Cary Plotkin

The only way people stayed awake in this class was if they were actually taking notes... like me. But soon taking notes turned into doodling or checking email. Unfortunately Plotkin is a very boring lecturer, though his choice of authors is stellar. He is clearly very knowledgeable and does not assign a lot of readings. I went to his office hours once to discuss a final paper topic, and he was much more engaging there. Overall, this is an easy class, but a very boring class. If you want any kind of engagement in lecture then this is NOT the class for you. On the other hand, if you just need a literature class to fulfill a req and you really don't care, then go ahead and take this class. Don't bother buying the books, most of it can be found online or in the library. seriously, i spent over 100$ on books for this class and later realized all the poems and novels could easily be obtained online. it was a dumb freshman mistake.

I'm not sure how Professor Plotkin managed to make a course with Donne, Shakespeare, and Rabelais on the syllabus so miserable, but he did. Any good points the class might have had were elided or forcibly shut down so that Plotkin could reinforce a thuddingly weak one that he made in a facile reading. He was more prepared to complain about feminism or misspell Latin on the board than provide more than an illusion of preparation on the material, which, given the stupendous amount of reading every week, seemed to be the only thing in common for both Plotkin and the class. It's an easy but hardly painless ticket out of one half of the colloquium, only advisable if you're willing to repress regular eyerolling in order to stay awake.

I've heard and have many mixed feelings about Professor Plotkin. These reviews scared the Dickens out of me. Yet I found his class quite enjoyable. When you present a point, he backs you up and grows on it, making it a nice seminar. I hardly got bored in the class (perhaps because I am a big classic literature nerd and participated the most in his class). He is very knowledgeable and knows a lot about language the the subject matter which he teaches. That being said, he is a bit of a harsh grader, and you also don't really know how you are graded in the class. He says that he evaluates how much you have improved, though I didn't improve much. He gave us six different categories on each of our papers and graded each category (paragraph design, diction, syntax, etc). I received mostly Bs (some minuses, some pluses) and got a B+ in his class. I talked to a lot of my classmates and found that he also gives A-s but didn't hear about anyone getting a solid A. When I went in to meet him about my papers, he gave the advise of not using the plot but the idea to construct the paper. I tried and tried to do this, but never got the hang of what he was trying to say. He is very particular about what he wants (I haven't even mentioned the fact that he expects the typical five paragraph essay, which I haven't done since the beginning of high school, along with a thesis paragraph and foreshad…

Prof. Plotkin is probably a very intelligent and knowledgeable fellow, but none of that came out in this class. Instead, the students who could have benefited from some writing instruction were too busy sleeping, watching the clock, or doing other homework (Plotkin didn't appear to notice) to listen, and the students who could already write didn't need to be lectured on how to build a five-paragraph essay. The reading list was great (if you like classical lit), but Plotkin spent most discussion time talking about his own opinions and calling on the people who usually agreed with him, which meant that a) discussions sucked, and b) reading was basically optional. I will say that he gave a very interesting 10-minute lecture on Greek roots, and seems like a kind person, but those are the only positive things I remember about the class. And I feel like he managed to bring up fertility symbols every other class period (interesting, given it's a Barnard freshman seminar...)

To sum it up, this man is a turd. While most first year english professors were out giving many assignments that included an 8-10 pages research paper with a manditory 8-10 sources (this is the first year english requirement), Plotkin gave 3 essays (only one of which was actually based on a text read in class), and the research paper was a maximum of 8 pages, with 3 sources being "more than necessary". Needless to say, I still have no idea how to write a research paper. Not only, in my opinion, did Plotkin shirk the responsibilites of a first year english professor, he managed to make students cry during individual meetings. Perhaps one of the most arrogant people I've ever come across. Take first year english with someone else.

Boring. You have a sense that he's thinking of something really amusing sometimes but he doesn't end up saying it. There might have been about 3/4 wonderful insights thruout the semester - but no more, and not enough to take the entire course. probably just not a good lecturer - and maybe it was my problem too for not understanding his accent or his illegible handwriting. He is kind of nice though answering questions but the lectures were too mild to provoke us into thinking. He likes to refer to the texts a lot.

Terribly boring, and the course becomes an opportunity for him to brag about his knowledge of German, Greek, and Latin. It seems he plans his lectures around the words which he can break down into their Latin and Greek origins. The class is a straight lecture, with few chances for students to raise their hands and participate. 90% of the time he is hunched over his notes as he stands at the podium, and reads lines of the poem as he comments on them, rarely looking up at the class. The other 10% he takes notes on the board in a very unorganized manner, generally just writing down random words, names, or dates as we come across them. Many of the words he writes he will break up and ask the class if we know what they mean in Latin or Greek (which no one ever knows), and then he goes on to explain. He is an unnecessarily tough grader. His comments on your paper come off condescending and arrogant, as if to say, 'I have studied literature my whole life, and there is no way you will be able to produce a work of quality being only an undergrad.' I wouldn't take the course again, and I had a very negative experience.

Professor Plotkin's class is perhaps the worst I have taken at Columbia or Barnard in my three years here. As a major I am required to take this colloquium, and to be fair, the Enlightenment has never been my favorite literary area. However, I have taken enough survey literature courses to know that a good professor can make any book interesting if he/she is interested in and knowledgeable about the material, and is engaging in discussion. Professor Plotkin meets none of these criteria. I don't believe he wants to be teaching the class or is at all interested in the readings; it often seems that he hasn't even done the reading himself. He'll make a point, and it will be so blatantly false that someone in the class will correct him and point out a clear example of the contrary. He will respond by blushing and brushing off his mistake. He is not at all engaging in discussion; he'll occasionally ask questions, but the way in which he lectures during colloquium is unbearably boring. Never have two hours a week seemed so long. Finally, he is a completely arbitrary grader. I once approached him about a response paper that I did not feel deserved the middling mark that it received. I discovered that many of the questions he had about my response were a result of his failure to spend any time reading the paper carefully; he misread sentences that were clearly written because he breeze…

Fair. Five "papers" (two real ones, two rough drafts, and an optional re-write or new essay). Participation in class encouraged (though I'm not sure if it is amounted in his grading process), but you don't have to go overboard.

This class only had 3 paper assignments however, he is a very harsh grader. the class is torture to sit through! Everyone is watching the clock and waiting for it to end.