Vrinda Condillac

She is a very sweet and helpful teacher, she clearly cares a lot about her students and genuinely wants to help them improve their writing. The topic is interesting and she chose a good selection of readings; we also had the author of one of the short stories be a guest lecturer which was fun! Workload is a bit ambitious for a pass/fail class, there are 3 essays throughout the semester which was fine but she also will assign 2-page free-writes on the weekly readings which a lot of people would not really do. There isn't an attached Writing Fellow, so you just conference with her before each essay is due. Overall, solid (not that serious but still interesting)

I grew to really appreciate Professor Condilliac. She always had great feedback on my papers that really did help me grow as a writer. As long as you actively speak in class (I did this without reading most of the assigned readings), she'll really like you and you'll have an easy time. She's a very nice person but the class is super boring. Not the worst FYW option but probably not the best either. Some really good readings (that have been adapted into movies, ifykyk).

Take 'The Art of the Essay' if you want to look more closely at the phenomena you observe in your own life and in the world around you. You will be drafting three personal essays and using different lenses to analyze what you observe. The best part--you can choose to write about whatever you want. Condillac is an excellent professor, and the way she teaches writing is unique because it is well structured and she is clear about her expectations. With each reading we discuss or assignment we complete, there are certain explicit skills that we practice and later implement in our own essays. In addition, Condillac schedules individual meetings from her own time to discuss and workshop drafts of each essay that students wrote. Her feedback and insights at these meetings are incredibly helpful--Condillac is so good at teasing out exactly what you're trying to say through back and forth discussion and asking the right questions. More than her abilities as a professor, though, Condillac is funny and bright, a welcome energy in the daily slog of Zoom meetings. She was also understanding this semester, granting extensions regularly for the whole class. Her grading was fair and at times generous (in my personal experience). I cannot recommend this class and this professor enough. Take it for the opportunity to think critically about yourself and the world around you, and to improve your…

I found this class to be very beneficial to my writing. Going to her office hour is very very important for this class because you get to flesh out your own ideas in ways that you might not even think about before. I would say to get a good grade in your essay you need to be very clear by what you mean. She definitely values clarity more than your style. I would also recommend to hyper-close read and find patterns before jumping in your essays. Although a lot of people think this class isn't enjoyable, I think it will be if you make it! Personally, I think Vrinda really encouraged me to explore further and more depth in my writing because of her questioning-based rather than thesis-based style of writing.

While I understand why students often get frustrated with her, Professor Condillac is easily the best teacher I've ever had. She is so supportive, encouraging, and helpful, but only if you show her that you are willing to work just as hard as her to refine your essays. I have found that on the days where I am 100% engaged and paying attention, I leave feeling so much more at ease about whatever paper I'm working on because she is THAT amazing of a teacher. You just have to really focus and hear what she's saying and participate in her activities and discussions. The days that I missed or was browsing online and not paying attention, I felt overwhelmed and confused, but rightfully so because I wasn't giving it my best effort. I already considered myself a very strong and talented writer before entering this class but my writing has improved SIGNIFICANTLY. She is not only very educated and experienced in her field--she is actually so skilled at teaching. I turned in multiple drafts late and she still worked diligently with me on them and took her time answering all my questions. So, no, this won't be an easy class, but if you stick it out and remain engaged, I promise you will come out a much better writer than you were before!

Queen Vrinda!!! She doesn't have the best CULPA reviews but I really enjoyed her class. She is brilliant and helps you become a better writer. I am not a great writer so she really helped me gain structure/organization in my essays and push myself harder than ever before. However, she does like you to follow outlines so if you are already a strong writer (especially one who is more creative) I don't recommend her class. Some of my peers who had English backgrounds felt limited by her way of teaching writing. However, if you are like me and need to improve your English skills, this class is great! She was really supportive if you tried to talk to her about personal things. Office hours were good to build a relationship with her but you usually left having to change your essay drastically. Also, she emphasized looking at texts through a queer/trans/non-binary lens. Definitely a welcoming environment for queer students.

I'm not an English person at all but I loved taking FYW with Professor Condillac and I think being in her class improved my writing a lot. She is definitely a harsh grader and there was a steep learning curve for her way of analyzing texts and of writing about them, so I (and I think the whole class) struggled with the first paper, but after that her expectations were a little more clear. I loved the class discussions we had, and the connections Professor Condillac chose to draw between the material and with current events. This was definitely a hard class but I learned a lot and loved Professor Condillac.

As the posts below suggest Vrinda is a great teacher except she keeps telling the class that she will finish grading our papers by a certain date and we never get it back on the date she declares. It is very stressful waiting for our grades to be released on a certain day and then it does not happen. It's been like this for every single assignment this semester. I don't know why she does this may be she just should not tell the class her personal goal for when she hopes to finish grading and surprise us when shes done.

I loved the topic of this class, and seeing that we would watch Paris is Burning made me excited to take it. Ultimately, your writing class isn’t the most critical part of your overall Barnard experience, so don’t stress too much about choosing one. That said, Prof. Condillac is passionate about writing and deeply engaged in discussing the readings. Although she can be a bit disorganized at times, she pushes you to think more critically about your writing. While I wouldn’t say I necessarily became a better writer, I do feel that the way I approach our class topics—both in life and in writing—has become more refined. The content of the class is thought-provoking. Early on, much of it is quite erotic, as it explores how the body, particularly the female body, is both heavily surveilled and performed.

Course is really front loaded - be ready. I sometimes submitted blank documents for the almost daily assignments and she never said anything. Grading is fine because it's pass/fail. Way too many hours for a pass/fail class!