Oona Patchen

She shows up 60% of the classes, returned "some" essays at the end of the semester (which is at the last class), doesnt know what she's doing, not organized, doesnt know how to teach.

She's really nice though, but that doesnt help a student to learn.

Patchen's class mostly centered around essay writing, as I assume that a composition class might, but she also incorporated the reading of a critical thinking book into our course. I didn't see the relevance of the book to our compositions, and we were required to write essays on topics that appeared to be a bit juvenile to me. The peer reading sessions in class were tedious, and it was hard for me to find the inspiration to attend class. However, Patchen is extremely friendly and understanding, and I appreciate her for it. I just wish that she would assign less essays or at least change the topics of a few of them. Also, we only got a few of our essays back, and we received them when the class was almost over, so we really had no chance for improvement on future essays. We sat around for a half hour on the day of the final until a student told us that Patchen was late and forgot her materials, so hence, no final. This wouldn't be something I would personally complain about, but many students were counting on the final to help boost their grade. Overall, she's a nice instructor, but she needs to get organized.

I really enjoyed Ms Patchen's class. It required a lot of effort so I would advise not having a very hectic schedule while taking her class...she requires a lot of writing and gives out homework almost every class. She does grade tough, but only on the first few papers that she actually gets around to grading, don't expect your first one back until you are working on the third one! Do the rewrites! I suspect that she gets too behind schedule to look too closely at them; I got mine back with no marks on it and it was a letter grade above my first effort. Do the homework and show up for class. She learns everyone's name by the second or third week and I think she takes role, or at least remembers who goes to class. Take notes during the lectures and use that as well as the grammar tips in your papers, she really looks for that stuff. She is nice most of the time, but a little strange and she is really helpful during office hours...show up two or three times with a question or two to seem like you care...I think she remembers this stuff when it's time for grading. I had fun and although she was often late (always a problem with the clock in her office!?!?!)and missed 3 classes I think she cares about getting her message accross so try to let her know you are getting it.

After reading the reviews on Prof. Patchen below but having no other options available, I started this class with lots of doubts. If you are in a similar situation as I was, I'd say just go for it. She is not half as bas as what everyone thinks of her. Yes she didn't return the last two essays back to us, but it was during summer semester and instead she gave us the best out of all grades we had gotten as the final grade. So if you do assignments consistently it will definitely pay off. During summer session, there were 5 essays and she dropped one essay with the lowest grade. She does spend quite some time on the grammars but it is a part of her course requirements. Her lectures were usualy very helpful in guiding the essay assignments. Her grading seems a bit tough though, so follow her guidelines and use her office hours periodically. She is a very nice and respecful person.

I agree with the people here. I took this class in Spring 03. She is always late on returning essays and never returns some of our essays, but she lets us revise our first 2-3 essays for a better grade. e.g. B- to a B+. I get really mad when I could've earned a higher grade if she returned our essays on time so I know what mistakes to correct. Bad handwriting.. sometimes can't read what she writes on returned essays. Also, it is really hard or almost impossible to get A's in this class. I only saw 1 person in class who gets A's in essays because he is a good writer. Anyway, homework wasn't that bad and some was helpful to me. If you really need to take this class, just go to EVERY class and do all homework and essays to get a decent grade. Other than these things, she is a kinda nice teacher.

First of all, her classes are boring as hell. I cut constantly because I simply can't endure the boredom anymore. All the papers were not returned so I didn't know my grades and couldn't figure out what I was suppose to do. Anyway, she tells us to forget the 5-paragraph orderly fashion way of writing an essay but instead try to express or write in our own way which was very hard since most of us were taught to write with the Intro, body paragraphs and conclusion. Anyway, I just didn't get her way of teaching and yea it was kinda wasting my time.

I think that Ms Patchen could definitely be a better teacher and listen to her students more. The fact that I was learning things that were taught to me in 8th grade isn't her fault. But the fact that she was always late and missed a lot of class sessions changed my mind about her. Also, I think I got back 2 or 3 of the 8 essays I turned in. I thought her class was helpful though, I did learn more about essay writing and some of my weaknesses when writing one.

I had the misfortune of taking Oona's ENG 114 class in the summer time. I was a product of a transfer student that slipped through the cracks. Even though I passed my JEPET and regularly got A's on my written papers for Upper Division classes as well as Graduate level classes, I still could not get a grade higher than a C on my essays....probably because I was in "ENG 114".

I don't feel that she graded my paper on its merits and this was partly due to the fact that she needed to give low grades in order for her students to "improve" on their later works.

I found this to be a very discouraging practice and led me to believe that my writing skills were deficient despite the glowing remarks I receive from my Upper Division professors who will one day be my peers.

I believe that she has a picture in her mind when she sees a student in a Freshmen English course and doesn't see beyond that to the student themselves.

She was, however, during office hours and gave us a chance to rewrite a few of our papers at the end of the course for a higher grade....if you bother to stay that long.

I think Professor Patchen is by far, one of the best teachers I've had in SFSU -- I can honestly say that I learned a whole lot from her! She taught us the mechanics of building a successful, coherent argument, and she also gave us tips on how to do well in JEPET. Regarding her teaching grammar, though some people would argue it was unnecessary, I found it to be very helpful. I do have to warn you, though...the semester I took her, she'd call on random people in class to answer questions. I know she just wanted everyone to participate in the discussions but that was a bit stressful and scary at times since you could get caught off guard. Also, she could be a little picky with grading but I think that's good since it pushes students to do better. (She also allows re-writes, by the way). Nevertheless, the class was a very fulfilling experience and I recommend her if you really want to learn.

Patchen was a good teacher. The students in class really respond to her well, and a lot of students do well, even though I did not. She is always there during office hours, and she will find ways to help you if you need extra help. Her compassion and understanding with the students really shows. For instance she will delay a paper if there are problems and sincerely seeks to help bring up your grade on a paper. She will allow you to rewrite papers. It was tough for me only because I had not written anything for a long time before coming to her class, so don't take her class if you are considerably rusty with your writing skills.

The only downer to this class was homework, which wasn't too bad. It was fairly easy, except she always stresses Exploratory Writing and Drafts...to keep you busy writing. She appears to be a good teacher, and she is respectful of her students. But I would still say to avoid her at all costs b/c she is a pretty tough grader.

If you can, avoid taking English 414 with Oona Patchen at all cost. She has made this course as difficult as she possibly can. Besides assigning 6-8 essays, she assigns additional homework and reading assignments on a daily basis. She does not return completed essays in a timely fashion, making it very difficult to know how you are doing in the course.