Annette Castro

First of all, as a learning graphic design student, I didn't realize how important it was to know how to write certain doctuments.

This class is really informative. You learn soo much. And Annette does a great job in helping you, giving examples, and is available for conferences.

She can be a tough grader, but there's always room for improvement. And she gives you great feedback.

The final was an oral presentation. Not so bad. We didn't have any quizzes or tests. Mostly just our writing assignements and class participation.

She's one of the best writing teachers I've ever had. She's definitely a pro that will make you learn.

Annette is a good teacher if you want to learn to be a better presenter and communicator. I don't normally like writing but the assignments are laid out for you with clear expectations. She offers criticism that is helpful and it doesn't affect the grade as much as it does in some classes. She knows what good writing consists of and knows what you have to do to make it. She is one of the best teachers I've had at SFSU.

Annette is a great teacher, and a really nice person. I learned so much and I highly recommend her. She really knows how to explain, and incourage you to do the work the way is expected in the real world. Sometimes she is a hard grader, but if you talk to her to get extra advice, you will do just fine.

This teacher is EXTREMELY INEXPERIENCED. AVOID HER!!!

Too much is expected in this class. Students are expected to: know advanced features of MS Word; learn the course material; learn the software or topic for each project; write the project documents; and, turn in various homework assignments throughout the semester. On top of all that, to not know how well you are doing until 3 weeks before the semester's end is simply unfair.

Her grading scale does not take into account the amount of time and effort that students must put into her classes.

It is extremely discouraging to spend tons of time on a project only to have it returned with a poor grade, knowing there is nothing you can do about it because you are not allowed to revise and turn assignments back in. It was ESPECIALLY frustrating in TPW 480, because we never received a grade on any of our assignments until three weeks before the end of the semester! This policy resulted in making students feel their efforts were wasted.

Her priorities are improper for an educational environment. Students should be given encouragement and assistance to earn the best possible grade they can. If this is their chosen field, the instructor's attitude should be one of “I want to give you every opportunity to make sure you understand the subject by the time you leave this program.” Instead, the prevailing attitude of the department seems to be, “You either get it, or you don't.” Students either give no valuable feedback or simply make proofreading marks on documents.

School is supposed to be a place where you are provided the tools to help you in your chosen field. Too often students are expected to have psychic abilities to determine what is expected (too late you are told, "You put too much detail here; not enough here”). We are referred to the Internet for document samples, but the problem with that approach is there is a huge variety of writing styles in the technical writing field.

She gives NO OPPORTUNITY FOR EXTRA CREDIT.

My overall feeling is: when most of the students, especially the hardest-working and the ones who normally earn high grades suddenly aren't earning good grades, there is clearly a problem with the teaching method.