Conway, James  

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Conway is a pretty good teacher overall. He doesn't ask for much, just that you turn in an outline for the speeches you give (in a specific format that he details very clearly). You can pick any subject for each of the speeches. He gives you all of the supplies you need for the class. Conway made a detailed packet or page of information for each type of 4 speeches you'll give that include information about the speech, devices used in the speech, what he wants included in the speech, an outline guide, and a rubric of the criteria that the speech will be graded on. There are 3 essay assignments: 2 self critiques and 1 review of a famous speech. The two self critiques will be on two of three speeches you give and he requires that you record the two speeches that you critique so that you have something to review. The reading he assigns doesn't seem relevant, but do it. Rent the book, do the reading, take notes and study. His midterm and final are based on the book and any materials he presents in class. He doesn't lecture much in class, but take notes on it anyway, because it can and will be on the midterm and final. For the two hour block, he takes a break halfway through

Overall, this class is an easy class to manage and complete as a GE course. However, James Conway made public speaking a very difficult class to bear. He usually lets his students out early, and takes a ten minute break between the hours of this two hour class. For the most part, going to class is a waste of time as most of the lecture material is common sense. He has very low standards in regards to ability to properly give a speech (ironically), so minimal effort will achieve a relatively good grade in his class. Because of this, time is class is dull and almost unbearable. His class isn't a terrible option, and he is certainly better than other COMS professors, but should not be a first choice.

I had this guy for SCOM101. Tests were pretty easy and written assignments/speeches were graded leniently. Relatively easy class over all. The only problem is that his lectures can be quite boring.

Its a fun class, nice teacher. The mid term and final were pretty much impossible, yet everything else he graded easy. I suggest him as a safe bet for a good teacher.

If you can avoid it, don't take Conway. Impossible tests and boring lectures. If he doesn't like you or disagrees with your political views in any way, you're screwed. I gave excellent, well organized speeches but he disliked my way of thinking and I therefore got the shaft. An unfair teacher who doesn't care about his students.

THIS KIND OF THING IN BACKGROUND. good lord if i had to hear that one more time i would've killed someone.

He's alright. He didn't seem to want to help students after class too much. He grades fairly on the 3 speeches for the quarter, but watch out fot the midterm and the final. Be aware that the review sheets for the exams basically say "know everything." The exams are all fill in or short answer and it is a major pain to define everyday words that have special meaning in speech. He isn't very lively in class, although he had an injury my quarter. He knows his stuff, but he is a hard grader. Pay attention to all details and every tiny direction!

Conway is a good guy (the department director). He is definitely a man's man though, so ladies try and keep that in mind. He enjoys speeches on topics such as drinking, bars, sports, and cars. He is also a liberal, so Bush bashing will probably earn you bonus points. He does grade fairly though so don't worry if you can't think of a great topic. He is all about the organization of the presentation and be sure to site all references in your speech. The class consists of 3 non-graded assignments, 3 speeches with written critiques based on a video tape of your presntation, and a couple other papers based on out of class viewings of professional speakers nationaly, and in our community. These papers are cake and not graded hard at all. There is one midterm and one final and they are purely based on the testbook chapters. So if you don't read it, you are screwed. I didn't read the text all quarter until about 3 days before each exam and I pulled of almost perfect scores. So it can be done, it just takes effort in those last few days. But other than that you are fine. Overall it is a very easy going class and Conway makes for a relaxed classroom setting which helped eliminate nerves. I say go Conway if you can.

I took the class over summer and it was pretty easy I thought. However, it could be harder or different for the regular academic year, I don't know. I was able to get A's in all my speeches cept the 1st by simply rattling on and using stream of consciousness rambling. The midterms and final was pure memorization of worthless definations, so that probably killed a few people's grades but just read the book and memorize every list you see and you should be fine. Overall I recommend the teacher simply cuz it's not that much work and it was an easy A.

DONT BELIEVE ANY OF THESE STUPID EVALUATIONS--THEYRE ALL BIASED AND DIMWITTED

I was not looking forward to taking speech at all. I was horrified of every aspect of public speaking, but Conway changed all that. You do a bunch of little non-graded assignments just to get you comfortable with speaking in front of people at the beginning of the quarter. Then you have 3 actual speeches which were pretty easy. Make sure you follow the structure of the speeches exactly how he tells you to. You'll be fine if you do this. The midterm and the test were tough but not that bad. Just make sure you know the keys terms from the book and his lecture notes. You have a few short papers(Three 1-2 page papers and One 4-6 page paper). Two of them you analyze your own speeches, one you analyze an outside speaker, and one you analyze a famous speech. All are really easy and just follow the structure that he gives you. Try to make your speeches funny because he likes that too. I'm pretty sure his class has less work and is much more relaxed than other speech classes. Good class and I'd definitely recommend Conway.

Conway seemed like a magical teacher the first half of the quarter. We started out doing small non-graded assignments in front of the class to get used to speaking in front of an audience. Every class was just listening to other peoples short 2 minute speeches and then getting the assignment for the next lecture. We were never taught how to organize a speech, just how we should read it and act it out. Then when it was time to start working on our first graded speech. Conway gave us a speech as an example of what we should do, and it was a horrible speech. I couldn't believe that he was teaching this class. Whenever you do a graded speech, you have it recorded so you can critique it. It was annoying to do. The midterm and final are impossible to pass because he tells to to study the wrong material.

He likes to hear the sound of his own voice. He talks as much as he can. He grades hard and puts you to sleep. It doesn't matter how well you present your speech or how well your content was if you don't follow his little guidelines.

Conway is probably one of the best public speaking teachers available. Yes, he is old, and does repeat pointless phrases to an extreme degree, but he knows most people are nervous about public speaking grades/teaches accordingly. There are 3 long (6-10 min) speeches and about 5 short (1-2min) speeches which are all graded 90% on content. FOLLOW HIS OUTLINES AND YOU WILL GET AN A. The Midterms and Final are are easy and pretty much all the bold words from the book. There are also a few short writing assignments worth almost nothing toward the overall grade. He is a good guy, makes fun of himself (pretty funny when he does) and the class is a typical GE easy A if you put a mild amount of effort in.

Dr. Conway was a nice man, and taught the class very well, but be prepared before you decide to take this teacher! In my opinion I thought he was a very hard grader. I always thought I did really well on my speeches but he grades them pretty hard. You probably won\'t get by in this class making the speeches the night before and not practicing them unless you are a natural public speaker. There is a big 5 page essay due too, along with the 3 major speeches and 2 self critiques. Our essay was on Shakespeare\'s Dramatic Pentad.. NOT FUN.. Good Luck!

If you want to get through coms101 with as little stress as possible, definitely take Conway. Who cares if he is not the most exciting guy around. He lectured very little throughout the course. Every speech you make can be on whatever you feel like, and minimal effort is required. Just follow the outlines, study what he tells you to study, and you\'ll do fine. I\'m really glad I had him, as opposed to some of the other prof\'s that people stress out about.

Ok do not take this class by Conway to fulfill this requirement. I wish there had been a review of this class on polylearn before I enrolled. Literally take any of the other courses they will be better. He is an extremely subjective and hard grader. Not to mention his midterm is based off of 300 pages of reading and he gives no study guide or any sort of help and the questions are super specific, I have never received a D on a test in my entire school career and I did on his exam (and i studied A LOT). Such a waste of time i wish i had taken any other class. He is grumpy and gives no advice for helping improve your public speaking he just expects you to be good and if your not up to his standards then you will not get an A. Avoid this at all costs!! I initially thought it would be a challenge for myself to take an advanced public speaking class, but I learned nothing...

I don't think I have ever NOT recommended a teacher for any reason, as I feel everyone is responsible for making the best of a class and/or teacher, but I encourage people to hesitate taking this class. It was much more difficult than it needed to be, and a lot of it (most of it) had to do with Dr. Conway. He is difficult to speak with and impossible to make a connection with, his grading is confusing, and I don't think anyone in the class actually knew what he wanted from us. Overall, not a fun experience. The class could have been so much better had the environment been different, and things overall had been more clear.

I improved so much as the quarter went along and it was all thanks to Dr. Conway. He truly wanted us to do well and did everything to help us along. Take the time to get to know him and you'll do well in the class. There are 3 speeches, 1 midterm, 1 final & 4 written assignments. Don't slack off when studying for hte midterm and final. If you do, you'll be sorry! But honestly, Dr. Conway knows what he is talking about and listen to him becasue you'll learn something.

Dr. Conway provided opportunities for us to have real experience with the topics, such as group research projects. This survey course covered a lot of topics in a short period, but Dr. Conway was able to get through the material without getting behind or bogged down. His grading is fair and the tests covered the material he emphasized in class. I expect to get a decent grade. My only major complaint is that he assigned three major projects (not including the final) to be due within seven days of each other during the last week of the quarter! Those projects added up to 45% of our grade, plus the final (20%) a couple days later! Since he didn't give us the assignments until late in the quarter, he basically forced us to cram and "procrastinate" -- habits I'm trying to break.

Only problem I had with Dr. Conway was his disorganized office. More than one time he would comment on something that he wanted us to see, but he could not find because his office was such a mess. I had him for non-verbal communication. I would highly recoment this class. Fairly easy, fun and interesting too.

Does not use e-mail, which seems to fit into the class titled "non-verbal communication", what an awful guy to be around for 9 weeks. You feel less intelligent everyday after this course. Get with it odl man or retire. I have one more required course that he teaches and I would rather take a quarter off than sit through his murmering. A scholar commitee should do check ups on who they make a Dr. He has pretty much given up... RETIRE!!! please so I can graduate

Conway's class was easy enough, but I wish we would have learned more. He tried to do activities, but he is a little old and has very antique movies for us to watch that are sometimes unrelated. The tests are all short answer and he is a HUGE fan of lists. Overall, nto a terrible class. It was strange I received a B at the end, but there are 2 group projects.

I took this as an elective within my major. Unfortunately, Conway's lectures are not terribly stimulating. He uses the phrase "And this kind of thing in the background" at the conclusion of every thought. However, I found the material interesting. Everyone got either A's or B's on their group presentations, but the tests were a bit harder than I was expecting. There is hardly anything from the textbook (which is terribly boring). Tests focus on HANDOUTS, lectures, and movies. Follow the study guide closely and put in the work for the papers and presentations, and you should be okay.

I learned that if I were to take up hunting, I should shoot deer, not bears, because a bear will hunt me back if I successfully wound it. Fascinating! I didnt know that the key to production and operations management was so brutally simple!