Preston, Alison  

basically this teacher is a evil bitch. Puts a fake smile on her face everyday to fool you. Deep down inside she's a depress little bitch that's why she grades hard on your essays. She's racist too, i came to class late one time and she bugs me to come sooner when some white kid slips through the door and she doesn't even mention anything. In conclusion don't take this teacher. she is EVIL!

She’s really good. I learned a lot and it wasn’t too hard. Also super nice and always willing to help

Dr. Preston is a great teacher. She gives us individual conferences which is really cool. Also she only gives us one in class essay along with three take home essays. There were some readings and an optional final.

dr. preston is a terrible teacher. she acts as though she is teaching a high school english class, reiterating subjects that should have been learned in elementary school. her curriculum is extremely easy, so if you want to have the knowledge that you can pass a high school course again, i highly recommend her (as long as you can force yourself to listen to things you already know, and do busy work out of a workbook the entire quarter).

Dr. Preston is not a suitable instructor for a college level class. She seems like she would be better off teaching the ABC\'s to elementary school kids. She is very sweet and easy to get an A in, if you have any background in the English language. However, if you are trying to actually improve your writing skills, and get your money\'s worth while here at Cal Poly, I would suggest taking ENGL 134 with another professor. There are three graded essays accompanied by a TON of busy work from her workbook.

She is fair and upfront with students, and her grading isn\'t as harsh as others. She grades knowing most are not trying to be an English major. She gives a total of four essays along with a helpful workbook and the final is an in-class essay that is then revised and rewritten on your own time and turned in the week before finals. So yes it could be considered an easy class, but i was still able to learn a lot.

Dr. Preston made for an interesting quarter. She treats the class like a middle school teacher would and many students became quickly annoyed with her. Even though her condescension is quite obnoxious, this class is easy and simple. She says she "isn't here to judge your writing style", so as long as you follow her instructions (and have good grammar!) she makes it very easy to pass. I almost failed High School writing classes and I got a B on every essay. 4 essays and a little nightly homework comprises your entire grade. Overall, I'm not sure if my writing is better, but I do feel more confident when a teacher requests an essay. i absolutely recommend Preston for an easy course to fulfill your requirements.

Most people test out of engl 134 with AP and ACT/SAT scores. If you are going to get a professor, Preston isn't THAT bad. She isn't great, but let's face it how many awesome english professors are there? All of the good ones are just lazy and don't want to grade papers so they don't assign as many of them. Preston expects you to write 3 essays over the course of 6 weeks, then an in class essay, and your final essay and final exam is a revision of this in class essay. She doesn't allow rewrites on all of her essays, but I can't blame her. She asks to to bring in your essays for peer editing. My advice. Do the essay as soon as you hear the assignment, take some time to sit on the rough essay, then edit it for gramar the night before the rough is due. Take the revised rough into class the next day, get feedback from your peers, and construct a final whenever you feel you have time. She is stingy with A's, however find me a college professor who isn't. This isn't highschool boys and girls, stop blaming your teacher for giving you a B. If you want an A, go take a teacher who doesn't care about you or your learning, and get your A. If you really want to learn and become a better writer, take Preston.

Honestly she was a very nice and kind teacher. Pretty easy work load and class overall as long as you do all your work. Don't be afraid to go into her office hours too if you have a question about something.

Preston should not be teaching college level English. Her teaching manner and workbook are more suited to a middle school level. While she claims that "Now you're in college, you don't have to write using the five paragraph essay format!" (as if we didn't ditch that format ages ago) she actually will likely make you write out of a smaller box than you're used to at this point. Her expectations for essays are very unclear, and her feedback is next to useless. Don't expect to learn much in this class.

wow, just no. There are way better teachers out there. Especially if you like to have literary freedom when you write, this is not the teacher to take. WE evaluated students writing and just no. Very monotone and never kept my attention. She grades pretty harshly too. One of my best essays I wrote got a C because she thought it was off topic even though it was a narrative??? Just no.

I personally loved Dr. Preston and had her for ENGL 134 Fall 2013. Sometimes some of her lectures were a bit unclear, but if you tried to talk to her after class or in office hours, she knew that you actually cared about the class and was quite helpful. Like she said from day one, if you tried and showed motivation, it would be possible to achieve a high grade.If you just wanted to skate by, you could do that too. Loved her!

Cancelled class for like a total of a week and a half. Kinda subjective teacher. She's nice enough I guess but hates when someone says something she disagrees with. Daily lectures feel pointless and draining. Meh. Pretty easy grader though if you know what she wants

she is so nice and caring! passing the class is not hard if you follow the instructions. she does grade relatively hard, however she makes instructions and requirements clear and will help SIGNIFICANTLY in office hours. highly recommend.

She is one of the nicest professors I've ever had at Cal Poly. She actually cares about her students. When my grandma died, she was super accommodating and helpful. She is enthusiastic about English and gets really into her lectures and tries to keep it interesting with examples relevant to Cal Poly students. Do the workbook, she checks. She's really helpful and a sweet person.

Dr. Preston is one of my least favorite teachers. She only hands out a certain number of As and Bs for each assignment and so you have no idea how you got the grade that you did. An A paper for one assignment may be a B or C paper for another, just depending on how well your classmates do. She is an extremely boring lecturer, but it doesn't matter since there are no tests. You do have to do the homework because she checks it at the end of the quarter. I liked getting to work in groups as much as we did in the class, but she rarely ever gave us anything at all helpful to do and got mad if the conversation ever got off topic. She is extremely unclear with what she expects for each assignment. She tells you to look at your workbook, or recites exactly what it says, which is extremely vague and the reason why you are asking her to elaborate in the first place. You cannot miss more than 3 of her classes else it will hurt your grade. I would not take this class unless you are sure you can write better than the majority of students in the class, and are very patient with pointless grade school like assignments

Do not take this class. Dr. Preston is a boring teacher and I dreaded going to this class every morning. She never gave me higher than a B- on my essays because she didn't like the style in which I wrote. There are much better teachers you can take. Very harsh grader.

This Professor is completely subjective. She is a complete feminist and grades completely biased. Whatever first impressions you give her, especially if you're a guy, that is your grade for the quarter. She definitely is not worthy of her credentials to teacher college students. She is just overall lacking in intellect and proper logic.

Okay, I see that a ton of people on here hate Preston, so I'll input my own 2 cents. She treats this class like an elementary school class. She treats students like a bunch of preschoolers. Really pointless homework assignments, mandatory attendance (grade gets dropped lower if you miss a certain number of classes), and really boring class material. Oh, and the advice she gives you on your essays are almost next to useless... THAT BEING SAID... She's really not that hard when it comes to grading essays. As long as you fulfill certain criteria, you can get good grades on them (good grades meaning any where above a B+). Seriously, you can even ask her to help you with your essays and she's more than willing to help. People on this site seem to complain about how hard she grades, but honestly ya'll probably write essays like third graders. Also, if you actually make an effort to be nice to her, she becomes a hell of a lot nicer too. (wow what a surprise, treat someone with respect and they'll respect you too.) Oh and whoever wrote that she's feminist and biased, stop blowing smoke up your rear end to make yourself feel better. Face the truth, you probably just suck at writing essays. And this is coming from a guy by the way. If you really can't stand being treated like a preschooler for a quarter, go find another teacher. If you want a class where you don't need to a whole lot of work for a pretty easy B or A, take this class.

Honestly this class did not take a lot of effort to get a B in. There are four 4-page essays and 4 group presentations. I got B's and C's on the essay, and I only know of one person who actually got an A on an essay in the whole class. I spent maybe 4 hours a week max doing work for this class. Best part is that there are no in-class essays or written tests (and no Final!). All of my other friends who I've talked to who have other professors for Engl 145 seem to be struggling, so I definitely reccomend Preston for the class. You just have to get used to being talked to like you are kindergarteners!

This class was the worst thing ever to have to show up to at 9 a.m. four times a week. We did pointless exercises in class and her homework every night was stupid and most of the time I would forget and have to do it at an ungodly hour at night or in the morning. She was never very clear as to what I did wrong or even well for my essays. The class consists of a practical guide she put together which has a couple pages of homework each night. Every two weeks there was an essay due (4 in total) and the final consisted on also during in a letter you had to write to someone. There was no final exam though! Just an essay and letter. There are also these stupid article groups you are put in and every time you turn in an essay you do a short informal presentation of a controversial newspaper article. No one pays attention and everyone just bullshits it the day of. Not a bad class to get a B in, but I would suggest taking someone else.

Preston is DEFINITELY not a teacher I would take again. After talking to students in other ENGL 145 classes, they actually learned something and got better grades in their classes. She grades difficulty and the class is not engaging in the least bit. DON'T TAKE.

Preston is a very nice lady, but it always seems like she is faking her smile. Her syllabus is very clear. You are graded on three essays each 20% of your grade, 5% participation, 15% Article groups, 5% Response memo, 5% abstract and annotated bibliography. You have a homework assignment everyday, but it does not take long to do. The two biggest problems many people had in her class was getting helpful feedback and that she grades on a bell curve (Only about 4 students get A/A-). I went to her office hours and asked her why she took off certain points and she gave me very vague answers and failed to point out any specific mistakes. She did not help me improve my writing at all. Many other students had similar problems. During the class we had workshops where we got to peer edit each others work, but the feedback I got was not helpful either since each student is just trying to be better than the other. My suggestion is to not take her class.

Preston is an extremely hard greater with essays and does not give back clear feedback. Would take another teacher if you can to learn.

Dr. Preston is a horrible teacher and a very hard grader. She does not give helpful feedback and is very mean if she doesn't like you. She reminds me of Umbridge from Harry Potter. I hate her and she never stops smiling but her smile looks fake and scary. DO NOT TAKE HER.

Dr. Preston is the worst teacher I have had here. Her class is an extremely weird format, there are 4 main relatively short essays and little homework most days. There are also some presentations on articles, and a two page paper on them.Super easy class with no midterms or finals. HOWEVER, even if you are a decent writer (I passed the AP writing test), she will still fail your essays no matter how hard you try. I even went to the writing center and still failed. Her office hours are of no help either. No matter how hard I, or my other classmates try, it seems impossible to do well in her class.

Her grading policies were very confusing, and she is the type of teacher to fail you without telling you exactly why. I learned absolutely nothing which was pretty disappointing. Take another teacher if you can. she's pretty scary

This woman is SATAN. I am a first year english major and have never encountered such a horrible teacher. English is my strong suit and I was very upset to find that there was no way I could possibly achieve a good grade in her class since the way she grades is unruly. I was also very displeased with Dr. Preston's lack of explanation of requirements for assignments. She is completely dismissive and discouraging. If you go to her with a question, expect to feel frustrated and even more confused than you were in the first place. I don't know how this woman even has a job teaching students.

I came into Preston's class with very low expectations based on her poly ratings but I was very pleasantly surprised by her. She is very kind and cares for all of her students. I enjoyed going to the class everyday and we always had very interesting debates. The key to do well on her essays is to choose a topic you can write a lot on. Some students chose difficult topics to write on and struggled to find enough information to write two essays and give a speech on. I highly recommend taking this class as an easy and enjoyable GE!

I really hope this teacher is fired. She comes off as a sweet lady, but in reality, she is very rude. She was very unhelpful, and grades like Satan himself. 0/10 don't take.

These people are not exaggerating...... she might be the worst teacher here at cal poly. Not only does she not care about the success of her students, it seems she gets joy from embarrassing people. She is the classic professor with absolutely no life who decides to take her anger out on her students in a really creepy "kindergarden" voice way. seriously DO NOT take her

This professor is terrible. I have never met someone who liked her or thought she was a decent teacher, and I know many who had her. In short, apart from her murderous glare, Dr. Preston implies false information at points (such as saying "don't worry about getting 10/20 on your essay, you can make it up!" No, no you can't, as that automatically drops you down to a 90% in the class as a final grade). Along those lines, her grading rubric makes no sense. Instead of the standard 0-4 or 0-5 in each category, she has three possibilities for each category: 2 (excellent), 1 (slightly less than excellent), and 0 (pretty bad). Ironically, this method falls into her list of logical fallacies, creating a "false dichotomy." Therefore, if you get the slightly-less-than-excellent (paraphrasing, but evidenced by her marking of a "1" in grammar for one grammatical mistake) marking across the board, you get a 50%, the aforementioned 10/20. She fills the class with busy work, fails to return useful feedback, and forces you to buy a textbook she wrote- which the library prints out. But you can't print it out. You buy it for $30. This is not because I got a mediocre grade, but rather because I think her teaching methods are at the very least flawed. 0/10, would not bang, rant over.

One of the worst teachers I've had at poly by far. Class was pointless to show up to, her assignments are bs and complete busy work, she can't schedule out when to make essays due stacking u up to have multiple essays and presentations in one week. On top of that she is one of the most biased graders at poly. If she likes you expect a good grade, if she's not the biggest fan of you then expect to get unfair grades no matter how well your paper is written. She can't justify what she's grding you based off of. 0/10 would not recommend whatsoever. One of the worst classes at poly was more work than Calc 1-3 for me. Avoid at all costs!!

I read the polyratings and was like oh she can't be that bad, people are dramatic. BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE. This prof is so fucking boring I can't, she treats her students like they are five years old and has this fake smile plastered on her face everyday. The workbook is a big rip off, she said it would be no more than $20, and I went to the bookstore and it was FIFTY fucking bucks for the worthless thing. Not worth taking her class, its a bunch of busy work.

She’s the absolute worst. Her quizzes and essay grading are completely unreasonable and unfair. She won’t tell you when the quizzes are and hardly anyone got As on their essays. Makes this class way harder than it should be.

Preston is super nice, soft-spoken, and very enthusiastic about the class. I enjoyed the class, she mixed up some of her lectures by doing some unique class-participation stuff. Your grade is based on two midterms and one final (plus one group presentation on one of the books you read...CR/NC). The only (minor) criticism I have for her is that if you're looking for an A, you have to be a damn good writer. Essays are hard, especially if you're someone like me that loathes to write. Read the books, come to class, you can pass this class EASY.

The best teacher I have ever had here at Poly...and i am not just saying that...I am a student who has to work hard at almost any class even if its Bowling 101 and Dr. Preaston was a greeaaat teacher!!! She knows how to present things very well althought you basically have to read 2 books a week....We talked baout the whol ethings to death...so u basically dont ven have to read and go over the class disscusions!!!!!!!!! Take her for ENGL is easy BUT very Fun and educating

Her class could be so much better. I can tell that she is a very intelligent person, but I didnt like they way she presented her material. Every day she comes to class expecting everyone to discuss something from the book when half the ppl in the class havent even read that far. For example it was the 4th day of having read the book and she wanted to do a discussion iabout the first two thirds of the book.....we had 2 more weeks to read the book....? And dont you dare nod your head to agree with someone, she'll call on you! She puts ppl on the spot all the time. And she is a really hard hard grader on her essays. If you take preston make sure to ask her what she wants specifially on your essay answers.

She's easy, but shes also REALLY annoying.. like the type of person you just wanna hate but cant bc she gives you no reason to do so. You dont need to go to lecture, all she grades you on is the midterms and final.. but you can kiss ass in lecture by participating. otherwise, just read the cliff notes and show up for the tests and you'll pass

The lectures are pretty repetitive, which makes staying awake a difficult task in this class. The books were good, but I didn't like how we had to purchase a $12 T.S. Elliot book when we only needed to read 5 pages from it.

I would say that Preston is a decent teacher. The class reminds me of a painfully boring high school english class. You barely have to read the books (HELLOOOOOOO sparknotes)because the tests are pretty easy if you go to most of the classes. Definitely kiss up by participating. She loves it... just make up BS and she'll nod her head at you. Going to class sucks... but if you do, you'll do a lot better on the tests than those who didn't. Listen to HER opinion... it helps on the test. :)

Dr. Preston is a very smart woman who knows her material. She expects you to show up for class and participate. In our class if you missed 4 or more classes she started to deduct from your final grade. She presents the material very clearly, and to be honest I didn't read half the books and just read spark notes. I just went to class everyday and listened to her opinion. Know her opinion and why and be able to write a good essay on it for her midterms and final. There were 4 midterms, but they weren't so bad. If you write well this class will be a breeze. I don't consider myself a good writer but I was good at repeating her opinion in a fancy manner. She also likes it if you participate in class, there were many periods of awkward silence when she asked a question and no one had read that far. She isn't very approachable if you have questions, I tried to ask her why I got a certain grade and she just stared at me. There is also one group project for a book that you get to pick, its pretty easy, just a short essay and a presentation. She can be an easy A if you pay attention, and there isn't a lot of reading. Her final was the hardest test, know QUOTES! Overall, pretty good teacher.

Professor Preston knows what she's talking about, but she should really be a middle school teacher. She speaks to you like you're a twelve year old and has group activities that make no sense because you never know what point of the book you're supposed to have read to. This is not to say that I did not learn anything, I have a new appreciation for the romantic period of literature after this class. Last note though: if you don't want to say anything in class, do not show any emotion! If you so much as smirk, she will ask you what is so funny and want you to elaborate on some sort of humorous part in the book.

Study Time and Performance on Exams are inversely related. This teacher is a cunt, don't let her pleasantness fool you.

the tests given in this class were not congruent to what was discussed during lecture and the essays were always graded really strictly and the essay prompts were random and weird, not similar to what we talked about in class or the extra information she presented. there is a group presentation and for the individual essay you have to write an analytical essay even though she never says that, you will get docked major points if you don't provide analysis. overall preston was not a good teacher, i actually read the books and participated in her class discussions yet still did poorly on the midterms, so i don't recommend taking this class. its unsatisfying to not do well in this type of course

Don't expect to get an A in this class. I'm a good writer and have always gotten As in my English classes at Cal Poly. But in this class, she gave me a B on everything (the tests and the group project). And the thing that bothered me the most is that she doesn't write on your paper why you got the grade you did. She only writes "very true" and "good." No constructive criticism. A lot of busy work, too, with reading the books. However, I did like the majority of the books we read. Don't take this class if you want an easy A. I'm pretty sure she gives all her students Bs or lower (I'm betting she only gives one or two As). But it wasn't a terrible class because the books were interesting. However, I don't think she is a very good teacher.

Preston will treat you as if you're in kindergarden, simple as that. If you can stand it you'll do fine. The books you read are pretty good and she does a decent job explaining the topics that are within each novel. Most of the class is discussion of if you have a good class it makes it a lot more fun. Her tests are kinda difficult because she expects you to know stuff that you didn't even talk about. But you can definitely get an A if you read the novels and pay attention in class.

I highly recommend Prof Preston, honestly one of the nicest, sweetest teachers I have had here at poly.

Dr. Preston is one of the most unqualified professors I've had the displeasure of encountering at Cal Poly. I was eager for this course to begin, due to my love of literature, and remained optimistic despite the horrendous Polyratings. I however, learned the hard way, and realized that everything the prior students said was indeed true. First of all, she barely scratched the surface on the books. This course could have been much better had we not rushed through 7 pieces of work. With that being said, we were expected to read a shit ton and then we barely discussed the work in class, but were then expected to know minuscule details for the pop quizzes that were difficult. If you plan on getting by with Sparknotes, this course is not for you. Also, she shuts down other students interpretations of the works. It was rude and unprofessional to completely disagree with students own interpretations of the poems, which made a very uncomfortable atmosphere for discussion. Some people are meant to be professors, unfortunately Dr. Preston is not one of these. She would be much better suited for elementary school, as her lectures are boring, basic, and extremely surface level. For a GE this required too much work. I've never received lower than a B for a GE, and have not received anything less than an A for all of my ENG courses(lower and upper) at Cal Poly.

Dr. Preston was a great professor! If you put effort into the class and into the readings you should do well in her class. Although we did not go too in depth into the books, it is still possible to have an understanding of the material if you take notes and ask her questions. She's very approachable and gives good background and insight into the novels, and leaves it up to you to develop your interpretation of the books.

This class is a trap! The other ratings are old and inaccurate. Don't let the comments about her kindness fool you. She is a super nice person who really knows her stuff, but the course material is unfair. For each of the books there is at least 1 quiz. The first quiz is easy...but it only goes downhill from there. The quizzes are used to test if you read the books, which is fair....but i read all the books and failed many of the quizzes. THE MIDTERM AND FINAL SUCK AND ARE UNFAIR. The midterm consisted of 40 multiple choice and 1 essay question...by the time she quit talking we had only 40-45 minutes to take the midterm...she recommended to us to spend 15 minutes on the multiple choice and the rest on the essay. The essay part was fair and covered the literary themes discussed in class. The multiple choice has nothing to do with the themes and ideas of the book because that would be too easy. Both the final and midterm multiple choice sections quizzed you on the smallest details in the books. An ex. question would be like identifying and knowing the spelling of these weird African words you cannot pronounce from Things Fall Apart. Another fun and common question would consist of a quote out of one of the poems or books with a blank space for a missing word. The words were usually insignificant and not memorable. ex. "The yellow fog that ____ its back upon the window-panes" -Prufrock a.puts b.rubs c.brushes d.scratches e.has . If you read all the books right before the test you might do well, but trying to remember a word from a poem you read while half asleep over a month ago is nearly impossible. If you have a good memory and can remember every word of every book then you'll do fine in the class. If the multiple choice sections and quizzes actually discussed what the course is actually about, literary themes of the books and literature periods, then it would have been an easy A or B.

I was scared shitless going into her class after reading all of the reviews here, but Preston didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought. She comes to class with a smile on her face everyday, and I thought this was for sure just a front after reading how she puts on a smile but is plotting ways to fuck you over, this was not the case. She genuinely enjoys teaching the material and it's easy to tell that she is passionate about what she teaches. I thought she graded the midterm and final extremely leniently given I BS'd the essays on both. If you can come up with a somewhat logical explanation to whatever it is you are writing about, she will give you the points. I'd say half of her class was comprised of giving lectures and the other half was the students giving input on the reading. Overall, not as bad as I thought and I'm happy to take the B even though I half-assed all the reading.

I thought I wanted to be an English major before this class and before coming to Cal Poly. Now I know if I did I would hate my life because that's how Preston will make you feel about English.

Not a good teacher. Avoid her

Dr. Preston is nice, teaches the class well, and gives fair tests. Easy A for an English major or non English major... one of the nicest parts was that she didn't assign a paper.

I don't know what the first two evaluators were smoking but it had to be some good stuff. This lady could not carry the class. There were extremely long periods of silence followed by ridiculous questions. This is quite possibly the worst english class I have ever taken (and I have taken some bad ones).

Dr. Preston is a wonderful, intelligent professor who made this class interesting and enjoyable. When I saw how big these 6 books were that we had to read in just 10 weeks, I was scared, but I committed myself to reading all of them and I LOVED every book. I received a "C" due to quite a few lecture absences due to work and illness, so I missed out on some notes that cost me points on the midterms. However I still loved the class and highly recommend it to everyone!

I love English (it's my minor), and there have been plenty of great novels written in the last century, but this woman can make you hate literature. She is the most uninspiring teacher I've ever had, at least in the English department. She encourages no class discussion and no broadening of your mind. Every novel we read was about death and chaos and society's destruction of itself. This is the only English course I've ever taken that I haven't adored and gotten an A in. To do well in this class, participate (for no other reason than so she likes you), write down everything she says in class (including the pg#s of passages she reads, b/c that's where some short answer test questions come from), and give specific examples in your test essays. Take Hill or Cushing for 350, or take another engl class if Preston is the only choice.

Most hated general ed I have ever taken. The tests have nothing to do with the reading other than some theme such as war, death, sadness, etc, that she expects you to bs into an essay. If your a good writer, the class will be easy, if not, you probably will struggle and there is not much you can do about it since her tests are random and you can't prepare for them. If you take her, honestly DO NOT waste your time reading, sparknotes will be more than enough for how much you need to know about the books. I read the first two books and got a D on my test. The second two I read not a damn page and got a B. I probably would have got a B in the class if I studied for the final so its possible. Sidenote -- She gives a midterm on dead week right before the final so if your in a hard major that has projects or other things due it is a pain. She does not help with the GWR either- She just hands it to you on the first and last day of class with zero preparation, so don't take a crappy class to do the GWR, just sign up for a better class and take it on your own time.

Dr. Preston is an ineffective teacher. I usually love English, but class was excruciatingly boring. I came to class prepared for discussion, but instead Dr. Preston would give a Spark Notes summary of the reading, managing to sap all enjoyment from it. I could not tell if she only understood the material on the shallowest of levels, or if she thought we were too dumb to have an intelligent discussion. When someone would have a thoughtful comment or idea, she just smiled and nodded but never responded with anything meaningful. This would have been bearable, however, if her tests weren't so unfair. For the first test, I read the book carefully and took notes on it, and I received a D on my essay test. The next test, I skimmed the book and read the spark notes, and I got an A. There was absolutely no correlation between the amount of work you put in and the grade you receive. Also, she seems incapable of explaining her grading methods or how one can improve their writing. I probably would have done better in the class if I had just read spark notes and repeated everything she said from lecture. I know some people like this kind of lazy teaching style, but if you like to be stimulated by your classes in any way, I would not recommend this teacher.