ENGL 2508

I took Writing the Great House in English & American Fiction. I loved English in high school and really missed the small, seminar-style classes, so I skipped out on the ENWRs and took this as my first writing requirement.
Professor Rody is great. She really loves the material - she wrote an entire book about it - and it's a really cool idea that I never gave much thought to before. We read 7 books, watched 5 movies (all outside of class), and also had readings out of an anthology. Definitely a lot, but I found everything to be really interesting. Some nights did get overwhelming with the reading, so I recommend getting ahead of it if you can. Rody encourages participation from everyone, so definitely don't skip out on the readings because she will expect you to talk basically every class.
My one complaint is there wasn't as much writing as I had hoped. She splits you into two groups at the beginning to write discussion posts on certain days. You only had to write four posts throughout the semester, and it never took more than 10-15 minutes to write one. There was only technically two essays. The first one was on at least one source from class of your choice, about anything that you wanted to write about. Super vague, which I enjoyed. She encourages you to go to office hours to get help on what to write about, which I highly recommend. The second essay is a revision of the first. It had to be 40% new material, which is easier than you think it is. The final essay was the same prompt as the first, but with a two source minimum. We also had to give a two-minute presentation of our thesis on the last day of class, which was helpful because it forced you to start thinking about the essay over a week before it was due.
Professor Rody also doesn't really input grades at all over the semester, so I had no idea what I got until she put the grade into SIS. You have a general idea of your grade based on the feedback that she gives you on the essays and the grade that you get on your first essay, but you really just get those benchmarks.
Overall, Professor Rody is super nice and super engaging. She uses a wide variety of sources, from pieces written in the 1800s to a movie released a few years ago, so there's something for everyone. She's a great person to know, and I recommend getting to take any of her classes if you have the chance.