<p>So I went through the catalogue and picked out about 10 FWS's that I was interested in, haha. The following will probably be my top 5 (not necessarily in this order)...just hoping to get some feedback on the topics and, especially, the professors.</p>
<p>ENGL 1111: "Thinking Across Cultures: Good Taste - Food and Writing"
Prof. Sarah Cote</p>
<p>ENGL 1134: "Memoir and Memory"
Prof. Anne Marie Rooney</p>
<p>ENGL 1147: "The Mystery in the Story"
Prof. Noor Hashem</p>
<p>ENGL 1185: "Writing About Literature: Mothers and Metaphors"
Prof. Sang Yin Wu</p>
<p>THETR 1230: "Performing Asian/American Identities of the 20th Century"
Prof. Jen-Hao Hsu</p>
<p>Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Also, if any of these are offered pretty much every semseter, I'd like to know so that I can put it further down my list for this term.</p>
<p>Ooh, I was thinking about the Food and Writing one too! I hope someone can provide some info on it. I am definitely no gourmet, but the part about restaurant reviews sounded fun.</p>
<p>Within my only available time slot, there aren’t very many I’m interested in although one about Medieval Midwives sounds sort of intriguing.</p>
<p>I took ENGL 1147 the mystery in the story. It was alright, essays weren’t that bad, and readings were interesting. But it’s impossible to say anything though since I had a different instructor. It pretty much all depends on who’s teaching.</p>
<p>@calabacin: cool! yeah, it sounds like a really interesting class…i’ve never really critiqued food, but as a food network junkie, this seminar really appealed to me and the medieval midwives & births seminar is on my longer list! heh.</p>
<p>@tmk: i figured it really does depend on the professor…unfortunately, ratemyprof has very little info on the members of cornell’s english department lol.</p>
<p>Yeah, there actually aren’t that many ratemyprofs posts on FWS instructors since very many of them are grad students or “lecturers” and not real professors.</p>
<p>I took food and writing last year and thought it was a decent class. At the beginning of each class someone would bring in food, usually snack food, for everyone to try and describe. There was only one book to read but a lot of mini readings that you didn’t really have to do. There was a decent amount of writing, I think 6 papers, including a restaurant review and a paper on obesity. The prof. was a pretty easy grader and most of the discussions were student led. If you have any other questions I’d be glad to answer them</p>
<p>@hzbball: thanks for the info! did you have professor cote, and would you say it was a more “fun” seminar than most? also, when you say that you had to describe the food, do you mean its apperance, or its taste/texture/etc?</p>
<p>I was under the impression that most FWS are taught by TA’s. When you sign up for those classes, does it mean that those particular ones are actually taught by professors? Or if it gives you a name like Professor Cote, does that actually mean she’ll be teaching the class?</p>
<p>I did have prof. cote. I’d say that some classes were fun, but others were terribly boring. Before every class we read excerpts that the prof. obtained. Some were interesting but others were dull. In terms of the food descriptions, she would have us write a paragraph or so on the taste, texture, and anything about the food. These weren’t really graded, she just made sure we did them.</p>
<p>For FWS, professors are more experienced than graduate students and, in my opinion, usually are better. But this is not true in general; it varies a lot by instructor. </p>
<p>I took something similar to Memoir and Memory. We studied a lot about the difference between autobiography and memoir, what makes an effective memoir, challenges and problems with memory, etc. It was really interesting for me.</p>
<p>Tchaikovsky, the FWS you took does sound really, really interesting…thinking again about what hzbball said, the food description exercises aren’t exactly what I had in mind for that seminar. I’d probably enjoy Memoir and Memory more, but I understand that the quality of the class really depends on the professor/grad student. It’s okay with me that Rooney is a grad student, but I’d love to hear more about her teaching style, anyway.</p>
<p>Also, is it recommended to take a seminar that sounds more “intellectual,” or is it okay to take something perhaps more interesting, like the food fws? And does it matter what department your fws is in? for example, I might take the Asian/American theater fws, but I’ll probably never take another course in the theater department again. How much do grad schools really care about your freshman writing courses?</p>
<p>So its better to go for classes with professors? Two of the people I talked to both seemed to have fairly negitive memories regarding their FWS’s.</p>
<p>@countryangel, I don’t think grad schools care about the subject of the writing class that you took in the slightest, they just care that you know how to write. Take the opportunity to do things you wouldn’t have the chance to do otherwise, this IS college :).</p>
<p>ugh i can barely find any seminars that fit in my schedule, much less ones that interest me :/</p>
<p>but there are some that are possible if i change a discussion section, have the willpower to get up for an 8:40 class, or can figure out if its reasonable to get from PE to a class in 30 minutes. </p>
<p>does anyone know anything about the following?</p>
<p>A Sea of Islands: Identity an Art in the Pacific [Bernida Webb-Binder]</p>
<p>Language and Politics: Politics and Truth in Social Realism [Sarah Pickle]</p>
<p>Multiple Voices: The Fatal Allure of Narcissism [Yoon Oh]</p>
<p>Writing About Film [multiple seminars]</p>
<p>American Literature and Culture: Strange Visions [Ryan Dirks]</p>
<p>**Inventing Race: Racial Ideas in European and American Culture **[Peter Staudenmaier]</p>
<p>Sound, Sense, and Ideas: World Musics, Global Cultures [Samuel Dwinell]</p>
<p>also does anyone know about American Literature and Culture: Hollywood Babylon, Reporting from Hell, or Philosophical Conversations: The Good Life?
they are the ones that most interest me, except there’s a major conflict with my schedule i’m considering seeing if i could switch a class if anyone knows whether the classes are worth it</p>
and the medieval midwives & births seminar is on my longer list! heh.</p>
</p>
i’m considering seeing if i could switch a class if anyone knows whether the classes are worth it</p>