, I never even opened MLA. That was a waste of 20 dollars.

Bartel is vague in instructions and expectations. He will write one sentence on a 6 page paper and give a grade of 70. Instead of teaching he has students pass their papers to other students for critique. My classmates liked my papers, but for some unknown reason to me, the best I could do in his class was a B. I learned how ambivalent and frustrating a teacher could be from him. I would not recommend him, nor will I ever take him again.

Basically took this class because I had early rotation and heard this guy was a pretty decent professor. Turns out hes the worst professor I've had at poly, unfortunately for my quarter and GPA. The thing is, Bartel acts cool and like he wants you to do well, but really he doesn't care that much. He's extremely biased and gives grades on essays based on what topic you chose, what your view is, and if he likes you or not. If you're a girl and you choose liberal topics to write about, expect an A. If not, you might want to consider taking a different professor. I actually enjoy writing and was quite disappointed at the outcome of this class, I thought Dr. Bartel was a pretty awesome guy until I saw my grades in this class.

I'm really surprised that he has over a 3.0 poly rating. Absolute joke of a class, it simply is not efficient. Everything is subjective and you don't learn anything. Suck up to him, choose a liberal topic for all your papers, and go into office hours to act like you care-you might get a B. students who turned in good essays on topics he disliked got C's, whereas students who wrote about liberal topics such as "diversity in the Bay Area" got A's even though they weren't strong papers. Didn't like the class or teacher, really unsatisfying experience to say the least

What a terrible teacher. Grade is based on a few essays and a final project. Nothing we do in class relates whatsoever to our actual writing. For example, we spent an entire class period looking at advertisements that were funny, suggestive, misleading, etc. Another time, we spent two whole class periods watching a movie on a parking lot. Yes, a PARKING LOT. We literally did nothing significant in the class, and your grade basically depends on whether or not he liked your topic or if he liked you in general. Biggest waste of time and by far my least favorite teacher at Cal Poly. If you want to hear a guy talk about himself all day then this is the class for you. This guy's teaching style stinks almost as much as his nasty beard.

You can tell the only people who praise this guy are the people who got an A in the class, aka the people Bartel liked and the people who sucked up to him. Honestly, this class is so subjective on how he likes you, and not on how well you write. He gives you a revise your essays to improve your grade, but if you're not in his close-knit group, expect the grade ceiling to lower down to a B, no matter how many times you revise your essay. I received B's on both my essays (Seq. 1 and Seq. 2) and immediately revised it hoping to get an A. He never gave the revisions back, and I assume he didn't bother to read them. No matter how hard you work in this class, you'll never get above a B unless you are friends with him. In class, we never did anything relevant. Watched a music video and movies, never actually did any work. You'll learn some English lessons that you probably already learned in high school. He told us to buy a book to read, but he only assigned us to read the first two chapters and never told us to read it again. You could skip through nearly all the lectures and still get a B (in fact a few people did that after they realized how pointless lecture was).

Although Bartel is a really chill and amiable guy, he is definitely a hard grader. Not only that, he never updates Polylearn so you have to pay attention in class to when readings and essays are due. He also has favorites so be sure to actively participate in class and get on his good side; I guarantee you he'll give you a higher score on your essays.

Very, very chill professor. Sometimes it might be a little boring, BUT very limited if any homework assigned. Go to OFFICE HOURS so he reviews your essays and he will let you know what to do to get a good grade- TRUST me, it will make a BIG difference. He has no "favorites." Overall, can't complain about this class.

Bartel is an overall good guy. He's really laid back and gives you a ton of time for your essays. He also requires that you set up an appointment with him for your first few essays. This is awesome cause it forces you to go, and you get the help you need! The only thing that sucks is that if he tells you it's a pretty good paper, don't trust that you will get an A. He doesn't give out A's very often, so expect to probably get a B in the class unless you're an amazing writer. Take Bartel!

He's very helpful, especially if you go in for office hours to go over your essay. During class, he clearly explains what he expects from your assignments and clarifies anything confusing as long as you ask. Take this class if you're willing to put in extra hours to make your essays better.

Jon is a great guy and I had a great time going to his class, especially on "Tattoo Tuesdays". However, I didn't learn anything from his class about improving my writing abilities. All I learned is that i needed to "improve" and he would not specify how (even during office hours). Jon is also a harsh grader, so if you are looking for a good grade, you have to put in the effort.

Jon Bartel is definitely an interesting professor and makes lecture interesting. Sometimes class will be boring but most of the quarter, class is very engaging. The class is only engaging if you decided to participate which I regret not doing all quarter long. Throughout the quarter, you will work on 3 major essays (memoir, narrative piece, and research) on one topic you choose during the beginning of the quarter. He allows you to revise the first essay to receive a better grade. For the first 2 essays, he requires all of his students to sign up for draft days which requires his students to go to his office for 10 minutes to talk about the essay in preparation for the final draft. For the last essay, he does peer reviews in class. Jon is definitely helpful during office hours and take advantage of it! He is a tough grader but a great professor. I would recommend him!

Bartel is nothing short of "The Man". He presented all of the course material in a humorous and accessible way. I took his class at a very rough time in my Cal Poly career. I was arrested during the quarter and spent the weekend in county jail. When I got out I had missed assignments in multiple different classes. Bartel was the one teacher who really heard me out in office hours, and offered to let me review my essay and turn it in later without penalty. His class wasn't easy, but improved my writing skills exponentially. He is a family man with TATTOOS, and committed to his job. If you're an English major, you know how much a difference the teacher makes when assessing how much you enjoyed the class. Take Bartel if you have the opportunity, you will not regret it.

His beard is a luscious, brown cotton candy that Gandalf the Grey would be proud of highlighted by streaks of grey displaying his wisdom as an English legend. This fact alone should be enough for you to feel the urge to enroll in his class. He's also pretty good at teaching and has interesting lectures .

Bartel is a really chill guy. i loved him as a person. however, as a professor, he sucks. entire grade is based off of 3 papers and a portfolio. i got an 80% on every paper. he takes FOREVER to grade, and when he does, he'll write ONE SMALL COMMENT and deduct a lot of points. i never even got my 2 last papers back, even after numerous emails. only girl who got an A was a hot blonde. class attendance is mandatory, but all we do is watch youtube videos, rather than talking about the papers. i thought i was a decent writer, expected an A. busted my ass, put more hours into this class than any other and got a B.

Very easy going teacher, grades a little harshly. Overall attending class was fun by the way he presented the lecture through real life examples. There is three essays and a project called a Zine at the end of the quarter. The Zine just combines all three essays in a magazine form, really easy.

Jon is a cool dude. It's nice to be in a class that promotes critical thinking through examining current events. He's pretty liberal, so if you support Trump and think Muslims suck and don't want your beliefs challenged you probably should avoid him. This is definitely not an easy GE, I spent a lot of time in this class, and sadly he's the kind of professor who doesn't hand out As very often. Kind of frustrating, but what can you do.

I really liked Mr. Bartel. All of his assignments were very straightforward, so we mostly discussed politics in his class, and we learned through watching different youtube videos, the daily show, etc. I had this class in the morning, and I looked forward to it each day. I also found this class easy to get a B in, but difficult to get an A in. You could easily miss a few classes and still get a decent grade. Overall, I really enjoyed this class and I would definitely recommend it to a fellow student.

Bartel is awesome. He is a great teacher and a good guy. In class we talked about current events and real world problems pertaining to our lives. He is logical, fair, and respectful of everyone's opinions. If I could take this class every quarter I would.

I do love Bartel as a person and frankly his class is very reasonable, but I have not learned a single thing about writing. Instead we talk about politics in class, which honestly is more useful, but I feel as if we should have done more english related things. Towards the end of the quarter I only showed up to class a couple times of week to get my dose of current events. Its an interesting class with a cool guy teaching it, but if you are taking the class to learn to write I would suggest someone else. If you were taking the class as a GE, like I was, then this class will be awesome and right for you.

Jon is awesome, best English teacher I have ever had. Only 3 essays and a final project. He lets you pick what to write about so you will actually enjoy it. Definitely worth taking him.

Bartel is a very genuine teacher and guy in general. He provides students with a great assortment of informative videos, lectures about writing conventions, and general conversations that promote critical thinking. Taking his class taught me that writing essays can be an enjoyable experience and that it can really teach you a lot about yourself. He is a very inspiring teacher to learn from and a fair grader. He expects you to do the work he assigns at a high level, but provides you with all the necessary help and information you need in order to do so. I highly recommend taking this class if you need to get your 134 req. completed, or are just interesting in a relaxing writing class that helps hone your writing skills.

Overall, Jon's class isn't too hard. It consists of 3 essays, a few socratic seminars (like 2), and one final project, which is a group video of you own public service announcement. Pretty easy class if you take the time to write the essay and show up. There is no homework besides occasional article reading and of course the essays. However, do not take this class if you're more right winged. He spends about 10 minutes of the 50 minute class talking about the essay we're working on and then spends the rest of the time talking about how much he hates Trump. Yes, everyones entitled to their own opinions but it's extremely inappropriate to voice your political stand point as a teacher. He would show videos that just destroy Trump and the whole class agrees with whatever he says so you can't say anything because they would all shut you down. It's an easy class, just confused why we talked about politics more than anything else.

This guy is great. By far my favorite professor. He's coo; and hip and very understanding. He gives 3 essay assignments over the course of the quarter and lets you pick the "theme". He doesn't believe you should write about something you aren't passionate about because then you won't write well. He dedicates one class period to going over your rough drafts in office hours to tell you what he would like you to improve on. The final is a compilation of all three essays and you can even revise one of the essays for a better grade. This guy is great. 10/10 would recommend!

Bartel was an overall great guy but isn't the best when it comes to grading. His class is very entertaining and material is presented clearly but he grades very hard. Only 3 essays and a group project the whole year. He is very good with office hours so make sure to attend those and get all the help needed.

Bartel is a interesting one. He gives us 3 essays in which he never really graded hard and overall seemed kind of hard for me to write about. Also, I felt like his instructions were slightly vague, which made filling out the 4-6 pages required a little bit harder. I always contemplate skipping his class because all he does is just bash Trump and anyone who is not as liberal as he is. And when he's not wasting my time by lecturing his socialist views on me he's wasting my time by showing us stuff like the "parking lot movie"- and yes its about a parking lot and the losers who work there. Overall its not a hard class but felt like I never needed to show up to it because I don't think I really learned anything. Conservatives be ware.

Professor Bartel made class so interesting, even though I'm usually not a big fan of English. We only wrote 4 essays the entire quarter and had a few quizzes. He grades relatively hard but then again it seems like everyone at poly does. If you have the chance, take Bartel! You won't regret it!

I wasn't really a fan of this teaching style. There were 3 essays and they were all very different. He explained how to structure the first essay really well and I did great on that essay. The other 2 were poorly explained and I didn't do very good on them. Most of the classes aren't really lectures at all, it's more of a discussion on what's going on with politics- mostly things Trump has said. We read part of the Anne Lamott book for like a week and then it was irrelevant. I wouldn't recommend this course if you actually want to learn more about english and rhetoric. If you want a class where you just kind of sit there and occasionally engage in conversation and then write 3 essays and do a final project, then take this class.

Bartel is honestly the best english teacher i've ever had or expect to have. His class was the only class I actually wanted to go to. I didn't get a good grade because I didn't really do the work until the night before, but Bartel really shows you how to write a good essay. He makes you want to write which is something I don't normally want to do. I would recommend taking his class if you get the chance.

Bartel is an extremely likable guy. He really is a friendly young dude who enjoys the students and all the students loved him because he's extremely relaxed, laid back, and does his best to keep things interesting. I do feel, however, that he wasn't always too prepared for our ENGL 145 class. Granted, he kind of got thrown into this teaching position after another professor backed out, but it almost seemed that he would make things up for assignments in the middle of class without having well-developed assignments and goals beforehand. Unlike the person below me said, I do feel he has somewhat of an inconsistency in grading. He'll DEFINITELY work with the students to help each person get the best grade they can, but at times I felt like he graded with the expectation that you would rewrite the paper. Also, I just generally felt that a lot of times he would just throw a grade on the paper without much reasoning. Overall, great guy, definitely recommend the class for ENGL 145, but as a professor he still needs to work out a few kinks.

There is such a big range in the difficulty of English 145 classes and it all depends on the teacher. Bartel is right in the middle of that difficulty range. He's not super easy like a lot of the teachers, but he's not super hard either. He doesn't make you write the 10 page research paper like a lot of the teachers do. You have 3, 4-6 page papers and 3, 1-2 page papers. He grades extremely hard though. I've always been a strong writer and I never got above an 80 on an essay in his class. He lets you revise, but he usually doesn't move you up too much. He also uses a wierd grade scale. He's a cool guy, but theres definitely easier 145 teachers out there.

Bartel was a replacement for a teacher that ended up not being able to teach this quarter. He is very young and fairly inexperienced in teaching but he wasnt horrible. We had 3 essays, no tests, and did a bunch of meaningless busy work during class. Pretty easy to tell that he had no idea what he was going to do in class until about 5 minutes into class. Nice guy, funny, but not a great teacher.

Professor Bartel is super cool and although he is young and a new teacher, i thought he did a great job. Definitely take Bartel if you get the chance! the essays are not that bad, and compared to what i heard from my friends with other ENGL 145 teachers, the work load is very manageable. He isn't very clear on how he grades, but you can revise your essay if you aren't happy with the grade so it doesn't really matter. No tests or quizzes. You don't need to buy the book but if want to, it's really cheap on amazon. He makes class interesting - especially considering that English can often be a boring class. And if you aren't getting good grades on essays, GO TO HIS OFFICE HOURS! He is super helpful and will tell you what you need to do to make it better.

GREAT teacher! Grades fairly and not too much work. There's no books to read or anything, so it's a pretty simple course. A few essays and you're done. This class was great and he lets you resumbit your essays so it's hard to get worse than a B in the class.

If you are looking for an easy english teacher to satisfy one of your GE's then take this professor, but recognize that he is only employed through the university part time, therefore he couldn't care any less about his students. Sure, you could say I am simply a disgruntled student who feels they were cheated out of a grade they deserve, but man was I cheated out of a grade I deserved. I would love to go into greater detail on the topic but this post would ultimately be removed due to the all the expletives. A few essays and you are on your way to a guaranteed B with this guy, but don't expect him to do any more than the bare minimum for you.

Pretty chill dude

Jon, as he likes us to call him, is a pretty good teacher. His class is mostly busy work, and I didn't actually learn that much. It mostly consisted of applying the skills I learned in high school to some longer papers. We only two big papers with smaller ones used to keep you busy. Our final project was to make this xtranormal video on based on our research paper. His lectures almost never go the full two hours. We got to watch a lot of shows and commercials to "annalyze the rhetoric." Go to office hours to have him look over your drafts and he'll let you know what you're doing wrong.

Honestly, I don't know why Bartel gave me the grades he did because he was an awesome teacher and I always looked forward to going to class. If you see yourself getting bad grades on the essays, try going into his office hours and asking for help. He is an awesome guy, but a shitty grader. If I thought I was bad at English I wouldn't be complaining, but this guy needs a relality check.

Okay, if you're looking for an easy to pass Engl 145 teacher with barely any homework and a few essays, then take Bartel. HOWEVER, if you want an A he's not the easiest teacher to get an A. He has 3 essays and a final project (which is a video project and is super annoying; come on who has time to make a video during finals week?) Anyway, he grades really arbitrarily in my opinion and grades in a way where if you get an A- on a paper, its a 90, never anything like a 92 or 93. I got A-s on the 1st two papers and didn't think I did any worse on the final paper and then didn't think I did bad at all on the video project and somehow ended up with a flat B. Still kind of annoyed. Don't expect this class to revolutionize English for you-it's honestly as simple as a High School regular English class. Boring but it gets the job done

BEST PROFESSOR I HAVE HAD IN COLLEGE!!!! Jon is one of the coolest people I have ever met and understands that his students are in college. His discussions are fun and interesting, and his class is probably the only one I didn't dread going to. He expects a pretty well written essay but if you take the time to drop a rough draft off in his office hours he notes every single flaw so that when you fix it is an automatic A. Had him for 134 and 145 and I WISH he taught upper div because he is so great!!!

I loved this class!! Everyday we watched videos or read articles and discussed them in an interesting and engaging way. No joke, I was excited for this class everyday and even though I'm done with the class, I would still love to sit in on the discussions if I could. The only thing is his grading is a bit confusing. I followed the syllabus and instructions on projects exactly and put many many hours into them but still ended up with a B which was a bummer. I would maybe suggest bringing your papers into his office hours to see what you can improve on. Besides that, I would highly recommend Bartel!!

Bartel is a good guy at heart but this class can be pointless at times as all he does is talk about left sided politics. He grades easy if your a hot girl and if your a guy you can expect a B in the class. overall pretty light work load GE and easy B if your a guy and if your a girl by all means TAKE THIS CLASS FOR A GPA BOOST

Bartel is an excellent instructor and I believe a perfect college instructor. He teaches in a very unique way which is very different from the style I was used to from 134, but much appreciated. He would spend most of class showing clips of debates/speeches usually dealing with politics, which is much better than listening to someone ramble on and on about argumentative techniques. After showing the clips, the class would discuss what was effective or not about how the speaker was arguing. I thought it was both entertaining and effective. He also understands college students really well and talks about relevant stuff in our lives and is pretty flexible in that manner. Basically the only grades he enters are three essays and a final project which is a PSA that he grades pretty leniently. You're going to have to put in some work on the essays because he grades them pretty moderately (not too easy but not too hard).

Do not take this class is you have ANY conservative views. All my essays were graded with a liberal stand point (even though he promises he will grade fairly). Every single class felt like a liberalist lecture and there was honestly no point to going to this class four days a week because I learned nothing. This class is not hard, but do not expect an A.

Bartel was honestly probably one of the worst professors or teachers I've had... ever. The class was completely pointless, and everyone who went knows. All you did was show up to the 8am class and listen to him ramble about politics and how much Trump sucks. Granted, I do think he's a pretty smart guy, and his political tirades are pretty entertaining at times, but he honestly didn't teach anything. He had us read this book, "Being Logical" by DQ McInery, but I doubt anyone read what we were supposed to because he rarely brought it up in class other than to tell us what to read, and nothing we did at all related to any of the information in the book. All we did was turn in 3 essays (not all 3 were even complete essays, the first was more or less a rough outline), which he graded extremely leniently. If you didn't screw up on the MLA formatting and works cited, and you are a half-decent writer, you will get an A in the class easily. On the last day of class, we did a competition between the right and left sides of the classroom, involving information we covered, and we learned so little things in class, that some of the questions were literally shit like "Which actress played Kellyanne Conway on Saturday Night Live?" and "Who is the Prime Minister of Israel?" Hell, some people in my class completely forgot who the author of "Being Logical" even was when that was the question. All they had to say was "DQ," and he that's all he ever called it all quarter... This just shows that no one did anything in that class. If you want a free A, by all means, take Bartel, but if you want to learn something more than "Trump is an idiot," then I suggest taking an actually competent professor. Hell, my essays all got As in this class (the only one that didn't get 100 was because I screwed up the bibliography), but if I turned them in for my English 134 class, they would've probably been C/C+ quality at best.

I would definitely recommend Jon for students considering taking him. This was a solid current events class. I don't know about English, but this sure as hell showed me what was really going on the world out there. Jon will open your third eye and take you to levels beyond normal human understanding. All praise the one true liberal agenda.

So let me clarify... I did not get a good grade in the class, and that was my own fault entirely. As a student with several invisible disabilities, I should have been more clear with him about the help I needed. That being said, I don't find him to be a good teacher. I am far to the left of him, to be completely honest, so I'm not going to say he's "too liberal" like some of the other reviews claimed. That being said, he really lets his political views flavor his lectures (and apparently his grading too, but this is what I've heard from other people and not something I've experienced firsthand). He expects you to basically already know everything there is to know about writing, so after two lectures on logical fallacies it really just becomes either "Current Events Opinion Hour with Bartel" or "Let's Just Sit Back and Watch John Oliver". TBH I enjoy watching John Oliver, but after a while it kind of felt pointless to even get up in the morning just to watch TV at an uncomfortable desk, especially as I was going through a bad breakup and a tough bout of depression at the time (along with another, more serious issue I can't really discuss). Overall, you just don't learn anything in this class. Also, even from the eyes of a much more liberal student who has had mostly quite liberal professors, it must be acknowledged that the way he lets his opinions flavor his lectures makes the space kind of hostile for conservative students.

Jon is the best English teacher I've had. To get the nitty gritty out of the way, there are three papers all relatively short. You're not going to be writing any 10 page research papers. There is a final project which is a PSA and that's it. He's an extremely fair grader, this guy will actually give 100% on papers. Now that that is out of the way, this class is dope. You talk about politics and satire and argument analysis. He is great at leading discussion and if you participate he will respect you as an equal not as a student. He's absolutely looking for someone to challenge him on ideas and debate as a way to learn. He is a pretty liberal person and it is a GREAT way to practice your argumentative skills by challenging him or even bringing up an idea and having him play Devil's Advocate. Absolutely recommend, I know there are other great ENGL 145 teachers but I cannot recommend Jon enough.

He's good if you don't fight his political views. All he did was show us current events and watch news clips about Trump. Every. Day. I did not learn very much about English and I did not improve my writing at all. It felt like a waste of my time being there every day but it was an easy class if you keep your mouth shut!!! If it's a GE and you hate English and hate writing like me then I recommend Bartel!

Bartel is awesome and super chill. No homework other than 3 essays and 1 final video PSA project, and no quizzes or tests. Most days were spent talking about politics or watching satirical videos, which really kept me up to date on the political happenings in the country, and these discussions required minimal participation, which was nice. I could not have asked for a better ENGL 145 professor.

Bartel's class is pretty easy. You have 3 essay's to write all quarter, a 2-3 minute group video as the final (so you don't have to show up on finals week), and other than that there is basically no other work. We talk and watch videos on politics and current events in class everyday and it was fun getting to just sit back and do this. If you want to get an A in the class, I recommend going into his office hours and asking for help on your essays. I didn't put much time and effort into mine which is why I got a B in the class. Bartel is a cool guy and a professor worth having. I definitely recommend you take Bartel to fulfill your A3!

he is a super chill guy! always drinking a lacroix, and showing his views on politics, a lot of people try to give him shit for it but honestly I just felt pretty informed in what was going on around me during this quarter. I'm a decent writer, never went to an office hour, but I always participate in class and I should end up with an A in the class. It consisted of 3 essays where you pick one topic and then write about it, which is boring and he has guidelines on how to do them and that is really it. Last min he told us to do an assigned group project which was super chill 3-4 min PSA. I liked the class and would recommend.

TAKE BARTEL!!!! Easily one of the best teachers I've had at Cal Poly. Bartel is a super chill guy who makes class discussion relevant. He understands this class is a GE. Spent most of class time talking about current events and watching videos. Grade was made up of three essays and a PSA video. Bartel makes ENGL 145 more about argumentation in the real world in real life scenarios which I loved, especially for it being an English class. His English class is formatted different than any other standard English class I have taken which is nice if you hate English. Had very little, if any, at home assignments besides the essays. Wouldn't say his class is an easy A because he grades hard, but if you go to office hours and get essays revised before the due date it helps a lot.

This is a pretty easy A. I did the essays mostly the night before and got As on them. The final project was a public service announcement video done with a group and my group got 100%. I recommend taking this class, we mostly just discussed current events and watched SNL videos.

This class was easy. This class is my first A or A+ (I forgot.) Bartel is also a really funny and cool guy. To be honest, most of the time going to class is kind of useless sometimes because it doesn't affect your grade but I still went to class every day because I liked Bartel as a teacher and am interested about what he has to talk about at times. We mainly just talked about current events every day in class. Besides talking about current events, like 4 times out of the whole quarter is when he talked about how to do the assignments he gives us. I also like how he doesn't make you do force participation during class discussions, which was great for me because I usually hate speaking in front of the class. I also went to office hours every time I wrote a paper and he helped me with suggestions for my essay, which really helped with my grade a lot. We only had three essays and a PSA video at the end of our final. Easiest final ever, I think he probably gave everyone a high score as long as you met the requirements. Also, he is a liberal which is a bonus for me. I went to a protest because of the issues Cal Poly had with racism and I saw Bartel participate in it also and which I say boosted my respect for Bartel. Would highly recommend the class.

I took Bartel for ENGL 134, enjoyed it so decided to take him for 145 as well. A lot of the class is made up of class discussions regarding current events, which allowed me to be able to stay up to date on what is going on and was very interesting. There are three essays and we had a video project at the end. Personally, I put a lot of work into the essays and enjoyed writing them. This was really the only work in this class. The professor is VERY willing to help during office hours and is interesting to listen to. Highly recommend.

Bartel is a super chill dude and very clearly super smart, but all we do in class is talk about politics which kind of makes sense with what he's trying to teach us, but it gets really repetitive after awhile. The only things he puts in the gradebook are the three essays and the final project, and he is a hard grader. The final project is super easy too, and it's done in place of the final but he grades kind of hard on that. There really isn't too much winning with this class, but the problem is that all the ENGL 145 teachers are hard graders, so it's just about picking the lesser of the evils. That being said, I would still recommend taking the class with Bartel.

The class was pointless because all I learned was current events and would watch Trevor Noah to learn about the latest thing Trump did. Bartel is also kind of rude. He never showed the other side of the arguments he presented and he regularly would show up 20+ minutes late to office hours. Several times during the quarter he would walk into class and tell us it was cancelled because he forgot to plan a lesson or frankly did not want to teach. There is no standard grading scale for this professor. He grades with no real reason as to why you were docked points and sometimes based the overall grade on just the intro and one paragraph that he read. There are 3 essays all about the same topic and a final PSA project which is done in a group of 3. The first essay is you explaining your view with no evidence. The second essay is when you try to persuade the audience that the other side of the argument is correct and it is the longest one too. And the final essay is when you explain your views with evidence. The PSA is a 3-4 minute long video about a social issue.

Avoid this professor if you can. He seemed like a really cool guy at the beginning of the quarter, but it starts to go downhill after week one. He is very unclear about what he expected from students. There were three essays with no option to edit them for a better grade. If you did not write the essay in the exact format and writing style that he wanted, then you would get a failing grade. He was very opinionated and made sure that the class knew how he felt about situations. While I did agree with some of his political views, he was pretty forcefully presenting them to the class. I'm sure that other students that did not agree with him felt very uncomfortable. Anyway, don't take this class with him if you can, it's not worth your time.

Professor Bartel is my favorite professor at Cal Poly yet! He made ENGL 145 engaging, fun, and informative. Going into his class, I was fairly comfortable with my writing ability, but he pushed all of us to draft, edit, rewrite and rework our essays over and over again, which allowed me to put forth the best possible essay as a final draft. At times, the class almost felt like more of a political philosophy/current events course, which I thought was pretty cool. Bartel is easily the most eloquent professor that I've had at Cal Poly, despite his tendency to swear when he gets excited (nothing terrible, I found it rather entertaining). But who can blame him? He clearly knows his stuff, so it didn't matter to me. The workload was easily manageable and included four essays (4-6 pages each, double-spaced) based on a topic chosen at the beginning of the quarter, along with minimal reading assignments and corresponding quizzes. There is no in-class final besides turning in the fourth essay! Make sure to pick a topic that you are legitimately interested in, or you'll dread having to write every essay. It is easy to put off the essays until a few days before they are due, but I have found that it is so much better for your peace of mind and stress levels if you just grind out each essay as soon as it's assigned. In-class peer editing was super helpful for polishing up your work, as were his office hours. Each class generally consisted of a discussion of current events, going over some article or video we'd been assigned for homework, and an occasional reading quiz. Nothing too crazy, but there were points for participation. Bartel ended up canceling a few of our Friday classes so we ended up having a few extra three day weekends. (Thanks Bartel!). He makes it known that he is pretty liberal, which I don't mind at all, but I could definitely see why some of our more conservative students might not like it. He gave us Super Tuesday off, which was pretty sweet as well. I'd definitely recommend taking ENGL 145 with Bartel if you're looking for a pretty chill class to fulfill your English GE requirement. Best of luck!

Easy class, cool professor. Three essays, same topic, 4-6 pages per paper, double spaced. No points for participation, but it'll make him more willing to round up your grade at the end of the quarter. Lots of talking about currents events, felt pretty politically charged and liberal-leaning, but I guess that's just the nature of college English classes. We didn't have to do the video project everyone whines about on polyratings because of COVID, but it also meant that we missed out on the last couple weeks of class. He was always available and helpful through emails and during office hours. There were a couple of reading quizzes that were super easy. All around a good professor and an easy class, just take it.

Professor Bartel's class is a complete waist of time. It is super nice not having to pay attention during class, however I went into the class writing at C level and left the class writing at a C level. He does not teach anything useful, but he is a super cool guy. I will say he is very political, he will say he is not trying to persuade you with his views and is just being logical, but he definitely only presents the Democrat side of issues. If you are already a good writer and just want to get the class out of the way then take him, but if you need help with your writing then you won't get it from Bartel.

Taking this instructor is like being in a Twilight Zone episode. You just can