Professor
Michelle Yuan
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2025 - She must've curved it because I swear I failed the final (and did "fine" on the midterms & assignments) yet got above 100% in the class. Aside from that, though, Prof. Yuan was very clear and considerate. Shoutout to my TA who was also wonderful. Attendance not mandatory, audio recorded I think. Tests were mildly difficult as mentioned above, homework was challenging but reasonable. If you have a knack for grammar or enjoy breaking down logic and patterns then I highly recommend this class! I'm no longer a linguistics major due to personal reasons but as the first and only ling upper div I took, it was the best class I could've asked for. If I redid my undergrad I'd still take this class with Prof. Yuan :)
Spring 2025 - She must've curved it because I swear I failed the final (and did "fine" on the midterms & assignments) yet got above 100% in the class. Aside from that, though, Prof. Yuan was very clear and considerate. Shoutout to my TA who was also wonderful. Attendance not mandatory, audio recorded I think. Tests were mildly difficult as mentioned above, homework was challenging but reasonable. If you have a knack for grammar or enjoy breaking down logic and patterns then I highly recommend this class! I'm no longer a linguistics major due to personal reasons but as the first and only ling upper div I took, it was the best class I could've asked for. If I redid my undergrad I'd still take this class with Prof. Yuan :)
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2025 - Ling 165B was definitely a step up from syntax I (120B), but I personally found the material pretty intuitive to grasp and interact with (also, I did not take Syntax I with prof Yuan). Professor Yuan's lectures were not recorded due to the classroom we were in, but she always posted lecture slides and handouts. I found her handouts to be a great resource to annotate in lecture or review on the days I was unable to attend in person. Her lectures can often feel a bit dense or difficult to understand just through reading, so I'd recommend going in person as much as possible. Discussion sections were not mandatory but attendance was an opportunity for extra credit + I found Joe's sections extremely helpful. Prof Yuan's homework requires a solid understanding of the class material and pushes you to apply them further in ways that weren't directly taught in class. I found them a bit difficult but always averaged above 90% on them. There are also weekly check-ins that help you see where you're at in understanding the material. Quizzes occurred every odd numbered week and consisted only of drawing trees, which I found very fair for the most part, except for some super long sentences/ones that combine lots of features to look out for. I found the final most interesting though, because we got to choose a research paper from a set list and write a relatively short (8-10 pg double space) response to it, which was really just answering thing like what the main argument + evidence was, what parts were interesting/confusing, etc.
Fall 2025 - Ling 165B was definitely a step up from syntax I (120B), but I personally found the material pretty intuitive to grasp and interact with (also, I did not take Syntax I with prof Yuan). Professor Yuan's lectures were not recorded due to the classroom we were in, but she always posted lecture slides and handouts. I found her handouts to be a great resource to annotate in lecture or review on the days I was unable to attend in person. Her lectures can often feel a bit dense or difficult to understand just through reading, so I'd recommend going in person as much as possible. Discussion sections were not mandatory but attendance was an opportunity for extra credit + I found Joe's sections extremely helpful. Prof Yuan's homework requires a solid understanding of the class material and pushes you to apply them further in ways that weren't directly taught in class. I found them a bit difficult but always averaged above 90% on them. There are also weekly check-ins that help you see where you're at in understanding the material. Quizzes occurred every odd numbered week and consisted only of drawing trees, which I found very fair for the most part, except for some super long sentences/ones that combine lots of features to look out for. I found the final most interesting though, because we got to choose a research paper from a set list and write a relatively short (8-10 pg double space) response to it, which was really just answering thing like what the main argument + evidence was, what parts were interesting/confusing, etc.
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