ENWR 1510

Devin Donovan is the best professor I have had so far at UVA. He is highly intelligent, an effective educator, and cares deeply about the well-being of his students. This course's curriculum was skillfully designed as a progressive learning experience. Through engaging class discussions, deep, meaningful feedback by prof. Donovan, and an abundance of writing, I improved my skills throughout this course. It is both a fun and helpful course which is a rare combination to find. Highly recommended.

Professor Donovan provides very useful feedback and I feel that I am really improving throughout the semester.

Not a bad class. It's graded based on a portfolio, so you have no idea how you're doing all semester, and if you ask him, he'll say "How do YOU think you're doing?" Homework is pretty easy, it's usually one reading and a paragraph. My advice: 1) Make every piece of writing your best, even if it's a small homework assignment 2) do the readings, all of them 3) meet with him about your essays, even if he tells you to re-write the whole thing and 4) go to class. Overall, the only really hard parts are the writing projects, which can get pretty long. The class discussions can be a little hard to grasp at times, but otherwise, I would recommend.

This is a great class. A lot of English professors think so highly of themselves and believe they're passing on some sort of "gift of writing." Professor Donovan doesn't do that at all. He genuinely cares about making his students better writers, and his feedback on papers is fantastic. The comments that he makes are really meant to make you challenge the ideas that you've written about, and make your more conscious of how your readers will respond to your work. This was easily the best course I took this Fall.

Contrary to all of the other opinions on this page, I did not generally care for Professor Donovan. He came off as somewhat rude, when kids didn't understand they were supposed to turn certain homework assignments into the class forum vs. submit via assignments (which was not very clear on the syllabus), then he would not give them credit even if they showed they had done it. This was the worst class I took this semester, and I don't hate writing that much. The readings were interesting half the time and when we had class discussions on them, those were super interesting. Each homework was read something in the notebook you buy at N.K. print then write a paragraph on it. The three writing projects were graded VERY arbitrarily and I'm not even sure how you were supposed to get a good grade on them. The first was 3-4 pages, then 5-6 pages, then 7-8 pages. I will admit they weren't too awful because the prompts were very vague so you got to write about whatever you wanted. Mandatory meetings with the instructor were helpful in figuring out what you did wrong. Your grade for each writing project isn't final because you get the chance to revise each one at the end of the year. This wasn't an awful class, and the only class where I knew and became friends with everyone in the class. Since this is a required course I would recommend it with someone who doesn't care as much about your success if you're looking for a good grade, but if you're actually looking to improve your writing I would recommend Donovan.

Not a bad course, but I did not enjoy it. Class discussion sometimes becomes talk between two or three students and is not very interesting. Writing assignments do help me think up new inspirations, but they can be extremely stressful. The professor does not care about different situations of students, so even in the most stressful week requesting an extension is impossible. Criteria of the grading system are vague, for the essay that I discussed and revised at writing center ended up with a B- while another that I did not talk with a tutor got a grade roughly from B+ to A-. Overall, it is not the worst course that I have taken, but I will not recommend it unless you do enjoy writing a lot and want to share your ideas frequently (or just talk) in front of other students. If you take ENWR1510 just because you want to fulfill first year writing requirement, try other sections.

Not a bad course, but I did not enjoy it. Class discussion sometimes becomes talk between two or three students and is not very interesting. Writing assignments do help me think up new inspirations, but they can be extremely stressful. The professor does not care about different situations of students, so even in the most stressful week requesting an extension is impossible. Criteria of the grading system are vague, for the essay that I discussed and revised at writing center ended up with a B- while another that I did not talk with a tutor got a grade roughly from B+ to A-. Overall, it is not the worst course that I have taken, but I will not recommend it unless you do enjoy writing a lot and want to share your ideas frequently (or just talk) in front of other students. If you take ENWR1510 just because you want to fulfill first year writing requirement, try other sections.

I disagree with the last three comments below me. Professor Donovan is great! He's very understanding with deadlines (gave me two extensions with no problem), an overall nice guy, and can turn something stupid you might say in class into a smart idea. The only frustrating part about this class was you have no idea how you are doing the whole entire semester. You only find out your grade when you look on your transcript at the end of the semester. The work was not overbearing. you have three big papers due throughout the semester, and you can revise the first two papers at the end of the semester for a better grade. The third paper you basically grade yourself. I thought his feedback on papers were great. The readings were EXTREMELY relevant towards college students and anybody at any age could use the readings as advice for a lifetime. Professor Donovan was never rude and always respectful of other people's opinions or thoughts. I would highly recommend ENWR with Donovan. I got an A- :)

Professor Donovan is the best! He's young, fun, and relatable and basically becomes friends with his students (in a non-creepy way). Work is really minimal. You usually get one writing assignment per week but its only 250 words and is essentially a completion grade. Reading is pretty optional and if you do choose to do it, is very minimal (maybe 45 minutes per week). You write 3 essays where you have to use one of the readings but it isn't hard to find a reading to reference in your essay even if you haven't done all of the readings. The best part is the environment of the class. We sit in a circle and Donovan really encourages classmates to become friends and generate good discussion. I honestly look forward to going to this class. It's really low stress and Donovan is understanding if you need extensions (but really shouldn't be necessary because it is very little work).

I loved this class! It was titled "Rethinking Ambition" and we really did rethink our ambitions. Some of the readings we had really changed my perspective and DJD led us in insightful discussion. I would say however that if you aren't willing to analyze your own ambitions and motivations, this isn't the class for you. On the bright side, DJD doesn't give you any final grades until the end of the semester, letting you revise all your essays before you hand everything in as your final portfolio.