Probably one of the worst graders. He does not have a clear grading scale in the syllabus, when you take the midterm he grades however he wants. Horrible horrible in grading. Avoid this teacher.

Suman is extremely knowledgeable on the topic and can be humorous, but consistently goes off on tangents. However, I took this class Fall quarter of 2021 and it was asynchronous. The pre-recorded lectures are just audio with no visuals and literally there could be 4 a week (each an hour long and sometimes longer). Those sucked. I hated just having the audio. I watched (or should I say listened to) every single one and it was truly excruciating. There are only THREE grades: an essay, the midterm, and the final. I did horribly on the midterm, so I had to ensure that I performed well on the other two. Funnily enough -- TO THIS DAY I still do not have grades inputed for my essay or final. I have no idea how I did. I must have done well enough to end with an A- (and now I don't have a 4.0 ... #tragic). The readings for discussion section made me lethargic, but they were nothing compared to the behemoths of readings that Suman either wrote himself or wanted us to read. Also -- there is just no conceivable way that you will finish the essays for the midterm/final feeling confident because so many people finished with seconds to spare. Suman is undeniably a true expert on this subject though.

Be prepared to teach yourself the entire quarter with Suman. He only posts audio podcasts as lectures, no accompanying videos or slides, where he will go on many side tangents. This podcast format did a disservice to an otherwise interesting class. TA was virtually nonexistent, didn't even know their name and didn't have any contact/criticism/help from them once. Suman grades notoriously hard, I was expecting this from other reviews, but I scored low on the midterm and was not given a single word of criticism or suggestions on how I could improve. I spent weeks on the research paper, put my all into it, just to score low on it also - only problem is, all of the comments left on the paper were positive and complimenting my thesis and analyses. Not sure why I scored low, and wish I had some form of critique to grow from. Overall, least engaging class I've ever had, but interesting concepts if you're a media studies comm major. Also, final grade in class is based on only 3 assignments, so be prepared!

Do not take Suman if you don’t have to. He is not clear about his expectations for essays and tests, and punishes you greatly for things that were not even discussed in the prompt. He has also not adjusted well to online learning, he posts podcast with no powerpoint or video, and they are impossible to learn from. The title of this class seems really fun, but I promise you he will ruin your interest in this topic.

Ready to take the final for this class? Hope your plan involves a lot of guessing as the tests are scattershot and not at all representative of what the lectures and h/w covered. Best of luck!

This class changed dramatically after the midterm. Before the midterm, material was focused on interpersonal communication like flirting and lying and demanded an intense amount of hours every week but was pretty interesting. After the midterm, material focused on mass communication which became much less tangible and more confusing. The class readings take up a huge amount of time. All notes MUST be handwritten and can be used on the tests ONLY IF they are on the readings; notes taken on the lectures are not allowed in the tests, which do not focus on the seemingly main points of the class; instead, they often focus on obscure concepts mentioned once in lecture. This class took up insane amounts of time last quarter, taking valuable time away from other classes.

Overall the class offers some interesting stuffs to learn. And I like Suman personally. It's just that the grading of this course is really old-fashioned and quite unfair to some extent. Memorizing (tons of them) are actually the better part in this course, the worst part is the cheat sheet. You could be reading hundreds of pages and writing down 20 pages of cheat sheets carefully but still missing the questions on the tests, which are insanely detailed and some are not even relevant to the central theme at all. TA grades very harshly on short answer questions, missing out THAT KEY TERM can lead you to lose score even if you demonstrate correct understanding of the concept. Not to mention the grading of paper, every punctuation counts. I'd say as long as you put into effort, a B can be expected, but an A requires not only effort but some fortune and luck as well (like getting an easy-grading TA, getting the questions you have written down on the cheat sheet, etc.)

SELLING 30-PAGE TYPED POST-MIDTERM LECTURE NOTES (pre-midterm is mostly pretty basic, intuitive concepts but post-midterm is the hard part. You will probably miss out something on lecture and the typed notes can be very helpful for review) AND ALL ONLINE READING NOTES
Text me at ********** if interested.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. I am in week 10 of this class right now and RUN AWAY. SUMAN DOES NOT CARE ABOUT HIS STUDENTS AT ALL! He has not been understanding or accommodating during the pandemic or the great injustices we are witnessing right now, and that some students are affected by protests/ national guard deployment. He grades based on whether the definitions are verbatim and his tests are SO long- (midterm 3 hours and took the full time) He only has 1 TA grading all the work so we are in week 10 and only have 1 grade and will not receive our papers until after it is too late to change the class to p/np

I absolutely loved this class. The exams are hard and they will grade you extremely harshly. However, the content is very interesting and Prof Suman is very knowledgeable so I think many people including myself will have a good time learning the class content. I still advise people to not take this course for a GE, the time and energy you will have to put in to study for the midterm and the final to get a good grade is not worth it. That being said, if you are taking this course for Communication major, don't be discouraged by the number. If you are interested in the topic you will have a good time!
GO to his office hours!!! They are extremely helpful.

Some might be turned off by this class because of Suman's teaching style and the nightmares Comm 10 brought to most of us but this class is nothing like that. Although Suman both classes share the same format (Midterm, Paper, Final), this is class is not only easier but more interesting than Comm 10. The content of this material is way more engaging and practical. This class is all about persuasion and compliance which is wholly practical in your everyday life and something that is very useful in whatever field or walk of life you pursue.

However, there are four movies and two books to read throughout the quarter which depending on what other courses you are taking in conjunction with Comm 140, the workload can seem slightly overwhelming but if you plan your time right and since there are no assignments, homework, or quizzes throughout the quarter I would say it is a fair trade-off and definitely manageable.

Overall I would say that I was very pleased with the course and developed skills and garnered knowledge that will prove invaluable in life.

TL:DR Easier than Comm 10. Interesting content. Valuable life and work skills. 2 books & 4 movies but no other work besides final, midterm, and paper. Overall great experience.

**I would like to caveat that I took this class online due to the pandemic so there might be slight differences between the way he teaches and proctors his courses online versus in-person.