Professor
Mia McIver
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2015 - It was a privilege to take English Composition 3 with Dr. McIver. For Fall 2015, the theme of the course was "Rhetoric of World War I", which I found to be pleasantly enjoyable. She "requires" that you read 5 textbooks, which total to over $100. The class discussions were driven by the reading required from the syllabus, which ranged from 80-100 pages of dense material before each class period. The course was definitely reading heavy (You can get away with not doing the reading if you skim sparknotes and participate in class). It is imperative that you show up for class because a lot of the grade goes to "Class Community"(participation) and she is more likely to give you a better grade if you are more engaged in the class. There were 2 essays for the course, which were to be turned into a portfolio that was turned in at the end of the quarter for a final grade. It was nice that she used this system because you could revise all of your papers and writing up until Week 10. There were no strict due dates for the papers except the last day of class. The first essay was a Rhetorical Analysis essay and the second essay was a Research Paper. For the research paper's topic was very flexible and anything related to the course could be chosen. Some tips for her class: 1. Go to office hours to develop a reputation and to get more feedback on your work. 2. Participate a lot in class 3. Get a lot of feedback for your essays because Dr. McIver will definitely steer you in the right direction. Overall, I loved her class and I would definitely recommend that you take English Comp 3 with McIver if you are up for a challenge. My writing definitely improved as a result.
Fall 2015 - It was a privilege to take English Composition 3 with Dr. McIver. For Fall 2015, the theme of the course was "Rhetoric of World War I", which I found to be pleasantly enjoyable. She "requires" that you read 5 textbooks, which total to over $100. The class discussions were driven by the reading required from the syllabus, which ranged from 80-100 pages of dense material before each class period. The course was definitely reading heavy (You can get away with not doing the reading if you skim sparknotes and participate in class). It is imperative that you show up for class because a lot of the grade goes to "Class Community"(participation) and she is more likely to give you a better grade if you are more engaged in the class. There were 2 essays for the course, which were to be turned into a portfolio that was turned in at the end of the quarter for a final grade. It was nice that she used this system because you could revise all of your papers and writing up until Week 10. There were no strict due dates for the papers except the last day of class. The first essay was a Rhetorical Analysis essay and the second essay was a Research Paper. For the research paper's topic was very flexible and anything related to the course could be chosen. Some tips for her class: 1. Go to office hours to develop a reputation and to get more feedback on your work. 2. Participate a lot in class 3. Get a lot of feedback for your essays because Dr. McIver will definitely steer you in the right direction. Overall, I loved her class and I would definitely recommend that you take English Comp 3 with McIver if you are up for a challenge. My writing definitely improved as a result.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - I found Dr. McIver to be really engaging and caring about her students. The reading workload was very minimal: we didn't need to buy any books as our readings were all from pdfs she posted, and all she expected was that we printed, read, and annotated the assigned readings (though she only checked annotations once early on) so we could discuss them in class. For my quarter we had 9 total readings (most of which were short), usually one for every class. The other classes were either writing conferences during a time slot that we signed up for (30 minutes, 2 students at once) in place of class, writing workshops on days we submitted working drafts, or a library workshop to help us for our research paper. The grading scheme is 80% portfolio and 20% participation. The participation should be easy as long as you skim the readings, and the portfolio consisted of three major essay assignments plus a learning letter. She assigns due dates throughout the quarter for a working draft and revised draft of each essay (usually about one week apart), and though the final drafts aren't due until the end of Week 10, it's best that you try to put your best effort in so you don't end up with three complete essays to write during Week 10. The essays were an explication (750 words; kind of rhetorical analysis), a research paper (1800 words), and a personal manifesto (no word limit; this will probably vary later since the topic of our class was manifestos, but probably won't be in future quarters). I found writing pretty time consuming since I'm a math major who hates English, but I feel that with a reasonable amount of effort anyone can get an A. For the learning letter, she expected us to explain how our writing progressed between each draft of each essay (e.g. quoting specific passages that improved) which would be how she approached grading our final portfolio. She encourages students to come to office hours, which were pretty helpful; she helps students one-on-one and tries to guide you towards the ideas she wants you to express in your final draft. Also, since she's a teacher union leader, she sometimes has us read and discuss articles on learning and college education in general.
Winter 2019 - I found Dr. McIver to be really engaging and caring about her students. The reading workload was very minimal: we didn't need to buy any books as our readings were all from pdfs she posted, and all she expected was that we printed, read, and annotated the assigned readings (though she only checked annotations once early on) so we could discuss them in class. For my quarter we had 9 total readings (most of which were short), usually one for every class. The other classes were either writing conferences during a time slot that we signed up for (30 minutes, 2 students at once) in place of class, writing workshops on days we submitted working drafts, or a library workshop to help us for our research paper. The grading scheme is 80% portfolio and 20% participation. The participation should be easy as long as you skim the readings, and the portfolio consisted of three major essay assignments plus a learning letter. She assigns due dates throughout the quarter for a working draft and revised draft of each essay (usually about one week apart), and though the final drafts aren't due until the end of Week 10, it's best that you try to put your best effort in so you don't end up with three complete essays to write during Week 10. The essays were an explication (750 words; kind of rhetorical analysis), a research paper (1800 words), and a personal manifesto (no word limit; this will probably vary later since the topic of our class was manifestos, but probably won't be in future quarters). I found writing pretty time consuming since I'm a math major who hates English, but I feel that with a reasonable amount of effort anyone can get an A. For the learning letter, she expected us to explain how our writing progressed between each draft of each essay (e.g. quoting specific passages that improved) which would be how she approached grading our final portfolio. She encourages students to come to office hours, which were pretty helpful; she helps students one-on-one and tries to guide you towards the ideas she wants you to express in your final draft. Also, since she's a teacher union leader, she sometimes has us read and discuss articles on learning and college education in general.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Professor McIver is incredibly smart and very kind. The course is extremely flexible, and you can write about what interests you within certain constraints. Dr. McIver gives great writing advice, and the workload isn’t too much if you stay on top of it. The course culminates in a final portfolio where you include your drafts and writing s that you are most proud of.
Winter 2021 - Professor McIver is incredibly smart and very kind. The course is extremely flexible, and you can write about what interests you within certain constraints. Dr. McIver gives great writing advice, and the workload isn’t too much if you stay on top of it. The course culminates in a final portfolio where you include your drafts and writing s that you are most proud of.
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