ENWR 1510

Prof Davis was pretty cool and obviously knew a lot about what he was talking about. The topic was Personality Traits and Types. The course consisted of 3 papers total, increasing in length each time, and a small response three nights a week to readings. The topic got a little repetitive at time but overall a pretty easy class. Would recommend

I am not at all interested in English as a major, and just wanted to get through my ENWR for first year. I completely lucked out with Prof. Davis's class. The topic for my semester was Points of View. Every time before class, we only had to read 1 short story (maybe 20 pages max) from an anthology of short stories that is super cheap at the bookstore. There are 5 papers due throughout the semester, the longest ones only being 4-6 pages in length. Besides that, there were hardly any other assignments and no big projects or anything. Prof. Davis was pretty cool and very helpful about providing feedback on papers. Overall, this class has an extremely manageable workload and is interesting enough to not get boring. Definitely recommend Prof. Davis for people just wanting to get through an ENWR easily like I was.

I am not a great writer, so I was nervous coming into this class, but Prof. Davis was very kind and always willing to help! We would read short stories before each class, and then we would spend the entire class discussing it. The discussions were always very interesting and the stories were never boring. I went to office hours very often to get help on what to write about for "narratives" (shorter than the three argumentative essays you have to write) that we had to write three times throughout the semester and he was always happy to brainstorm ideas with me. If you work with him, and he knows that you are working hard on the writing, your grade will reflect that. Overall, Prof. Davis is a very kind and funny teacher and it was great to learn from him!

Take Points of View with Matthew Davis if you want an ENWR that closely models a High School English class and does not have much reading. Each day, you read a short story, and come to class and discuss it. There are three essays, three creative "narratives" (in which you use the different "point of view" methods you learn about from the short stories), and a fat participation grade. Not hard to get an A. Mr. Davis is a very friendly guy and he's really excited about the stories, but he can be a bit weird at times and sometimes take over discussions by talking too much and over-clarifying obvious information. Overall, good ENWR experience, because I was good at English in high school and I also didn't want to take a chance with one of the more niche options for ENWRs out there.

The theme of this ENWR was Points of View -- I found it pretty interesting. The stories are neat and the form of the class is basically discussion. Sometimes grades (which is mostly participation) in the class can be a little ambiguous. Bigger chunks of the grade are 3 bigger argumentative essays and 3 narratives using the styles of POV from discussion. Davis is chill and has a super laidback personality but he can get defensive about his points every now and then. TLDR: Take the class if you want an easy discussion-based ENWR with short stories.

Like many of you reading this, I too was looking for an "easy A ENWR" when I decided to take it with Davis, and I recommend that you do the same. Davis is a super chill, talkative, and funny professor and the course itself was easy and I even found it kind of fun for someone that doesn't like English. Grades are based on three essay's (15% each) and three narratives (10% each) with the rest being 25% participation. For the essays and narratives I'd highly recommend going to Davis' office hours because he is super helpful in giving more feedback and helping you think of things to include in your writing. His grading on them is sort of vague but seemed fair for the most part. You'll have to read two short stories (between 5 and 15 pages) a week that are written in different perspectives which is the theme of the class. For participation, it isn't just based on speaking during class discussions as Davis also gives 20-ish assignments for the semester called "Some Principles of Composition." These assignments are pretty short as all you have to do is read about the concept for that week and do the practice assignment. Davis is also super flexible with deadlines and provides you with extensions if you ask. Great and easy course, would highly recommend Davis.