Battenburg, John  

I've never had a good experience in an English class until I took Dr. Battenburg's ENGL 240 lecture. The amount of reading assigned is manageable, and he helps students understand the material by using examples & different forms of media to get the point across. He is engaging, asks thought-provoking questions, and facilitates great conversation in class. "Pop quizzes" are not difficult, as long as you've read the material.

Battenburg is the man. He's funny and super passionate about English, which makes the lectures fly by. I'm horrible at English and hate writing but he made the course really enjoyable. There is some reading you have to do after each lecture, and there's no way around it, but its totally doable. He has like 5ish pop quizzes on the reading through out the quarter, but they are super straight forward. He has a midterm and a noncumulative final that are completely fair, and each involve an essay. Again, I'm horrible at writing, but I was able to an A, because he told us exactly what he was looking for. He was a great professor for ENGL 240, so I highly recommend Battenburg.

To be honest, the last time I read a book that was required was Jr. High. I just don't do it, so I was happy that the reading assigned was mostly short stories. It was nice that the stories got to the point and then ended. Battenburg is a good professor. The class is mostly discussion based with a reading quiz about every week just to keep you honest with the reading. Then there is a midterm with questions about quotes from the stories and then an essay portion. There is also a take-home essay assigned which gave me trouble because I have trouble with such open-ended assignments. I actually didn't hate the classes like I normally do with English. The discussions were interesting and we always got out early. I did really appreciate that he didn't try to turn us all into English majors; he understood that most of us were out of our element and kind of wore kid gloves. If you have to take an English course, Battenburg is your man.

Prof. Battenburg is awesome. I highly recommend him for any courses. He teaches very clearly and drops in numerous jokes along the way. I was completely uninterested in Linguistics before his class, but it was really fun and interesting. Battenburg is extreemly smart and his tests were very reasonable. Study the notes from in class and you'll do fine.

Wow! Dr. Battenburg is an excellent teacher. He is well prepared and knows so much about the class. In Linguistics, the beginning is a bit challenging because you have to learn the phonetic alphabet, but it is important for the rest of the course. I really liked the text that he chose for the class. I came into this class, thinking that later on in life I might pursue a PhD in Linguistics, Dr. Battenburg was able to further my interest in the subject area, and make realize which parts I like, and which parts I don't like. Dr. Battenburg has a great sense of humor, but is not a teacher that spends all the time trying to be funny, he gets down to the nitty gritty, and teaches the nuts and bolts, but he also uses the Socratic method and gets the class involved. He asks the students lots of questions, and keeps you on your toes. He will call on you if you're not paying attention. His class is structured so that your grade is not entirely dependent on the exams, of which there are two. They are pretty difficult tests, and they rely completely on the notes, and the text. He will make it clear what areas to know without giving you the answers, so study those. He graded on a curve for our first midterm, because the test was so difficult, and judging by how I felt after the final, and the grade I think that he had to do the same. Also, watch out when dates are involved, he pulled a surprise on me, but it is highly possible that I was not paying attention in class when he warned us of it. The history of the English language would be the subject to know the dates of for this class. To top it off, the class was in the multi-media room, and he used the computer to teach us from. He has such a good website, that you really can spend hours upon hours browsing over the information out of pure interest. The best thing about Dr. Battenburg, is that he was always able to answer the class's questions, and he had such a passion for the subject matter, but yet he wasn't a geek like all of the Linguists in the movies that he showed us were. Oh, the movies were really interesting, when one is scheduled, I would highly recommend coming to class. All in all, A +++ to Dr. Battenburg, he is worth taking for Linguistics, and I would definately sign up for any of his other classes if I needed to do so.

Dr. Battenburg was an awfull teacher. He was very unclear in how he lectured and made it really hard to take notes; he jumped all over the place. He was also very unwilling to help the students when they had questions or problems. I thought linguistics would be fun until the end of the 2nd week of class. When he gave homework out he assigned it monday for wednesday's class instead of giving us the weekend to do it. we had classes twice a week and so he would tell us on wednesday that he was going to assign homework on the following monday. Then, after we turned in the homework and asked him to go over it because it was very difficult, he told us that that was why he assigned it, to challenge us! Gee, thanks for trying to help us understand the material. Unless you want to struggle through a semester, I do not recommend taking Battenburg!!!

I really liked Dr. Battenburg. He was a good, funny professor that made a dry subject such as linguistics very tolerable. He wasn't much help on the homework which seemed to be his only flaw. FOLLOW HIS CLASS OUTLINE CLOSELY AND TAKE CLOSE NOTES ON ANYTHING ON THE OUTLINE. If you do this you will do good on the test. Take this teacher if you get the chance.

Dr. Battenburg is one of my favorite professors at Cal Poly. He was incredibly interesting as a lecturer and made linguistics so fascinating to me that I decided to be a linguistics minor. He is also funny and witty. He presented everything clearly. There were no surprises on the test. You knew exactly what was coming based on his clear powerpoints and lectures. He expects you to participate, which is not at all difficult, and, rather, makes the class all the more enjoyable. He is excellent, excellent, excellent. I am going to take him again in the fall.

After taking his class, I immediately turned in the paperwork to get a linguistics minor. I was always excited to go to this class, and had tons of fun every time I went. He is witty, clear, and organized. The material is fascinating and pretty simple to understand. He is approachable and willing to help you with any problem you may have. Amazing guy. Take him if you get a chance.

Dr. Battenburg is an excellent instructor who can take material that anyone other than English majors would find tedious and make it interesting, relevant and fun. He is passionate about the material and will help any student who needs it. I 100% recommend him.

This was a great class. With any other professor, the information would have been very dry and boring. But Professor Battenburg did an excellent job relating the material to real-life scenarios that are both relevant and interesting. This definitely was one of my harder classes, but I did not mind working hard in it because Professor Battenburg's passion for the material tends to rub off on you no matter how much you fight it. Would highly recommend.

He's the BEST. Not a hard class if you're good at memorization. Absolutely fantastic professor. Outspoken but honest. Lovely guy.

Dr. Battenburg is brutally honest and a bit tactless but he is a great professor. He explains concepts extremely well and creates an engaging environment where people can participate in discussion. His two tests are noncumulative but make sure to make flashcards early and study a lot because you need to know the information well to succeed. Homework assignments and quizzes are easy points so don't miss them! The only thing I didn't like was that he circled your name when you participate and he tended to circle male names more often then female. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not but it was just an observation a few students and I made throughout the quarter.

This course required more reading than other classes just by virtue of it being a lit class. So if you are looking for a class that doesn't require alot of prep time, this is not for you. However, if you keep up with the readings, taking this class with Prof Battenburg is a pleasure. He is well rounded in many areas of life and he relates the material to our life today. He makes the puritans and the writers that you read about in this course, come to life. He makes you know them as if they were old friend or family members of yours. Eventhough I am not an appreciator of lit, taking this course with Prof Battenburg made me look forward to the classes. He gives you clear outline of the syllabus and you sort of know what he'd be testing you on for the tests. If you prepare well and pay attention to his hints during class and the topics he emphasizes, you'll get an A. Most important for your performance however is that you read the material before class. He is not going to spoon feed you the material. You got to do your job and be ready for class discussion about the material. I highly recommend taking the class with Prof Battenburg. He is the best!

LOVE this guy! He is hilarious and super friendly. There is one midterm and the final is not cumulative. You have to identify 10 quotes from the reading and state their significance and then 1 essay question. This is an english class so yes, there's a TON of reading. But honestly the last few weeks of the quarter I was just spark-noting them and I still got an A. He gives pop quizzes like once a week so definitely keep up with your reading (or spark-noting). You also have a final paper. He is, in my opinion, a pretty harsh grader on essays (even the in-class ones), but if you go to office hours and work with him on your final paper he's very willing to help. Overall a great guy, and a good GE to take!

Professor Battenburg is an excellent English teacher, and has a great deal of insight towards Hawthorne and Melville's works (probably more, but I can't speak from experience). His lectures are interesting and often amusing, and class participation is encouraged. The course was fun and not too difficult, though one should watch the reading schedule (page numbers, in particular) with a wary eye. Showing up and participating is the bulk of the grade, especially since you'll get ideas for writing the critical paper (a large portion of the actual point value), and for the one presentation in the course. In the unlikely event that you're an engineering major, be advised that some quips and/or amusing anecdotes may be directed your way. Great professor, and one everyone will surely get along with and enjoy.

he rocks and he has an awesome name and my proffesor friend dan hawthorne likes his ass!

Taking this instructor is like being in a Twilight Zone episode. You just can