Overall, I enjoyed having English Comp 5W with Tamar. This course requires completion of three full-length essays throughout the quarter (25% each * 3 = 75% of your grade), and the rest of your grade (25%) consists of participation in class discussions. Tamar is an engaging lecturer who does cuss occasionally (she says she got that from the Navy lol), but she always has interesting insights for discussions and provides great feedback on the essays, which you should take seriously in order to do well in this class. Her style suggestions are interesting, and one unconventional style she had us play around with is known as Grammar B. As other reviewers have mentioned, Grammar B can be confusing and difficult to master, but I learned to love it because nowhere else have I been able to put together a creative piece that could consist of a recipe, letter, interview, news article or the like and still call it an essay. Individual appointments for the essays are mandatory, but you will enjoy them and be able to spend them learning how to make your writing that much more effective. If you need a Writing 2, I would highly recommend doing Eng Comp 5W with Tamar!

Tamar is very passive aggressive and really only wants to hear what she thinks about the topic. She is not very clear as to what she wants out of you and is very out spoken about her opinions that it is overwhelming to the class. Moreover, she is not approachable for help at all and does not really give you your grade until the end of the quarter as she finds them "counter productive". The workload is slightly absurd compared to other professors that teach this class. I would not recommend taking this class with Tamar to anyone.

Her class is not too bad. But it takes a lot of time to watch the movies/documentaries after class and going to writing center. I don't feel like my writing ability improved significantly, but my Office Word composing ability definitely did (which is necessary for Grammar B)...

I don't know how there are good ratings for this professor, I took her class winter 2017 and I cant emphasize this enough, this class is useless. You'll be made to write 'alternate form' essays which are basically 3rd grade essays but you'll have to spend 10+ hours just designing your essay instead of writing it. If you want to spend countless hours wasting time writing stuff which wont help you in your college career, then you should definitely take this class.

She is a really tough teacher and requires a lot of writing but she gives great insight. If you don't mind putting in the work then she really helps improve your writing! Her classes can be really tedious sometimes as they can get boring. She requires a lot of printing of rough drafts so be aware of that!

Overall it's a fairly good class. If you put in the effort and work on your essays throughout the quarter, you should be on track for an A (I didn't do that hence the B+). Tamar is nice, but spends most of her time going on and on about stuff that doesn't really matter. It's a bummer that participation matters so much otherwise I would've skipped most of the lectures. Just listen for what she wants in your paper, and most importantly GIVE YOUR OPINION AND FEELINGS. She's not looking for a overview of your topic, but solely your feelings about it.

My least favorite part about this class is that she introduced a completely new style of writing (that she and her husband created) that you are expected to grasp within the first week or so. You then write your paper based on it and then bounce it off of your classmates, NOT her. You upload your assignments and she'll read them ofc, but you don't receive any direct feedback from her, just your classmates. This is super annoying because your classmates are also new to the concept so everyone's just guessing and making suggestions on how to fix your paper without knowing how to.

My advice would be to not overthink in this class and worry about your grade. She tells everyone that they are in the C-D range and then hands out good grades (assuming ofc you put the effort in). Attend class, listen to the important parts and ignore the rest, work on your paper regularly and you should be good.

Quick note that she makes you add two or three sources to your paper AFTER you're done writing it. She said we were done with our first paper in Week 5 and then in Week 8 reveals that you have to add sources to your first paper (keep in mind this is when midterms are going on and you are busy working on your second paper which is extremely time consuming). This is pretty much where I screwed up because I couldn't find the space to fit all of those sources in after I'd carefully cut down the word limit and finalized everything. Just a heads up because I know this will save someone lol

Tamar Christensen is a very personable lecturer who you feel actually cares about you. The class assignments boil down to some reading, as well as two 6-8 page essays. There is NO busy work in the class...as everything you do is a direct contribution to the essays you'll turn in. You have to submit the essays, of course, but they're only actually due at the end of the quarter, as she has you submit rough drafts throughout the quarter, and gives one on one personalized feedback face to face.
The second "grammar b" essay was a bit harder for me, as it was focused on alternative multimedia, but overall I think Tamar actually made me a better writer.

I came into this class hoping that it would be easy, but honestly, it was harder than I thought. Attendance is necessary and counts as part of your grade. Also, you need to actually participate a lot in discussions in order to get a decent grade. We have to do reading response journals that sometimes take hours to complete. The essays were interesting to write about; we have to complete three essays for the entire quarter and expand on two of them. She gives you comments during conferences and publishing, but she expects a lot of improvements to get a good grade. The class is not that bad if you make changes to her comments and participate in class, but the fact that 80% of your grade is based on the essays makes it hard to get an A in the class.

The last reviewer is a joke if he/she thinks being a sophomore gives him/her the credentials to disparage this type of essay. I was a senior in her class and never encountered this type of assignment but I learned so much from it, more than all the standard essays I had to write. Tamar teaches you how to think and the grammar b is the best way to get you to do so that is if you’re smart enough to take it seriously

Tamar is the best! I love her! This class is 80% based on your three essays and 20% on participation. Our first essay was about a documentary, second essay about a Black Mirror episode, and third essay was a Grammar B style essay. Classes were always a discussion which made it fun to hear other's opinions, and also share mine, and also because they were interactive, it made time go faster, rather than just listening to one person talk the whole time. I learned a lot in this class, especially through that first essay. After watching a climate change documentary by Josh Fox, I started changing my diet, analyzing my waste more and overall asking myself how I could do my part. That documentary changed my life and has inspired me to be a better person for the environment and Mother Earth. I loved also how in this class we would write our essays through the quarter, but we had time until the end to revise them and make them better, so we could get our final grade at the end. This gave me more time to develop my essays and make it better. I also loved Tamar's energetic, bubbly personality because it made class fun! She is a great, knowledgeable, understanding, and funny woman and I promise you won't regret taking her class!