Jolie Martin

December 8, 2002

Jolie's class isn't the easiest. She makes you work, but is totally there for you through out the whole process and really helps you improve your essay writing. She is fun and nice and a great teacher. She does give some busy work, about subordinators, noun phrase appositives and that type of stuff. If you don't catch on to that stuff easily it's pretty good I guess. Overall I recommend her class if you really do want to be better at writing.

December 8, 2002

Jolie's class isn't the easiest. She makes you work, but is totally there for you through out the whole process and really helps you improve your essay writing. She is fun and nice and a great teacher. She does give some busy work, about subordinators, noun phrase appositives and that type of stuff. If you don't catch on to that stuff easily it's pretty good I guess. Overall I recommend her class if you really do want to be better at writing.

November 16, 2002

Instructor Martin really wants you to learn the writing process. I'm usually a person who hates writing essays, but she really helped me learn how to write a standard essay through her individual help and her lectures. Now, essay writing is not as bad as it used to be. She has interesting essay topics and engages you to become interested in these topics through group activities. If you need to be in a remedial class and you are stuck finding a teacher, Jolie Martin is the one for you. She helped me a lot, so I bet that she will help you a lot too.

January 21, 2003

Kakar was an amazing teacher; she goes way above what she needs to for her job because she really cares about her students. She assigns a lot of "work sheets" for homework on top of essays and at times the extra homework seems like a waste but that really is the only thing I could say badly about the class. She is a great teachyer and a wonderful person. I highly recomend her.

June 6, 2003

The first thing you will notice about 'Jolie' (as she will ask you to call her) is that she looks like she's maybe 19. We have calculated that she is something like 24, but she won't tell you exactly. If you are male, or otherwise attracted to women, you will also notice that she is gorgeous. I say this just to warn you that she isn't as sweet as she looks. Not that she's mean at all. On the contrary, as the other reviewers say, she truly does care about her students. Thus, she has very high standards and makes no exceptions. She will penalize you for the slightest deviations to her guidelines, which I found a bit dogmatic. To succeed in this class, take every rule 100% literally.

When writing essays for her, ask yourself "So what?" (you'll know what I'm talking about as soon as she starts talking about essays) about every thesis statement. Tack that onto your thesis. Repeat. Tack that on. In other words, she'll write "so what" by your thesis and grade you down 2 grades or so if you don't reallllly break it down with the thesis and structure. That's pretty much her pet peeve. So you've been warned. This type of thing, making sure your essay pounds the crap out of your point, is much more important to 'Jolie' than spelling or grammar. A paper with a thesis she disapproves of (no "so what", etc), but pristine spelling/grammar/mechanics can get a D, whereas a paper with 8th grade level spelling and grammar can easily get an A if the thesis and structure is all sound.

So, in review: - The most beautiful, charming teacher you will ever have. - She won't go easy on anyone. - Dogmatic with guidelines, rules, etc. - Fanatical about thesis and structure - Easy on mechanics, grammar and spelling mistakes - Very hippie and individualistic (as long as no rules are bent or broken, see above) - Essay topics are trite and clich race-relations topics, for the most part, and you might tire of them as the semester wears on. - You stand little chance of getting an A unless you are really good at following dogmatic rules. Plan for a B, but brace yourself in case of a "C." If you aren't strong in English, plan for an F. Many in my class failed, and their writing wasn't really that bad. Like I said, she doesn't go easy.

August 15, 2003 I have to agree with the other reviews that Jolie does make her students work hard and she is not easy, but this is what you get when you take a composition class. Her class was stressful because you have to write five essays in five weeks because it was a summer course, but if you follow the essay structure she wants you to use (a.k.a. having a strong thesis statement, the PIE paragraphs (point, introduction, and explanation) and a conclusion) apply the sentence structures you learned in class to your essays, and go to her office hours if you need any help, you will do fine. Although Jolie may seem mean at first, she is really helpful, plus she will make a four hour class go by really fast.