Honestly, yes this course was hard, but I really learned a lot about writing. Dr. York is a really hard grader and your chances of getting a good grade are not too high, but I would recommend this because of what I learned. It's not too much work. An hour of reading a week if you skim, a 300 work forum post every week, and three 1600-1750 word essays. Also, the final is pretty hard, but it only takes about ten hours, so not too bad. The lectures/discussions are pretty boring unless you are engaged and did the readings. Dr. York is a really smart professor, really cares about her students, and she is a very kind person in general. This class it really good for people who actually want to learn something.

Entirely too much work for a required class. Dr. York finds a way to make any activity far more work than is necessary, and frequently with no explained reasoning. Going to this class felt like detention every day. I was lucky that she thought my writing was good, so I was able to scratch an A out, but I know that I was one of very few, and that's frankly just not a good standard for a required intro-level english class. She is very enthusiastic which is I guess encouraging but so often her enthusiasm is at your cost- she expects you to be as excited as she is at every single step of this class, and let me be clear, there are many, many, steps of this class. I very highly recommend that you avoid this class unless you're an absolute Shakespeare enthusiast. At which point, just take a damn upper level to be honest.

This class was terrible!!! Do not take it! I was only stuck in the course because the school made it appear that based on my last name I had to take one this semester. This was the only one open.... and boy do I now know why. She grades incredibly hard, grades to her own opinions, and assumes we have far more prior knowledge than we actually do. Some weeks required 30 hours of work or more (especially when a paper was coming up). I worked my butt off and was only able to get an A- (one of the highest grades in the class). Take it from me... DON'T STEP FOOT IN THE CLASSROOM!!!

I took this class my first semester and I don't know who these other reviewers had because they must have had another professor. Professor York is amazing. She is so sweet and passionate about the class. The topic was gender and musicals, which means that for HW you would have to watch musicals. I am not a drama person, but it was much better than reading a book. There are supplementary reading assignments most nights and professor York isn't the easiest grader, but I got an A- overall and a lot of other classes were much more difficult. She is very clear with her instructions on how to write your papers and the material we cover is very interesting (ie. transgender, racism, gender identities). I had this as a 9am and I never missed 1 class (which is saying a lot for me). You have 3 papers throughout the semester and the final is to revise one of your essays so that the new grade replaces the old one. Anyway, highly recommend.

Don't make this mistake, even if it is the only class open. She grades way too harshly, and class material is very dry.

Gretchen is not the teacher to take an ENWR with. If you're in her section get out fast. She makes the class much harder than it needs to be.