Professor Fisher is a tremendous addition to the UCLA English Department's staff. He is really outgoing and it makes studying Medieval Literature a lot more enjoyable. I really appreciated the fact that this class was research based so it allowed students to come up with their own takeaways from the readings, research some topics about it, and learn about some interesting trends from the Medieval Era in the process. Overall, the class is hard because it is Middle English and it is Chaucer. However, I seriously have no regrets taking this class. I have gained an appreciation for Medieval Literature from it and Professor Fisher is incredibly passionate about the subject. On top of the fact that he is also funny, he is very understanding and genuinely wants to see his students succeed. If you need to take your Medieval Literature requirement, don't hesitate to take it with Professor Fisher. It won't be an unbearable 10 weeks, it will actually be enjoyable, and Professor Fisher really brings great energy to the class environment despite it being a more "difficult" course.

I absolutely hated this class and would not recommend it. This class had one six-page paper (with a minimum of ten sources), a weekly discussion post (all the way into finals week), a presentation, and another seventeen to twenty-page paper (min: fifteen sources) that was overall hell, along with long readings + supplemental readings almost weekly. You could tell the professor was passionate about his field but he was not good or experienced at working/teaching undergrads and was probably used to dealing with more experienced graduation students judging by the amount of coursework he assigned to us and little to no instruction. The classes hardly discussed readings and were more focused on him empathizing with us and the difficulty of research rather than actually focusing on class topics or instruction. And when he did focus on readings it addressed the eccentricity of it, and I failed to see how it might relate to class.

Assignments were increasingly frustrating and by the end, my classmates and I were frustrated and mentally done with the content and instruction of the class. He explained he was purposefully vague with all his instructions but this made papers and presentations frustrating and I often struggled to see how assigned readings were related at all to the class topic. Unfortunately, while the professor was passionate and showed empathy it was ultimately canceled out by the amount of coursework, difficulty of topics/assignments and lack of instruction he failed to give us.

So overall I would advise dodging this class if you can.

Honestly, I went through the entire semester having no clue where my grade stands in this class. Prof. Fisher does not update the grades so it's just confusion and stress the whole time basically thinking you're failing. The material is hard, but the lectures are AMAZING!!! He is a tough grader but he tells you what he is looking for. As long as you abandon what you are typically used to when it comes to your writing-style, and adapt to his writing-style, you'll do great. Go to his office hours!! It makes a difference!

I personally did not enjoy this course whatsoever. In fact, I came into this class with the hopes of becoming an English minor, but unfortunately, I had to change the grading to P/NP to conserve my GPA. After all, this is a lower-division course.
Indeed, the majority of these reviews hit the nail on the head. Fisher is a seemingly charming and charismatic professor and he is a good lecturer (despite the sleepy material we covered in class). However, he does speak rather quickly, and I often found that my notes were rushed because I wanted to jot down as much as possible. I would avoid doing this -- you don't need to know much of the historical context for any of the pieces.
Specifically, though, I took issue with the graded essays in this course. While I would consider myself a solid writer, having good grades in my Professional Writing courses, my TA in Eng 10A consistently graded me harshly. For instance, I received a C+ on my first paper, despite going to Office Hours and discussing the content and thesis statement with my TA. What also puzzled me was that there was minimal justification for my grade. When several of the students complained about the needlessly harsh grading and suggested bringing it up at Office Hours, Fisher had the audacity to state that this might result in a lower grade. He said, verbatim, that he might look over our papers and decide our TAs were overly generous in grading. As a result, he reserved the right to lower the grade.
Finally, for the second paper, I decided to seek out my TA with more notice to discuss my paper. She glanced over my paper and told me that this would be an interesting topic and that it seemed well-written. However, she then proceeded to take three to four weeks to actually grade it. Unfortunately, because of how long the grading for this paper took, we ended the quarter without knowing our grades for the paper. After reaching out several times to my TA requesting my grade, I learned that I had received a B-. Again, there was minimal justification for the grade. At this point, I was beyond frustrated.
In sum, I think the reviewers are right. Fisher and his TAs are looking for a specific writing style, and if you're unlucky like me, you'll likely receive crappy grades regardless of how much effort you put in. Unless you're an English major/minor, I would avoid this course.

Such a good class and such a caring professor. Also, super interesting. It's clear that Prof Fisher knows his stuff. If you like reading/analyzing literature, you will most likely enjoy this class. The middle English is a little confusing at first, but trust me, you will get the hang of it. He also understands that it's tough and tries to make it enjoyable! Don't be intimidated, just take the class :)

I am leaving this review because I always think about this class. I never liked The Canterbury Tales before this class and I don’t honestly see more value to it now, but I did enjoy reading them because of this class. Fisher is very helpful when it comes to comprehension and advanced analysis instead of focusing on the racism and sexism that is present. He doesn’t dismiss the racism and sexism, ut encourages us to work more with the language and what it does for the story and the audience, which is much more interested.

There are frequent quizzes and the discussions are interactive so you want to have a fairly good handle of each assigned tale before class. His office hours are helpful.

Overall a challenging class but I would take it again it I had to take something with something as difficult for me to engage with as CT.

Each class, you will read one of the Canterbury Tales and discuss. There was the translation project and the midterm essay that took place around the middle of the quarter, with the translation project a nearly guaranteed A, and the midterm essay much harder. Apparently the skew of grades for the essay was mostly Bs, so it is not a walk in the park exactly. The readings are quite long and close reading skills are very necessary as both the midterm and the final essay are entirely comprised of close reading analysis and one is 4-5 and the other is 8-10 pages long. Office hours are perhaps necessary to succeed at least to bounce ideas off the professor who will give you a good idea if you're headed in the right direction. That being said there is a lot of creative freedom with the essays if you're into that sort of thing.

Lectures are fun and funny and Professor Fisher is engaging!

Professor Fisher is extremely clear and coherent when he gives his lectures. He was NEVER boring. He is incredibly articulate but can also never entirely cover the readings assigned the class before. If he ends up grading your paper...you're pretty much doomed. He is extremely understanding and patient with your questions and concerns when you go into his office hours, but if you ask him a question in lecture, he may come off as kind of arrogant or condescending (but it also just depends on what kind of mood he is in). My one tip however is to READ THE TEXTS. ALL OF THEM.

Fisher is an amazing lecturer, each class was a new depth in understanding the content. Fisher can sometimes come off as harsh, especially in regards to paper grading and feedback, but he overall is just trying to make you the best writer/analyzer possible. He is also extremely helpful in office hours, and he appreciates you coming in so go on in if you fell you need help. I truly loved this class, it gave me a new way to look at texts, increased my idea of depth.