Schiller, Mary  

She's a GOOD writer and a GREAT teacher. She grades REALLY hard in comparison with other Eng. 114 teachers, but you'll be damn glad that you had her. Trust me, take her if you can ... she'll MAKE you be a better writer ... which'll help you in future classes.

Mary's great. Take her if you can. Don't listen to any bad reviews other students gave of her. Her emailing of assignments is a pain in the ass but you get over it quickly, if not, then tough luck. Her class is cake if you do every requirement. Just go through the assignment, word for word, and make sure you hit every topic and you got yourself an A. She really just grades on if you meet the requirements, not how well you do. I suggest her to one and all.

Mary Schiller is the professor to take for this course. If there's one thing any professional needs to know about in the real world, it's how to communicate with others through writing. That is exactly what this class is about. At the beginning of the quarter you form groups of three to present about 3 chapters(once every two weeks) to the class. Every single class consisted of talking with your fellow classmates about different writing techniques, writing styles, and types of writing. Mary kinda leads the discussions if they become dull. I ACTUALLY ENJOYED going to class because not only does the hour go by quickly, but the topics we'd discuss during class were actually interesting. About 50% of your grade depends on a 15 page research paper about your major. So far, that project has been the best I've done in college. She has the students go into a workplace, and evaluate and interview people having to do with your career choice. If you follow her design requirements for the research paper, take the online weekly quizzes(which takes about 2 seconds because the answers are posted on there), write the two-one page midterm papers, present your chapters to the class, and show up everyday(because she does take attendance), this class will be a cakewalk for you.

Mary is one of the most understanding, sweet professors I've had at Cal Poly. She always checks in with her students to see how they're doing on the projects and gives pleanty of time in class for questions and peer revisions of papers. This class is not hard. To do well you just need to make sure to follow all the quidlines of each paper and answere any questions assignment poses. Mary is very available during her office hours and is helpful in guiding you to the right sources for research related papers. I recommend this class, especially as an alternative to SCOM 145!

Professor Schiller was pretty laid back. You only had to write about 5 papers the entire quarter, one of which was a group assignment and the other was your final, so dont worry about studying for a final in her class. She also gave a quickly quiz to make sure you were still coming to her class. Her quiz were all open book and done in groups, so they were really easy points. She also let us go home early on alot of days, and often didnt have us come to class, so we could work on her assignments. However, dont look for a easy A in this class, her grading can be relatively difficult for most cases, usually only having an average of 80%. Also this is a professional writing class, so get use to writing nothing but memos and straight forward documents, she doesnt like very elaborative writing. Even so her tough grading on papers averages out with quizzes, so its all good.

She's a nice lady. Gives 1000 points in the whole year. She grades really easy and teaches well to start but by the end of the quarter, things take a dive. Things are boring, reptetive and she doesnt do all that much.

She's a really nice person and really cares about her students, however she does expect a lot and isn't afraid to give people bad grades. The material isn't really that hard so she doesn't spend a whole lot of time lecturing. I'd say at least 1/2 of the class time was spend discussing current issues, taking 10 min water breaks (I had a 2hr lecture), or just BSing about something. Her assignments weren't hard but she expects you to follow the books model and put a lot of effort into it. I didn't so I got a C. I'd take her again if I could. Good overall experience.

Your grade is based mainly around a handful of out of class projects, a few online assignments, and a couple of tests in class. The out of class stuff is worth the majority of your grade so you really have to keep up with it and spend the time to get it done right. Schiller also makes heavy use of email and the Blackboard website--if you don't follow both closely, you'll find out about assignments the day they are due. She openly criticizes the course, mainly because the College of Engineering designed it poorly. So the focus is not on the material, most of which is pretty obvious, but the assignments. If you can spend the time to do the assignments and do them right, you'll be fine. If not...

Prof. Schiller seems is a bit arrogant about how she runs the class. When she asked how the class could be improved, the students gave her an honest answer which she seemed to take personally. When asked to clarify the instructions on an assignment she said that she thought they were clear enough and didn't see a problem. I really didn't learn anything substantial in her class and if I could again I waould have taken someone else.

She assigns projects and doesn't really explain what she wants the final project to look like. If you really want to know, then see her in her office hour and over emails. If you get a first draft back and it doesn't have a lot of red marks on it, then that doesn't necessarily mean that she won't find twice that amount on the second or third time she looks at the same paper. She even marks you down for things that she told you to change and you did exactally what (you thought) she asked. Grades in that class are predetermined....you'll start getting the exact same grade on each thing that you turn in. She has her teachers pets....if you want an 'A' you know what you have to do

The key to this calss is talking to the professor a lot and checking blackboard. The first assignments I recieved bad grades on until I challenged her authority and ever since that all she gave me was A's and my papers did not improve in any way as far as I was concerned. The fact was that she just took the time to read them instead of look over them and scan them quickly. This professor lacks in teaching and expects a lot. Try to take someone else.

This teacher did not know how to run a class. Most of the time we would do a little work in the book in class which had nothing to do with our grade. Our grade was based on projects which she did not explain. plus, this teacher will not look at your papers unless you challenge her authority as teaching. Plus she can get emotional and cry sometimes

Great teacher:)

Mary is awesome. Stay on top of stuff, you will do great. Follow her syllabus and you will get a great grade.

Mary started out the class making it sound interesting. This quickly nose-dived as she spends most of the class teaching about memos and the "paramedic method." She only valuable assignment is the final project which is a good experience if you put the time and effort into it. She tells you that she takes into consideration improvement when calculating a final grade, but she doesn't. If you you get a bad grade on the first assignment bring it to her attention as soon as she'll let you. Every little point counts. This class should have been an A.

She is a good instructor, but kinda boring at the same time. At the beginning of quater, she will grade very hard on your paper, but very easy toward the end. Quiz is easiest 100 points that you will ever earn. All you have to do is come to class. 70% of her assignments and mid-term are based on memo. The assignments have to be short and concise. If you can do that then you will get a decent grade. The group is 400 out of 1000 points. Basically, your group will have to write a proposal to solve a problem (it can be any kind of problem). This doesn't mean your group have to come up with a new idea of a product to solve this problem. If your group choose wisely about the proposal, then you will get a good grade without put too much time into it.

Tough grader for sure

This teacher hasn't taught at Cal Poly for years--why are her evaluations here?