ENWR 1510

I took this class as Writing with Resilience, and it was my favorite class this semester. The writing you do is more personal, less English-essay like, and you get to collaborate a lot with your peers: give feedback, discuss, stuff like that. You have 3 larger essays throughout the semester that are about 1000 words long, and about 1 discussion post per class that is about 250 words. There is also usually a short reading that goes along with the discussion post for homework that is a few pages long, so it is not that bad. Professor Donovan and your classmates will give you helpful feedback that makes you think about your piece and where you want it to go rather than scrutinize parts and tell you what to do, which I think is more helpful. This is a class that lets you interact with your classmates more if that is something you like. A lot of people in my class really liked this course even though they are not typically English oriented people. #tCFspring2021

This man is nothing short of gift to the UVA community. Not only does he facilitate an amazing environment in class, but he is incredibly accepting and understanding of each student that comes into his classroom. He is reasonable, smart, educated, and a born teacher. As a new father, Professor Donovan adopts this same mindset in his teaching. I felt as though he really cared for me, and he made it clear, following up after engaging but emotional class discussions with emails that echoed: "thank you for showing your vulnerable side today. I, alongside your classmates, applaud you for your courage. Thank you for pushing our discussions forward and being such an integral part of what makes this classroom go-'round." If you have the opportunity, take a class with him. It will be the best thing you do here at UVA.

Devin is an amazing instructor. Our course theme was "The Contemplative Pause" and I learned a lot from the course. I felt like I learned techniques that were applicable to more than just writing, which was really important to me. Devin is super easy-going and is flexible with due dates. You have three papers but he always gave in-class time to work on revisions which helped a lot with completing assignments. I would highly recommend this course to anyone for the first writing requirement. You will not regret it. #tCFspring2022

Devin has got to be one of the best professors at UVA. He is truly a great guy and just wants you to enjoy writing a smidge of how much he does. Even if you do not like writing his enthusiasm rubs off on you and the 3 essays you write about understanding your relationship to writing become somewhat fun. He just wants you to write as you want to so that you can understand what writing can do for you in whatever course that takes you through. During our semester we used the Contemplative Pause, which encompassed reflecting on and exploring our writing and thoughts. At the end of the semester there was an ENWR symposium and our class was the only one, who was actually proud of the work we did, because we got to write about what we wanted to and not about literature or ethics or something a teacher has a fixed mindset on and wants you to write their way. Fair warning though, at the beginning of the semester there are discussion posts and readings that take about an hour for many classes though they are important to break down your high school notion of what an essay should be and should not deter you from taking this class. As long as you put a little effort into your essays and spend time with his revision process you will get an easy A.

First things first, he goes by devin or djd instead of Professor Donovan. This class is easy to do well in if you are willing to put in the effort. This means following the lengthy revision process, realizing where your weaknesses lie, and being open to change. Your entire grade is determined by the final portfolio which sounds daunting, but Devin allows revision on just about anything, including discussion posts that did not originally meet specifications. #tCFS24

Personally, this class was not for me. While I did learn a lot and the homework was doable, I found Professor Donovan to be hard to talk to.

Take this for the easy A, you don't HAVE to learn anything if you don't want to, but if you invest yourself into what Professor Donovan teaches then you can learn a lot about yourself and your writing. I personally didn't but I see how the readings he provided and way he structured everything could really help you especially if you are coming into college as not the most confident writer. The grading and assignments were pretty annoying but as long as you complete everything you'll get an A, and he'll remind you if you fall behind.

I also second the other review, I honestly found Professor Donovan really hard to talk to one-on-one, but in class it seemed much better. Regardless though, I've heard other ENWR horror stories so definitely take this if you can get switch into it, you'll probably save yourself a huge headache as a first year.