Allen, Regulus  

While she wasn't as bad as the last student claimed, Dr. Allen is still a difficult professor. Her tests aren't that hard--as long as you take notes, and go over the works (key themes, key passages) you will succeed. Unfortunately, she is NUTS when it comes to how she grades papers. For our first draft she gave me a B (I have never gotten below a B+ on a paper), and then I tried to fix everything and ended up with a B- on the final paper!!! WHAT??! If you're a bad essay writer to begin with, I'd seriously consider going in to office hours LOTS before its due. That is what screwed up my grade, and I didn't get the A. Sometimes she did let the class dominate discussion too much, but it was refreshing to have SOME discussion as opposed to none. She's a new professor---I think she just needs to figure out what teaching style works best for CP students, and lower her expectations slightly.

Dr. Allen was a fairly new professor when I had her in the spring of 2007, and I don't think she had quite figured out how to structure her class. She seemed to be dominated by some of the students in the class, and was timid during lecture. Although it was apparent that she had a lot of knowledge and things to say about the reading material, she was unengaging and nervous. As a result, she spouted off large amounts of objective facts and dates rather than commenting on thematic elements of the texts. Her one midterm was extremely hard, writing intensive, and long. Her quizzes occured almost every class period, and were sometimes unclear. Finally, her paper expectations were extremely high, and the whole class was in shock when grades were returned. She means well, but needs to step back and figure out how to be more engaging and realistic with her class expectations.

Less "a wolf in sheep's clothing" than an inadequate high school English teacher masquerading as a competent university professor. The classic, and terrible, combination of bad teacher and harsh grader. I feel bad delivering too harsh a sentence, since I can tell it's difficult and stressful for her to commute to Cal Poly from L.A. every week, and she IS passionate about 18th century literature (which can be a bit of a snore)--but I love English and I just wasn't feeling this class. I liked my statistics course this quarter more than this course, and that's just sad for an English major. Allen is uninspiring, anal, and narrow-minded. If you enjoy formulaic essays, then fine. But I feel sad that I wasted my quarter on her class; I wouldn't have, had I a choice in the matter.

I understand why people are giving Dr. Allen such a bad rap, but she isn't that bad. If you have done the reading, the quizzes are tolerable and really good preparation for the midterm and final. Halfway through the quarter, she gave everyone a chance to give her any suggestions on how she could improve the class, and then she actually took them and made improvements. The second half of the quarter went much better than the first half. She is incredibly enthusiastic about the material, which is good because it's not exactly the most exciting era in American and British literature. Yeah, she's a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing because she's super sweet and a tough grader, but so what? You, reader of this polyrating, have been warned. She's a tough grader, but it doesn't take too long to figure out what she wants.

DO NOT take this teacher if you can help it. She\'s worse than your mom. Every word in lecture she has planned out. Every quiz is the same and every midterm/final is the same. She really shouldn\'t be teaching college. Elementary is more her thing. Every day of the class was torture. the rubric for the essay was THREE pages long. she wants everything very specific and done her way. Don\'t take her if you want creative freedom. As an English major, I would have rather taken any other English class 3 times to avoid hers. We have no creative opportunity. It\'s like she\'s got a stick up her... well, you know. It\'s not worth the effort. >.<

Dr. Allen is an amazing professor. I understand that many English majors do not like her class because it is so different than the previous core classes. However, different does not mean bad! Yes, Dr. Allen does not go off on fun tangents, yes, Dr. Allen does not arrange her seats in circles. But, I learned more in her class than I did in the previous cores combined. Firstly, she tells you EXACTLY what she is looking for in all of her assignments/tests. It is impossible to do poorly if you follow her instructions. Secondly, she is extremely organized and has every lecture planned out. Some of you may not think this is a good thing, but it was actually a very refreshing change from the disorganization of the previous cores. Thirdly, Dr. Allen WILL make you a better writer. She gives a lot of feedback on both your paper and the essay part of the midterm. Basically, Dr. Allen truly cares about her students and works her ass off to make sure that they succeed. If you need help, go to her office hours and she is more than willing to answer any questions. The reading was a little dry, but Dr. Allen's enthusiasm for the time period made me enjoy it. Also, the day we read Rape of the Lock was hilarious because it is her favorite poem! ! love this woman!

Honestly, this is one of those classes in which you can only get a good grade is if you write exactly what the teacher wants to hear. (I got a "B" when I normally get "A"s). Her assignments for the essays and tests are SO SPECIFIC it's a major constraint. It was like academic suffocation. Her class is easy to fall asleep in, so do drink coffee before going.

Dr. Allen's class is very well organized. Her expectations for her quizzes, midterms, and essays are very clearly explained. Facilitating discussion is not her strong point--she unnervingly takes note of when you speak in class so that she can accurately grade your participation--but her lectures are informative and interesting. Most impressively, she gave us a chance midway through the quarter to evaluate her, and then actually took those comments into consideration for the second half of the quarter.

Firstly: to the reviewer who said Allen "will make you a better writer"--I'm calling bullsh*t. There's a difference between "hard" and "challenging." I've had professors whose classes were really tough but in the end I found their classes really rewarding (I'd rather get a B in a fulfilling class than an A in a dumb one). It is *hard* to get a good grade in Allen's classes (I've taken Core as well as 400-level with her), but even if you do you don't, in my opinion, get anything out of it. I'm especially disappointed in her as an upper-div Engl professor. ALL she cares about in essays is format format format. Since high school I've been taught to try and not be formulaic in my writing. By junior year as an English major I had become accustomed to teacher's grading my papers based on the content--my ideas, writing style, interpretations. But not so with Allen. After she took over a f*cking month return a very short paper I was very disappointed to see that almost all the comments were regarding minor errors in MLA format--the only praise she gave me on the whole paper was how I had formatted the heading correctly. And honestly, the amount of time it takes her to return a paper is terrible--I know this is a very common complaint among English departments, but her turn-around rate (for *short* papers) is the worst I've seen in a CLA teacher. And she comes off as hypocritical since she's very very rigid about late policies. It was extra frustrating at the end of the quarter, because my classmates and I wanted to see the feedback on our first paper before writing our final paper. I don't think I got that first paper back till dead week. I *do* appreciate that she's passionate and knowledgeable about her subject (18th cent lit) and *sometimes* she was really sweet, but I think she's sub-par as a lit-discussion-professor. I think she would be better suited to teaching a technical writing class (where she can fulfill her format fetish) and history class (where she can do her 18th cent history lectures).

In a few words, this class was a shit-show. Information to take away from reading this post: Dr. Allen professes to be extremely organized, but is the complete opposite. This is the only class I've ever had a midterm, a paper, a quiz, and 100+ pages' reading within the same week. Took until the actual last day of the quarter to get our midterms back, and not even get back all of our assignments, including the paper we had to revise into a longer paper by the end of the quarter. I feel all this disorganization is due to the fact she lives in Los Angeles -LOS ANGELES- and commutes here. She is knowledgeable about the subject, but will refute and deny any perspective that is not her own; if you do not bark back her exact words, you will not get a good grade in this class.

This woman is absolutely unreal. Her lack of organization makes it almost impossible to do well in this course. She takes an obscene amount of time to return graded work to her students. We turned in a paper week 5 that was not returned to us until midway through finals week, and were given 3 DAYS to expand it into a longer paper. Students told her how unmanageable this was, considering we also had a final that same week, and she decided to resolve this issue by offering to extend the due date of this paper into the summer. I may be wrong, but that certainly does not sound legal to me. Her sense of self-importance and entitlement is so strong that she thinks the rules of the university, such as the day that classes are supposed to END for the quarter, do not apply to her. Do not take this class.

While I agree that Allen wasn't as organized as she could have been last quarter, she in no way deserves the hate she's getting. The quarter was clearly rough on her, as she was juggling home life, work life, and extra things, including heading a project to make the English department better. Yes, it would have been nice to get our essays back earlier, but she did her best with what was going on in her life and was extremely apologetic, especially if you actually made the effort to go in and talk to her. Her method of teaching the class was extremely clear, and her grading wasn't at all hard; she told us exactly what she would ask us and what to expect at the very beginning of the quarter and stuck with it the whole way through. To top it off, her dreaded quizzes have the same questions every time... And those that actually did the reading did very well on them (honestly, if you didn't want a lot of reading... Should you really have chosen English as your major?). The one complaint I would have is that sometimes, when you're talking in class, you can tell when she doesn't agree with you... It shows on her face and it can be a little disheartening. But if you can defend what you said, then she'll be impressed. And at least she's honest with you if she doesn't think something makes sense. Some professors just go with whatever and don't teach you about the text at all.

if you have to opportunity to take another class, do it because this class was quite possibly the worst class I have taken here at Cal Poly. First of all, the lectures were so disorganized. She would often show up 20 minutes late to lecture and then would begin writing random words, dates, and names of people on the board. Second, the three midterms (because there is no final) are all 1000000000X more difficult than any of the material she covers in class. The lectures in no way shape or form help students prepare for these awful tests. The response papers that are only worth 10% of your grade are super easy but do absolutely nothing to boost your grade in this class as they are legit 10% of the final grade!!!!!!!!!!!! Avoid this class at all costs because you will be wasting your time. Oh p.s. she takes till the day grades are due to cal poly to input everything into polylearn

Alright. I took this class credit/no credit thinking it would be a fun, easy general ed course. Getting to read cool books as a study break sounds fun, right? Well, no you're wrong. This class was the absolute worst class I have ever taken in my whole entire life. Not only did everyone get F's on the first exam but she had to curve every single exam at least 20% and had to offer extra credit just in order for people to earn a passing grade or a D at that. I got a C+ and I am a student who has been on Dean's List four out of five quarters here. This class took more studying than I put in for Biopsychology (which was a LOT). So before you say, "hey this looks like a breezy class for spring q!" THINK TWICE. Do NOT take this class unless you want to court report every word spoken in lecture (since the class is 2 hours of discussion filled with random scribbled words on the whiteboard and random images on the projector-- which you WILL BE TESTED ON) and then in turn memorize every word you have written. The most unpredictable exams with passages where you have to point out every detail of that let me tell you are NOT easy to identify. Unless you have nothing else to do and this class is going to be your number one priority, for a GE stay away from this class.

Absolutely the most disorganized professor I've ever had at cal poly. She shows up 20 minutes late to every class. She doesn't properly cover the material that she expects you to know for the midterms. A quarter of the midterms is history questions rather than about the text. The quotes that she chooses for the midterms are the most obscure and easily misinterpreted ones. She grades the short essay for each era incredibly harshly. She didn't even grade the first one until we had gotten the last one and so none of us were able to learn from any mistakes we may have made on the first two. It was quite obviously her first time teaching the class and I hope she gets better as time goes on. I wouldn't recommend taking her for the next few quarters.

*STOP and READ** For the love of God & Your GPA, please do not take this class. As an engineering major, I came in thinking it was an easy GE, but it was easily the worst/hardest class at poly. You WILL struggle to understand her lectures, and the exam is exponentially more difficult than you anticipate it to be. You are better to have early registration and take another GE class. I acknowledge that Allen is incredibly good at what she does, but she lacks in teaching information in a structured manner. You will have to make flashcards out of lecture notes to absorb information.

Allen was easily the worst professor I've had at Cal Poly. She has zero time management skills and does not match the tests to the lecture material. Do not take this course if you enjoy active participation lectures, starting on time, and having your work graded in a decent amount of time because Allen does zero of these things! She starts class 15 minutes late every single class session, provides boring lecture material that doesn't even relate to the content on her crazy hard tests, and she does not grade any of the written assignments until the day of the final. She's obviously passionate about the material, the class is just SO BORING and she has trouble relating to the class. If you're stuck taking her, make sure you practically memorize specific words from every reading and be prepared to not do that well on the tests no matter how many notes you try to take. I got a lot of netflix in during this class which is the only pro I can give.

She was absolutely terrible and unorganized. Her lectures were extremely hard to pay attention to and half of them were about British history rather than the stories we had to read. She also used random images during the lectures and did a horrible job explaining what they were then expected us to know what they were for the exams. Her exam questions were oddly worded and hard to understand in many cases and she doesn't hand the exams back. She also had to curve every exam by 10% to make the highest grade 100% but never took an average of exam grades so a ton of people still had failing grades. Your best bet for doing well in the class is doing every reading and drinking a ton of caffeine to try to pay attention through her lectures, but I would recommend taking a different class if at all possible. She seems to have better reviews for other classes, so maybe it is just 230 that she sucks in, but just avoid her if you want to get a good grade. She is really nice and I hate writing bad reviews, but she is not a good professor for this class.

Professor Allen seems like a nice and knowledgeable professor. However, this class was subpar. It quickly became apparent the act of listening to Allen's lecture could be bottled up and sold as the next cure for insomnia. I tackled this challenge by playing Civ5 in the back of class, pausing once every 10 turns to look up and the board and confirm that nothing of importance has in fact occurred. The exams were pretty annoying but are doable if you go to class and write down the stuff she puts on the board. Reading the texts would probably help on the exams, but the passages are pretty niche so you'll be lucky if you remember that specific passage – better to know generally what happens in the story (i.e. read the Wikipedia Plot Summary right before the exam). She did give a 10% curve on each exam (since the high score was 90; she never told us the averages) and a +5% extra credit paper you can crank out in like an hour. She hasn't bothered to grade our 3 response papers yet so I don't know how harsh she'll be on them. Overall this class was pretty useless but definitely passable.

Professor Allen is a very intelligent and compassionate person. Unfortunately, she does not seem cut out to lecture in the classroom. When she wasn't sitting at her desk reciting the most basic biographical information on the literature, she was trying to have the students participate in class discussions which were built around the students essentially already knowing all the significance behind the material. Her expectations were very unclear and she left most of the class feeling completely unprepared for both midterm and final exams! The material is interesting, if you can manage to get beyond the dull classroom lecture.

Professor Allen is easily the worst professor I've ever had in my entire college career! Her teaching style is boring and she too often comes across completely unprepared. She comes to class late every single day, yet she will always mark off points from your grade if you are late or leave early regardless of the reason. She gives a multiple page handout for paper requirements, won't offer real input during office hours and grades incredibly harshly. She also has nothing to offer in class (did I mention boring??).

I have had the opportunity to take Professor Allen’s class on two occasions now. I can tell you she is a hard teacher. However, if you are an English major, you would be doing yourself a huge disservice in not taking her class. Let’s face it; if you want to just “pass” English and not learn anything, then I would suggest staying away from her class. You’ll only end up getting a bad grade and be upset in the end. But if you want to be an English major and learn to be a better writer, then Professor Allen’s class is the class you need to take. The care she takes in reading the first draft and putting all those comments on the paper only made me a better student overall. I learned to reread my stuff at least three times now before turning anything in. Which has made me a better writer overall. Face it hard teachers make us better students. Easy teachers make us lazy.

Allen\'s grading depends mostly upon how much she likes you. She did not like me right off the bat. I read several student\'s papers and the grades were not relative to how good the papers were. English is a very subjective subject, so she should find some way to be as fair as possible and grade on content; in this area she fails. It sucks that we have to take her for core classes, as they are required for our major. When I have finished with her core classes I will never take another class from her. If you can avoid her classes, don\'t take them.

Although I understand the remarks of other student\'s, I do not agree that Allen is a bad professor. She clearly defines her grading style and what she expects from her students. I had Allen twice and am very appreciative of the experience; she WILL make you a better writer. This is a teacher who is best teaching passive students, this is a lecture-teacher, not a discussion-teacher. Listen to her, take notes, and repeat them. Be prepared to have substantial historical evidence for any claims you wish to make and you will find this an easy class. The repetition of her class is a nice reprieve from other English classes, you ALWAYS know what to expect with Allen; no surprises.

She means well. But she mostly needs to take a few courses from a teaching credential if you know what I mean... I left her class (in which I participated a lot and was intrigued) feeling as if I'd gotten nothing out of it. Idk how that's possible, but Reggie made it so.

I think the reviews on here are way too harsh. Dr. Allen is a difficult professor but it is for a reason. Her quizzes test your analytical skills and actually help you do better on her exams as they are exactly like part one of her exams. She is looking for critical analysis in participation and for people who thought a lot about the reading, something we should all be doing as English majors anyways. You can't be lazy in this class if you want to do well; close reading is essential to participating in discussion and learning in this class. I'd recommend getting the glossary of literary terms as she emphasizes the use of literary terms on her exams and papers and you did to know how to define and recognize them. The discussion in class was good but I think it could have gone a bit deeper, especially with the romantic poets we went over. I'd highly recommend taking this professor, it's a lot of work but you'll become a better reader and writer.

To the student that said \"hard teachers make us better students\": I absolutely could not agree more. Hard, intelligent teachers that expect a lot from their students but really, sincerely attempt to engage and assist those students to fulfill those expectations do indeed make us better students. Hence, stay the hell away from Professor Allen. The only thing cool about this professor is her wacky Harry Potter name. Regulus will choose favorites within a week of class, so if you have to take her, make sure to get on her good side sooner rather than later. Her grading is, as other people have mentioned, DIRECTLY related to how much she likes you, so this really is imperative to doing well in the course [I got an A on the midterm and a B on the final, but Regulus gave me ZERO points in participation because she disagreed with me every time I raised my hand, leading to a stunning C in the course]. She is indeed prone to interrupting students before they have finished talking, and the disgusted look on her face when she disagrees with your opinion is enough to dissuade the most talkative of students from participating. If you\'re looking for an extremely challenging yet fair and rewarding English experience, take a course with Paul Marchbanks. I guarantee you won\'t be disappointed.

A tenacious Renaissance drama scholar, Allen unfortunately does not translate that enthusiasm into stellar teaching skills. Like the other students wrote below, she clearly plays favorites, and when she disagrees, it\'s no secret. If you don\'t tell her exactly what she wants to hear, you\'ve done something wrong. If you\'re not a mindreader, you\'re probably subpar. And lord have mercy on anyone who brings in perspective different from hers. Just to give you a taste: I got a high A on the objective portion of our final, and a C on the subjective part. Take from that what you will.

There are a lot more negative comments than I expected on here. Yes, Dr. Allen can be a harsh grader but I wouldn't say she is completely unfair. I felt like I received the grades I deserved for every assignment and I found her very nice and easy to talk to. The lectures were very boring however, all you do is go over the reading material assigned and certain weeks it was a lot to handle with my other classes. That week she did cancel class once in order to help relieve the stress from that, which I don't think many teachers would do. Her absence policy did seem harsh though, if you miss more than 1 day it would result in a grade drop of 2% each consecutive time. If you take a lot of notes in her class, ask questions, and spend a good amount of time working on the essays you should do fine in this class.

Ok, I actually haven't even finished the class yet, but she already has me pissed off about her teaching ability or lack thereof. Frankly, she doesn't teach you anything. We come to class to only discuss the readings and it ends up being a class discussion that she adds absolutely nothing to. She just sits and listens. This makes it difficult to pick out what she wants you to write about on the tests and quizzes. You have to be able to interpret these writings on your own if you are to take this teacher. The format of the class is 10% comprehensive pop quizzes, 10% participation 35% 5-6 page paper, 20% midterm and 35% cumulative final. The structure of the quizzes and tests contain and excerpt from any of the stories, which you are expected to identify the author and title along with describing its context, thematic significance, and its artistic significance. The tests also contain a 500 word essay that counts for your GWR credit if you so choose. To be honest, if i didn't need GWR credit i would have dropped this class after the first day. She is also a very tough grader and counts off for any GWR mistakes throughout the course. In all, avoid this teacher, unless you want to have to figure everything out on your own.

Ms. Allen is by far the worst teacher I have ever had. On the first day of class we basically played the name game, I felt as if I had teleported back to my 9th grade english class, except that was more interesting. She adds nothing to class discussions and comes late to class everyday. So my advice to you is.... DONT TAKE HER UNDER ANY CERCUMSTANCES. Oh yeah, Did I mention that your gade depends on how much she likes you. I hope she gets fired so no one else has to sit through what I had to. thanks for ruining my experience at cal poly Regulus.

Dr. Allen enjoys punting babies and clubbing baby seals in her spare time.

this is the worst possible teacher in our school. if you disagree, she will start to listen and then interrupt you. Everything is about poor black people, and how they are treated so badly. She grades very hard, makes you read 50+ pages a night. The biggest bitch of a teacher I have ever taken. If she never came back to Poly, this world would be better off

Allen is an amazing teacher, and it is easy to see her passion for the subject (African American Lit) and how well she prepares. She gives thoughtful lectures, and welcomes new interpretations of the works. She mostly encourages us to think for ourselves and find our own meanings. She is a fair grader, and i have never had a teacher that so fully lists what will be expected for each test. She also includes troubleshooting advice for essays, and common mistakes, etc. This is a prof that really cares. I cant believe the comment below. To say that all she does is talk about "poor black people" is an ignorant statement. She is surprisingly unbiased. This is a part of America's history whether you like it or not!

I completely agree with the comment below. Professor Allen is one of the best professors I've had at Cal Poly. She is extremely knowledgeable about the course material and strives to create an open atmosphere in the classroom. It is a challenging class with a high amount of reading, which you need to do to keep up. You are graded on participation, pop quizzes, an essay and rewrite, the midterm and final. As long as you read actively and take good notes on the class discussions, it's easy to get high grades on the quizzes and exams because Professor Allen tells you exactly what to expect. This was a great class.

Dr. Allen is a very intelligent woman! She engages the class in great discussions regarding the readings and interpretations of African American Literature. Just make sure that you READ all of the assigned reading. She will have unannounced quizzes and you will not be able to B.S. your way out. Although the reading may seem intimidating by it\'s vast quantities, it is actually very interesting. For the midterm and the final it is imporatant to have a general recollection of all of the authors and their work. I think she grades quite fairly on the exams but may be a little strict on the essay portion and the class essay. Other than that, I think she was a GREAT teacher!

Allen is an excellent teacher. She does require her students to actually use their brains. She gives very clear expectations. However, you will have to work to get a good grade. Reading is about 50pgs per class day, and there are quizzes every few days. If you don\'t want to learn, aren\'t very smart, or are racist or sexist, don\'t take her class. However, if you want to challenge yourself and become a better student, Allen is a great teacher. She is actually one of my favorite teachers.

Great professor, knows what she is talking about. However if you aren\'t an English major, this class will be extremely difficult for you!! She is a hard grader, gives you exact details of how she wants her papers to be written, if you fail to do so, don\'t expect to do well in the class. She basically expects you to be able to write like an English major and read about 50 pages twice a week. Extremely time consuming class for just a general ed class. If you are going to take this for USCP, C4, and GWR credit, you\'re better off with taking an easier C4 class that\'s also USCP and just taking the GWR test. She is an extremely hard grader, like previously said, and you are more likely to pass the GWR test than to pass the GWR in her class. Weekly quizzes on the reading, two papers, one midterm (your first chance to pass the GWR), non cumulative final (second chance to pass the GWR), and participation is a MUST!!

Dr. Allen is awesome and hilarious! She\'s the best professor I\'ve had in four years at Poly. Don\'t be intimidated by how smart she is. I was struggling in teh beginning of the quarter and she helped me out so much! I don\'t think any ohter teacher would have helped me so much. I think I\'m going to get an A- in the class! I will DEFINITELY take another class with her!

Allen's class is very straightforward and there really wasn't any surprises. Expect to read around 13 to 40 pages between each class (if two classes a week) and beware of the last two weeks, when that is kicked up to 190 pages between classes and 150 pages the next class for a novel, called Beloved She enjoys her job and teaches really well; for each selection you read, make sure and note down themes (which are used for essays and tests) For the GWR, she grades decently hard, but not unfairly. I scraped by the first midterm and got GWR credit, but there were many who didn't, probably a 50% or less pass rate in my class

Grades too harshly even when students show effort. Avoid taking this professor at all costs unless you are a professional English writer.

I loved Dr. Allen!!! She can be intimidating but she is a professional (which is more than I can say for some teachers) and she really cares about the subject. She was challenging, but I feel like a way better writer after taking her course. GO TO HER OFFICE HOURS if you have any questions. I kept failing the quizzes and then I went to her office hours to clarify a few things and I got 100% from then on.

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Dr. Allen took the entire quarter to get our first essay back. We turned it in week 4 and during finals week she called people in to her office to talk about issues with citations. Dr. Allen threatened to fail and expel me and several students for citing the incorrect version of the text. Yes, we did cite our source, just incorrectly. Apparently that warrants expulsion and failing. Had Dr. Allen addressed this issue in a timely manner, I wouldn't have a problem. But she was blatantly disrespectful and inconsiderate. I'm really disappointed in Dr. Allen because I was thoroughly enjoying her class until she showed that she had zero investment in students' academic success and well being.

Professor Allen deftly organized a seminar in which students were asked to thoughtfully engage with the material in discussions that were carefully guided so that we stayed on topic while exchanging a good range of ideas. I don't know what else we could've asked from her. Her expectations are clear and I was never confused as to what it is she wanted for a given assignment, or what kind of work would earn an A, B, C, etc. The tests were comprised of passages taken from works we read over the quarter, many of which we discussed in class. As long as you keep up on the reading and do a little review before the test, you'll do well. She is a very tough grader, especially on essays and papers, but I felt like she was genuinely interested in helping to improve my writing. I found her engaging, and if you are having a hard time, I would definitely suggest talking to her. She's really approachable, and like I said, I feel like she really cares about the success of the students in her class. I would definitely recommend taking a class with her.

Dr. Allen made a strong effort in teaching 512 for the first time. I particularly admired her flexibility. Mid-quarter she asked us for feedback on ways to conduct class for the remainder of the quarter which I found very admirable. She is a strict grader, but it was also a graduate course...that is the point of graduate school. She was very reasonable with the material. Everything we read was on the MA reading list and was taught for our benefit. Her personality is great and she is very approachable. With a little more experience, she will be a great professor.