Besel, Richard  

Dr B is an awesome professor. He was very helpful and didn't seem to grade too hard. His tests are all memorizing lists, so make sure you know every list in all the chapters you look at. For speeches he was very clear on what he wanted and seemed to appreciate improvement from students.

He taught quarter plus and was great about accommodating to our crazy schedule. Highly recommended.

I am personally not a fan of public speaking, but Besel made it completely doable! Somehow he managed to make lectures interesting and comprehensive. Consider yourself lucky to get this teacher.

how can he teach communication when he sucks at communicating. what a joke

I took Besel because it was the best time available for COMS 101. I had not heard anything about him, and I cannot say how lucky I was to get Professor Besel. The class was very relaxed and there was not much work other than reading a chapter a day and four speeches. The tests were very manageable, and I would definitely recommend taking him because I would take him again if I get the opportunity.

This teacher is amazing! MY favortie Cal poly teacher so far. He is very clear on his tests, and the speeches are extremely easy. He grades them really easy, so you can basically just read off your paper. Definately take him over any other class for coms 101. He is awesome!!!!!

This class is not bad at all if you are just trying to get the general ed out of the way. If you want to learn a lot about giving speeches you will have to be self motivated. He doesn\'t grade too harshly if you just go up and read off a paper as long as you wrote a pretty good speech and did the research he asks for. The tests are easy as long as you do the reading.

Great teacher, very fun class. Speeches are not too hard, but you will only get an A if you can recite most of your speech from memory, otherwise you will probably get a B assuming you do everything else right. Midterm and final were fairly easy, but make sure to take notes when he lectures on things that aren't in the book because these tend to end up being a majority of the short answer questions on the exams. Other than that, very easy-going, very approachable. I highly recommend taking COMS 101 with Dr. Besel.

Go to class every day and do the readings. He is very helpful in lecture and gives great examples. The information is really interesting and the tests are not TOO bad. They are all multiple choice. The paper at the end definitely boosted my grade. GO INTO OFFICE HOURS! He will give you ideas about what to write about and how to form your study for the essay. Shy, but overall very good teacher.

This class is very straight forward. there is one text book. The o'keefe book is dry. There are online articles --read them and take good lecture notes. there are essentially 2 midterms. the final is NOT comprehensive. Each of the tests are worth 25% of your grade. and consist of 30 multiple choice questions. Study. the other 50% of your grade is a term paper. Besel asks you to come up with an experiment that has never been done before this takes a little creativity. The paper is 10 pages long Besel tells you about it from the first day. Through out the quarter --He will drop hinds and ideas for the end of the quarter so pay attention and jot it down. Because there are only 2 tests and a paper you have a to be on top of the readings and come to class. Besel is a really smart guy and knows what he is talking about.

Basically exactly what the post below said. Everything on his tests is basically based on his lectures, but you definitely need to do the reading to get a full grasp on the concepts. I really enjoyed this class, and Besel is great. The paper takes a lot of work, but going to his office hours will really help you.

Dr. Besel is by far my favorite COMS professor at Cal Poly. His classes are based around two essays and two tests. As long as you go to class everyday and pay attention you will get a good grade. He drives home important points from lecture by stating them over and over. His classes are very reading intensive but as long as you have a basic grasp of the readings then you should be fine. The day before tests he asks the students to write potential test questions for a review that is really helpful. I would encourage COMS majors to take him as many times as possible over their Cal Poly career.

I've always thought that Besel was an awesome teacher, and this class was no exception. The content could have the potential to be really boring, but he presents it very well and makes it actually really interesting. Two papers, two exams, 25 percent each. Besel is a fair grader and is always willing to help. Definitely go to his lectures and read beforehand.

Dr. Besel was an excellent teacher for this course. It was one of his first quarters teaching Classical Rhet, but he did a great job. Come to class and PAY ATTENTION & TAKE NOTES! His tests are going to be directly from his lectures. If you take good notes, you will have all the answers for the test, he doesn't throw in any surprises. Also, do the readings. He will expect you to know them when you come to class, and if you haven't done them, you will be lost in the lecture. This is by no means an easy class, but come prepared and you will do fine.

Dr. Besel is my favorite communication studies teacher. He is very clear in lecture and emphasizes what is important to know for the test. By far my favorite Cal Poly teacher overall!

Dr. Besel is a great teacher that clearly teaches information that isn't always the most interesting. There isn't that much-assigned reading, he breaks it up into little sections. He has 2 papers and 2 exams. He grades fairly easy as long as you follow instructions and make an effort. He is really approachable and likes if you are able to attend office hours. I never did and still received a B in the class. I recommend Besel if you need to take this course.

Besel is a good teacher and makes material very clear. He's good at putting the concepts and lectures into easy lists. Daily readings are sometimes complicated but he explains the main ideas in lecture anyway. He gives two tests (multiple choice/short answer) and one short hw assignment. The class is structured around writing a 12 page paper, with the first half of it due around midterms. Each week's readings are on a new method for doing the paper.

Besel is by far the best teacher that I have had at Cal Poly. He is extremely helpful and understanding. My computer crashed and I lost my final paper, and when I e-mailed him three hours before it was due, it was completely understandable and gave me an extension. The class was really enjoyable and all of the discussions kept my attention, plus, he even showed the class how WOW worked...keep in mind, the class was full of girls who were unfamiliar with the game. GREAT TEACHER:)

he sure does like his women, wet!!

Dr. Besel is one of the best professors I've ever had. You can tell he truly has a passion for everything he teaches and does his best to spread that passion to his students. He's also one of the most approachable professors I have ever seen. Pretty much all of his classes consist of at least a midterm, a final, and a large paper. So you can't go wrong by taking any of the classes he teaches. You're the best, Dr. Besel!