<p>So I was looking at the writing 20 classes and found a few I was interested in, but which had not so positive teacher reviews. I was wondering, is it better to go with the teacher or the class topic when choosing your writing 20 class?</p>
<p>Also, could anyone suggest noteworthy writing 20 teachers for freshmen to consider taking, whether in terms of ease, helpfulness, etc.? </p>
<p>How are Professors Robin A Smith, Cary A Moskovitz, Michael Ennis, Lee Anne Reilly, and Marcia Crego?</p>
<p>I'd say go with a good teacher. A good teacher can make a boring course fun but a bad teacher can make even the best of courses unbearable. </p>
<p>Personally I took Coral Reefs with Prof. R. Vidra. I wasn't too interested in coral reefs and such but she was a good teacher and made the class interesting. It also helped that the workload was light and she's a fair grader if you do what she asks.</p>
<p>Edit: last I heard she's still taching writing 20 but with a different topic, if anyone is interested.</p>
<p>While I understand what SBR is saying, I'd have to disagree, respectfully. If you take a course with material that interests (or has the potential to interest) you, you'll be far more likely to enjoy the course and do the work necessary to do well. Remember, 90% of college work is outside of class... with the material, and while good instructors like Prof. Vidra can make a class interesting, charm can only go so far.</p>
<p>Another thing you have to keep in mind is that if the professor is teaching the Writing class, he or she has to have interest in the course material. If you're interested in the material as well, the professor has a reason to like you. On the other hand, you have no idea how quickly instructors can tell when someone has no interest in their field of interest. </p>
<p>In reality though: the Duke Writing department does an excellent job not only having the small class size (12!) for Writing, but creating topics for classes that have already been explored by existing faculty. A Shakespearean expert will not be teaching a Science Fiction class. More often than not, course = teacher.</p>
<p>But also keep in mind that while some professors are engaged in the course, the average student might not appreciate having tons of reading or writing assignments. teachers don't get bad ratings out of the blue. </p>
<p>I'm not suggesting that anyone take a class that they aren't even remotely interested in just for a good teacher. I, for example, will never take a Shakespeare class willingly, no matter how good the professor is. I'm merely advocating choosing a less interesting class with a good teacher instead of a very interesting class with a bad teacher.</p>
<p>I'm not suggesting you place interest in course absolutely over quality of teacher either. I was saying that because I've never heard of any professors in the Writing department being terrible, picking a class that you're especially interested in with an non-eloquent professor would be preferable over a boring topic (this, of course is subjective - for me Writing about Durham would be an example) with a really interesting professor. Like I said before, personality can only go so far.</p>
<p>This is also a tradeoff decision that each of you will have to make for yourselves. You've heard both sides. Keep in mind two things though... if you'll look on ratemyprofessors.com at the Writing professors' rankings, "Quality of Course" and "Ease" correlate very highly, so more often than not, course = teacher.</p>
<p>To answer your question, floridastudent. Go on ratemyprofessors.com, get to Duke, sort by Department Name and go to Writing to compare. I can tell you that I had Betsy Verhoeven (different topic for her this year) and she was excellent. Other Writing profs with high (over 4.0 in both categories) rankings, removing outliers with low number of rankings are:</p>
<p>Gretchen Case
Erik Harms
Maya Parson
Betsy Verhoeven</p>
<p>Edit: Apparently Professors Harms and Parson aren't instructing a course next semester, and there will, of course, be new ones who are awesome.</p>
<p>Ennis is a really easy grader. I found the topic unbelievably boring, but he's a fair guy. He lets you rewrite any paper for regrades and really helps out with your writing. Highly recommend him.</p>
<p>I had Moskovitz and I don't know if I'd say he's really good....
The class has very little work compared to other classes (you don't have to write a paper once week like you have to in some). But, when you do have work, it is with a group and it can be frustrating to find a time when 4 Duke students can all meet together to work on a paper. The topics for his class are also pretty specific so it can get boring after a while.</p>
<p>I was just wondering why do people always recommend taking writing 20 second semester?
thank you
and also I'm trying to decide between the genetics and society (Smith, Robin) writing 20 course and writing in and about medicine (Case, Gretchen). any suggestions? I heard Case is a very good instructor.</p>
<p>I think Pratt recommends all engineers to take writing 20 second semester. I don't know if it's true this year but I think I remembered being assigned which semester to take writing 20 and wasn't permitted to register for the other semester. It would make sense to do that to spread out the students evenly between semesters.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I think Pratt recommends all engineers to take writing 20 second semester.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sorry but I have never, ever heard of that from anybody (I'm in Pratt myself too). If you'll look at the Pratt website under the first year plan,</p>
<p>you'll see that the option to take Writing 20 appears in both semesters. I also had a friend last year who didn't find any writing classes remaining she liked first semester, so she waited until second semester. SBR, you might have not been allowed to register because you had already taken it first semester.</p>
<p>I could be wrong, but I'd be very surprised. In that case, I apologize ahead of time because I definitely didn't read my registration book well enough freshman year, haha, but I do know engineers that have taken it both semesters.</p>
<p>floridastudent: I'd actually recommend taking Writing 20 first semester. Most of the classes you will take first semester will have some to lots of froshes in it, Writing 20 is the only class where it is guaranteed where everybody will be in the same year as you. It's a very good way to meet people early on who, coincidentally, have similar interests in Writing. The only times I would suggest taking it second semester are if there are other classes you really want to take that are only offered first semester, or if you have third window first semester and there are no good (or any) topics left in which case waiting until spring when you have second window would be best.</p>
<p>HiWei, I could be wrong. But I took writing 20 second semester. I thought I remembered something like that in the registration guide on ACES, but then again, I couldn't really find it again.</p>
<p>I know people mentioned Ennis and Moskovitz, but any ideas on which one you'd choose over the other? The way my schedule is worked out I need to choose between the two.</p>