Jeffrey Wayno

3 essays first semester (close reading of given texts), 2 essays second semester (he changed the format to be creative--you choose your own prompt about two texts), 2 leniently graded and easy short writing assignments (I chose to do a film review and analysis of an object from the Cloisters), study guide on one of the texts (pretty easy A), lead one ~15 minute discussion (not really graded and super easy--a lot of people chose to do a game based on the reading like jeopardy or a blooket)

Three essays compared to two for most Lit Hum classes but no midterm :)

Compared to other professors for lit hum, his class is definitely not the easiest, especially with his essay grading. That being said, he gives plenty of other assignments that balance the grade out, so even if essays aren't an easy A, you'll be fine as long as you put some effort in. He's genuinely such a kind professor and you can tell that he truly cares about his students. We have snack time halfway through the class--as long as someone volunteers to bring a snack in. He is also great at facilitating discussion and makes the readings really interesting. I know some people have mixed reviews on him about the essays, but if you go to his office hours you can tell that he really cares about helping you improve your writing. Participation is also a large portion of your grade, so you'll be fine in the end. He also brings cookies for us to eat during the finals.

I have a lot of thoughts on Jeffrey Wayno. Like the other reviews have said, he is a kind, warm, and caring person that only wants the best for every single one of his students. That being said, his grading on essays made me want to fucking kill him and then myself in quick succession. Even after going to OHs and everything, he still ripped my first 2 essays to shreds and gave me some insanely low grades in the nicest way possible. He specifically made it so the first paper we wrote (out of 3) wouldn't count for our final grade if it didn't help us, which it absolutely did not for me. I love this man but sometimes it feels like he just vehemently hates every single word we write. That being said, he is so insanely lovely and his classes/discussions are a joy. I don't really know if I'd recommend him or not, but I know I would not if you're absolutely dead-set on getting A's on every single assignment. In conclusion, I still adore him but if you hate him I also completely agree and sympathize with you.

No midterm or reading quizzes. 3 papers per semester. You have to lead discussion once (easy), and one study guide (leniently graded).

The workload is fairly substantial. The 2-3 papers per semester are weighted the most. There is not midterm, and the final exam is not weighted a ton, plus Jeffrey had us practice and discuss exam-style questions for the month or so leading up to the exam. His grading is somewhat difficult, but rational. He's not one of those professors who takes pride in making people fail. The readings took more time than anything, but that's true for any Lit Hum class.

Jeffrey is really warm and leads discussion well. He's clearly knowledgeable about the subject but tries to get every student voice heard. Lit Hum in general is a complicated class because it's so discussion-based and so many people don't do the reading, but I feel like Jeffrey did the best he could with the class format. As Lit Hum sections go, I think he's one of the tougher essay graders (it's really hard to get a plain A on a paper), but I always felt like he was reasonable––I've gotten straight A minuses on my essays, even the ones I thought weren't very good.

Jeffrey is an absolutely amazing professor. He's amazing at leading discussion and really gets the class digging in to deep topics in the works. When he does take over to lecture for a bit (which is rare) it's always engaging and interesting. He's respectful about difficult topics but doesn't shy away from addressing them. We had some inter-student conflict in my Lit Hum class, and I think he did a great job mediating a very awkward situation. He's really understanding to extraneous situations and knows that getting the readings done is not always possible. He does expect a lot from us, but he is always willing to clarify his expectations and give in-depth, constructive feedback. Lit Hum is a class that can get really boring really fast if the teacher sucks, but Jeffrey made it my favorite class of the year.

No midterms! 2-3 papers each term, most on multiple books, each term all worth a whopping 40% of your grade 3 small written assignments, free 10% of your grade The standard Lit Hum final is just 15% (1/3 passage IDs, 1/3 long text analysis, 1/3 essay; all in 3 hours) …. As Jeffrey says: "I don't believe in finals". He also doesn't believe in curves. 1 study guide on a book, worth another free 10% of your grade 25% participation—including discussion posts twice a week, which don't have to be complex at all. Sometimes the readings were really long, like 200 pages in one or two nights, so make sure you have good time management for those periods. While the small assignments/participation are easy to score free points on, the final and the papers really depend on how you fit to Jeffrey's style of writing. For me it went "meh" to "good", especially those IMPORTANT papers! He'll print them out, write a tiny bit of margin notes, and give you ~1 page worth of feedback. He doesn't do complete readings of your drafts, which I would've really wanted. On my first paper, he literally wrote "Yuck" as feedback and gave me a C, which wasn't a great way to begin my Lit Hum experience. On my last paper, though, I finally got an A- and he was happy my writing style developed over time. This kinda confused me though, since I did very well in my high school writing classes and in University Writin…

I expected Jeffrey's Lit Hum class to be more of a literature class, specifically analyzing only literary devices and text types like a book club. But it ended up being less of a literature class, (even though it's in the name "Literature Humanities") and more of a way to find a way to interpret these books and find bigger connections between their themes and messages. In fact, Jeffrey isn't a literature professor at all, but a historian and librarian (just like we're not Classics majors but a mixture of students), which really shines through when he gives us all the interesting background info on some of these texts. It wasn't about the BOOKS and AUTHORS in specific at all, really, but instead it was about how WE could train our ability to make an interpretive point about what we get from any general text, using evidence coincidentally found and shared in these books. And the cool part is that they're not just any books, but huge, influential classics that many people know. With that, I think Jeffrey was a really great professor to lead discussions. He asked provocative questions and made sure we questioned our first assumptions of the books, which I feel really nurtured my critical thinking and analysis behavior. He wants us to critique these books (because of that he "hates the word 'masterpieces'"). I rarely felt like he pushed only his readings of the books, saying "I'm a…