Selling Course Books for English Comp 3

1. Testament of Youth by Vera Mary Brittain: $3

2. Regeneration by Pat Barker: $3

3. The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell: $3

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The class mainly consisted of 2 formal essays and one reflection essay for the course as a whole. As someone who took supposedly hard STEM classes, this class still took up more time than both of my other classes combined. The essay topics that were given to us were about place/architecture and how it affected people and movements. In my experience and several of my other classmates, this was an extremely difficult topic to write about and form a thesis around. She didn't provide student essays for us and a lot of the peer essays I read were really different because we interpreted the prompt differently. The timeline of the essays and when certain drafts were due also made it difficult to finish everything especially at the end. For example, during week 10, the last essay's working draft was due Tuesday morning while the final draft for all essays, including the last one, were all due Thursday morning. During week 10, me and other classmates stayed up extremely late on multiple days to get things done. I had multiple occurrences where I would interact with people on my floor that just woke up because of how long I stayed up. Also, in the beginning of the quarter, there were weeks where there were 20 pages of reading due on one day and then another 30 two days later. Although I like reading, the readings we were assigned didn't feel completely relevant to the essays we wrote and were written by people who assumed the readers already had a solid grasp on the topic they were writing about. This made it extremely hard to read all the pages since the authors would reference terms of events that aren't common knowledge. Heavy workload aside, I do feel like I learned a lot in the class and I think office hours are extremely helpful since the professor directly points out things that you need to fix in your essays. She doesn't give grades throughout the quarter but if you ask her what she would give you, she'll tell you two grades. One will be in respect to what she expects at that time in the quarter and the grade she'd give if they were the final products at the end of the quarter. I think this was helpful cause it put into perspective how much work still needed to be done. She's also really nice and got us food at the end of the quarter and when we had to watch a movie outside of class hours. Biggest piece of advice is to go to office hours before the final drafts are due since it's the easiest way to guarantee an A in the class.

Okay, I'm not going to lie. This class was the most demanding of my study list and all my other classes were STEM, so... take that however you will. This class also had a theme (which I was not the biggest fan of but I thought it was cool - also I think it changes each quarter, though I am not sure). The theme was extremely and oddly niche, and that is what the entire course was centered around from the reading to the writing. I thought the course as a whole was really interesting but it hardly felt like a Writing I class. It felt more like those weirdly specific upper-division classes. The grade is based off a final portfolio you provide at the end of the quarter, and I still don't know how I feel about it. I've had instructors in the past use this approach to grading and part of me hates it because a lot of it is arbitrary and part of me likes it because it's so holistic. Nevertheless I really enjoyed what I learned in this class, and it was really impactful. I think it's definitely the type of class where you get what you put into the class. If you work hard, it will be rewarding and interesting. Definitely not my favorite but I'm also not the biggest fan of writing in general so I encourage anyone reading to take my opinions with a grain of salt, but definitely consider all the facts of the class I was able to provide.

Take this class. I am a stem major and I literally hate anything reading, writing, or analyzing. This class was extremely manageable and I highly recommend McIver. Lowkey felt like she was passive aggressive towards me at times but that might've just been me, but she's really helpful. The class was graded as follows: 80% portfolio and 20% in class participation, discussions, attendance, etc. The portfolio consisted of 2 major essays, a short one and an analytical one, drafts leading up to the final draft, and then peer reviews that you did for other people's essays. I really liked how approachable she was at times, and the workload was literally just one discussion post a week (no word count) and some reading that wasn't really required just maybe skim over it and you're fine. I would definitely take this class again, and also this class was just kinda interesting. It focused on protests throughout Los Angeles and their impact so it was (although I literally hate writing with a passion), kinda interesting. This class is definitely a light workload, and not a class you should constantly be worrying about. I definitely recommend this teacher and I would definitely take this class again.

Overall, I feel like taking this class with Dr. McIver is a good choice. She does a very good job at helping you improve your work and always gives you constructive feedback on your work. The class grade comes 80% from your final portfolio which is a compilation of all of your work throughout the quarter, and 20% from class community which is participation pretty much. I got an A- because I had too much going on, hence a lower class community grade. But if you're able to attend every class and talk, you should do great. She always lets you know what to improve on so you can actually learn. Some of the assignments felt a bit menial/silly, with 1-3 readings/assignments due two days out of the week. But I feel like this class is worth it.

I would definitely recommend taking this class with Dr. McIver. When I took it this year, our grade was based off of our final portfolio that we turned in at the end of the quarter. The portfolio consisted of two essays that we wrote throughout the quarter and their drafts, along with a learning letter demonstrating our growth throughout the class and any other worksheets or notes we wanted to include. I enjoyed seeing the improvement of my writing skills through turning in multiple drafts of an essay and receiving feedback instead of turning in an essay once and getting the grade from there. Dr. McIver gives lots of resources for help and always encourages questions and to come to her many office hours. It was clear that she truly cares about her students and their success in this class. I hope to have her again!

It was a privilege to take English Composition 3 with Dr. McIver. For Fall 2015, the theme of the course was "Rhetoric of World War I", which I found to be pleasantly enjoyable. She "requires" that you read 5 textbooks, which total to over $100. The class discussions were driven by the reading required from the syllabus, which ranged from 80-100 pages of dense material before each class period. The course was definitely reading heavy (You can get away with not doing the reading if you skim sparknotes and participate in class). It is imperative that you show up for class because a lot of the grade goes to "Class Community"(participation) and she is more likely to give you a better grade if you are more engaged in the class.
There were 2 essays for the course, which were to be turned into a portfolio that was turned in at the end of the quarter for a final grade. It was nice that she used this system because you could revise all of your papers and writing up until Week 10. There were no strict due dates for the papers except the last day of class.
The first essay was a Rhetorical Analysis essay and the second essay was a Research Paper. For the research paper's topic was very flexible and anything related to the course could be chosen.
Some tips for her class:
1. Go to office hours to develop a reputation and to get more feedback on your work.
2. Participate a lot in class
3. Get a lot of feedback for your essays because Dr. McIver will definitely steer you in the right direction.
Overall, I loved her class and I would definitely recommend that you take English Comp 3 with McIver if you are up for a challenge. My writing definitely improved as a result.

Selling Course Books for English Comp 3

1. The Bedford Handbook- $25

2. Cyrano De Bergerac- $5

3. Pygmalion- $5

4. The Awakening- $5

5. Bel Canto- $5

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Very good professor and you will learn a lot, however, the workload is very heavy for an ENG COMP 3 class. Not really a "GPA booster" professor.

This was by far one of my favorite classes this quarter!!! Dr. McIver was so helpful and approachable throughout the entire quarter. I definitely feel like I improved immensely as a writer throughout the ten weeks. Dr. McIver led interesting discussions that never failed to enlighten me and constantly created an engaging classroom environment. Overall, I'm so grateful to have had Dr. McIver for english comp 3. 10/10 would recommend!!!