Professor Shuger's class was chaotic and difficult to put it simply. She ensures that it is impossible to get a decent grade with her unreasonable focus on grammar rather than on your understanding of the content of the readings itself.

The workload throughout the quarter is made up of weekly short essays where she asks students to pose a question about the reading and attempt to answer it. While this may seem simple, Shuger takes a ridiculous amount of time to line edit each essay based on the grammar she prefers and grades harshly if you misplace a single comma or use what she deems to be the incorrect use of common words like "as" and "similar," often barring them completely from use in the essays. On top of all of this, she grades on a check, check plus, check minus scale, which translates poorly into legitimate letter grades.

All of the lectures are scattered and poorly planned – often with problematic anecdotes thrown in every now and then. They do little to none in terms of aiding in student understanding of the complicated readings, leading to essays that she once again deems as subpar.

The only positive thing about this class is Shuger's absurd fascination with the power of the internet and that everything has a wikipedia page. But that does not make this class worth your time. Do. Not. Take. This. Class.

Professor Shuger was an absolutely delightful person who sang in class, went off on tangents, talked about childhood stories, the classics in a beautiful way.

However that said, I did not learn very much from her class because there was really no direction. She really wanted you to learn on your own by reading the texts because she did not discuss even half the material you were supposed to cover the class session. Furthermore, she was very unclear and ambiguous in her directions which confused a lot of us.

The best way to receive an A in her class and to learn something is to put in the extra work by seeing her in office hours and talking about the material one on one: and also sitting in the front row and helping her get distracted from the course material. I'm sure all those students received at least A-'s just by talking nonsense with her during class.

Dr. Shuger is fascinating. She has read about everything! If you ever need to know about something, do not hesitate to contact her, she will probably know what you should read. You will not feel intimidated by her; she's extremely kind and welcoming. Her passion for literature radiates during lecture.By the way, she also happens to sing lovely! In other words, she's the English dept Muse and anyone wanting to learn from the BEST should take one of her classes.