ENGL BC3103

very light reading, a short paper every week or so, and a longer research paper as a final.

Three personal essays are each completed through multiple drafts. Generally, there is "one" writing assignment each week that is really several sub-assignments. These often take the form of asking you to engage with the weekly readings by responding, in writing, to questions about the readings—things like comparisons between how the writers think about the theme you’re currently exploring. As you move towards drafting, your weekly assignments will be more like "pre-drafting” writing exercises designed to guide you through the process of writing your essay.

Four papers, two of which you will workshop. For workshops, you read every paper by your class and provide commentary - Shelly will encourage you by example to write really extensive feedback, which is exhausting, but also incredibly helpful. Objectively, I think this class was probably a lot of work, but it didn't feel like it when I was writing. Shelly assigns two short essays (about 30 minutes to read) per class. On the non-writing weeks, the work is pretty light.

reasonable, a few papers, weekly reading

3-4 page papers every other week and corrections, weekly readings (not much, an hour tops). The paper topics are so flexible, you can pretty much write about whatever you want. Really fair grader, cares alot about improvement

To be honest, I am really surprised that Runsdorf has so many positive reviews. Yes, he is an incredibly nice man and helpful dean. Yes, you read The New Yorker i. And yes, he allows you to revise everything so it's an easy A. That said, I wouldn't take the class again if I had the choice. I thought it was painfully boring, and I wasn't the only one. Though I enjoyed reading the TNY articles, I didn't think I learned much in the class in general. If you are a non-native speaker or really struggling with writing, you might enjoy the course; otherwise, I would look elsewhere if you want to learn about writing and improve your own. As a relatively strong writer, I found that Runsdorf didn't particularly help me with my writing; also, class time was boring, and though it was a small class he didn't really creative an environment open to class discussion. All in all, I didn't particularly enjoy the experience or get much from it. That said, he's nice and knowledgeable, and if he ever teaches a lecture, do that...but I would take this particular course with another prof (try Ellsberg or Wendy S.)

Professor Schor-Haim is at once serious and vulnerable, warm and professional. She was deeply moved by our essays, and openly displayed this fact. Her course really developed my writing skills, but it also developed my own respect for myself and my experience—as a writer, as a woman, as a person, in all my complexities and imperfections. Seeing Professor Schor-Haim take my work and ideas so seriously was a really profound experience for me, and I came away from her class taking my own work more seriously because of her. The Art of The Essay is best described as a seminar on personal essaywriting and personal essays. It is dynamic, engaging students in a dialogue with other writers—but also with themselves, their own experiences, their own writing.

This class used to be called Essay Writing - I believe it's now called The Art of the Essay. The singular best course I've taken the Columbia system. Shelly will not only teach you how to write better papers, but also how to consider your emotions and daily life occurrences in creative ways. I learned to write in ways I have never even considered before: one such technique, which she informally calls "juggling balls," works by carrying a metaphor from one anecdote to another and using the two to develop a common theme. She'll teach you these writing methods through example though - no lecturing on a blackboard. All techniques and stylistic methods that Shelly teaches she'll teach by pointing out specific usages in an the example reading, and then working with you to use them in your own writing. Take a look at Jo Ann Beard's "The Fourth State of Matter" via Google. She teaches you to write like that. The course is seminar style, with approximately 15 students. You'll get to know your classmates (and Shelly) incredibly well due to the personal nature of the essays, and you'll become really close friends who help each other improve. Class meets once a week, which is a pity, because I wouldn't have minded if it met more often. Disclaimer: I'm a biochemistry major, and have no extensive background in writing. I still loved this class more than anything else - it's simply that amaz…

Very nice lady. Gives you time during class to write reflections (not to be handed in). Generally gives constructive criticism about your writing. The only thing I was disappointed in was that she didn't cover everything she handed out. She gave out a packet with writers, including Langston Hughes, but never went over it. (Don't have your cell phone go off in class.) Overall, a good class and you read interesting stuff.

I really loved Professor Schneider's class. He gives really good, clear feedback on essays, and the assignments are really flexible- he just wants you to improve your writing. For one of the assignments, all he said was "compare two things." You really get to make it your own. He is so EARNEST, seriously that's the only word I can think of to describe him. I also never write on Culpa, but I wanted to because I feel like the other two reviews are really misleading. All the reading is interesting. We don't read books, just short stories and excerpts. Anyways, I love the class and I think he's a great teacher. But the reviews are right when they say the best part is the feedback on essays. I highly recommend him for essay writing.