Smith, Erin Marin  

The fact that Marin is a harsh grader is needless to say. And the final essay set requires A LOT OF WORK.( I remember spent average of four hours everyday for five days to finish the essay set) However, these proof that she is a good instructor. She gives assignments that are really helpful for English writing and everyday situation. I enjoyed it when I was exploring different types of writing (and English is not my first language). She is insightful and her critiques are always on point. Though, her lecture will be a bit boring sometimes (just a little bit). Here are some advice for who are going to take her class: 1. Go to office hour 2. Choose a topic that you are really interested in for the persuasive essay. ( The final essay set is all about that! That is 50% of the grade) 3. Try your best :)

Lots of work, boring classes, tough grader

She was very understanding and worked very hard to introduce us to writing in college. Pretty hard grader though. Put in work and you will get a B. I would suggest you to take this teacher to have a lot of fun in class. She is funny and a lot of fun to learn from. Sadly, the tough grading is the only bad part. Advice if you are taking her: 1. Get in the habit of doing assignments when they are assigned, not when they are due. 2. 4 Sequence Papers= 84% + 10 SWA= 16%. The 4'th sequence paper is the final. Books: Fresh Voices, CoursePack(uploaded by her, to be printed and brought to class.)

Marin herself is a nice, professional teacher, but grading wise, she's very difficult. When it comes to lectures, they're rather dull; but the information is useful even though we've all learned these basic english tools in high school. Marin tends to grade essays very harshly compared to every other 134 teacher. Although kind, she's a savage with grades no matter how much she likes you.

Do not be fooled by those who talk down on Marin, she is a great teacher. I learned more from her class than I did in any of my others. The catch with this class is that she is an extremely tough grader but she leaves in depth and helpful feedback on every assignment. You are going to need spend a lot of time writing your essay rather than just turning in a second draft. She starts off really tough and eases up on the final. I strongly recommend Marin and she helped my writing skills immensely.

Marin has such a friendly and welcoming personality, that you would never expect her to grade everything so harshly. The only reason I got an A- in the class was because she came in clutch with easy extra credit opportunities on the final. Although she is a very tough grader, it is possible to do well in her class by putting in extra work like essay corrections and extra credit opportunities.

Really sweet lady, but her final is a bitch!!!

I though Professor Smith was super helpful. Yes, she's a hard grader but she lets you resubmit your essays after you revise them! She's given such good feedback on assignments and really helped me with my writing. Overall, if you put in the effort for this class you should be successful.

Marin is a harsh grader, but you'll learn a lot. Her feedback on essays is really good and clear, and she's super helpful answering questions. She also doesn't do a lot of extra work like some of the other 134 classes, which is nice, but also makes the vast majority of your grade on the essays. Unless you're an absolutely amazing writer, if you want an A take a different professor.

DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS!!! That's really all you need to know. But if you want to hear me rant about why go ahead. After receiving a lower grade than expected on the first of four sequence papers, I poured hours into the next couple assignments. I went to the writing center numerous times and had friends read over my essays until every sentence flowed just the way I wanted it to and every paragraph was focused and could be linked back to the conclusion. After being told I had I had written an A/A- paper by a writing center tutor I turned in my essay to receive a C-. Needless to say I was not happy. But hey. Maybe it was a fluke. For the next research paper I prepared early. After a quick 20-25 hours of research and a trip to office hours to discuss ideas, I wrote up a brilliant work that blew away my dorm mates. To finish things up I had my mom, a former writer for Time magazine, edit it. B-. From that point onward I held nothing but apathy for the class. Thank god lecture was cancelled 5 times in the next 4 weeks. The night before the final was due I copied and pasted the best parts of my sequence III paper into my sequence IV doc and for the creative portion threw together some basic English and made it look pretty. Very few _____s were given. I turned it in thinking I would get a D or at best a C. Then, the next morning I checked my grade. A?! WTH?! How could that BS get an A. Just give it the ______ing D that it deserves so I can retake the class and get an easy A with another professor.

The absolute worst. Lectures were no help and always cancelled to the point when we would only meet once per week. And trust me, do not waste time looking for other people or the rhetoric center to read or help you with your essay because no matter what, she will give you a low grade. Basically, this class was a waste of time, energy, and effort. If you were blocked into this class, I am deeply sorry.

Honestly, don't listen to the response above. If you're not a great writer, you obviously won't get a good grade for your essays. I read some essays and they were wack. I personally think she is a good introduction to college English, and you can't expect an easy English teacher. I somewhat bombed my first essay, but talked to her and got high A's on my last two. Just work hard and use her feedback. Easy A.

Incredibly harsh grader, boring lectures, doesn't follow her own grading rubric.

This teacher is so sweet. At the beginning she is a harsh grader, but once you figure out what she wants it becomes much easier. She cancelled class a lot which was honestly super nice considering it isn't really needed in a class where you only have to write essays.

Marin was a great teacher. She was very clear with instructions and super helpful always being very approachable in office hours, class, and emails. She was super chill and cracked jokes sometimes and was overall a great lady. We often got out early and she would often give a lot of feedback on projects which was very helpful. I highly recommend her as a teacher.

I was afraid to take Marin at first because of her reviews but I ended up loving her. She is an amazing teacher who really recognizes students needs and is really clear about what she wants. That being said she is a hard grader, hard but fair. How she grades makes sense and if you go to her office hours to talk about the grade you received, she explains the grade she gave you and gives great feedback. Her homework is reasonable and she only assigns a couple reading even now and then. The main assignment is the 7-10 page paper and if you pick a topic that truly interests you then this will be a really fun class. If you put in the effort for her class it will definitely pay off. She's also super interesting to talk to and very open!