17 students submitted evaluations for this course.
94% of the students enrolled in this course submitted evaluations.
| Zero | One | Two | Four | Four + | |
| 1. Approximately how many times were you absent from this class since the beginning of the quarter? | 8 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| I wasn't absent | Time Conflict | Illness | Did not deem class attendance worthwhile | Other | |
| 2. What was the usual reason for your absence? | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 1 |
| Never | Rarely | Usually | Always | Other | |
| 3. Indicate how often, on the average, you read the assigned materials prior to classes. | 1 | 6 | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| Strongly Agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly Disagree | |
| 4. This professor stimulated my interest in the subject matter of this course. | 5 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 5. The assigned readings were valuable to my understanding of this course. | 0 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
| 6. The professor covered the course material in depth. | 9 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 7. I found this course to be well organized. | 7 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8. The professor held my attention in class. | 6 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| 9. This professor is always prepared prior to class. | 15 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10. This professor was willing to assist me outside of class. | 10 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11. This professor was responsive to my questions. | 10 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 12. This professor makes good use of class time. | 5 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| 13. This professor taught the class at a level that challenged me. | 6 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 14. This professor effectively communicated the content of the course to me. | 4 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 15. I would recommend to others that they take this course. | 7 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 16. This professor motivated me to do my best work. | 10 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 17. I was able to keep up with the work load for this course. | 5 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 18. I would enjoy taking another course from this professor. | 7 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Positive and Negative comments about the professor: | Positive and negative comments about the course materials: |
| Again this semester, Professor Thomson was a great professor. Very kind and personable. The class was very organized. | |
| Professor Thomson was great. He is completely organized, always willing to help, generous, and kind. He is a great professor, I think one of the best in the LP program. The following comments I have have nothing to do with Professor Thomson, but are suggestions for LP in general. 1) I think that class time can be more practical in nature; more substantive practice in how to become a better legal writer etc. Let's put a pen to paper more often. 2) Our particular section switched issues half way through this semester. I think it would have been more beneficial to us to stick to the same issue and work on refining our persuasive writing skills more than refining the substance of our argument. | |
| I feel like we could have been taught a lot more about legal writing. I feel like we were forced to fend for ourselves with regards to legal writing. As first year law students, we have never seen legal writing before and the only examples we were given was from the Text book. When asking Professor Thomson questions about our work, we received very vague answers and basically had to answer them ourselves. I think this class would be better if we were given more direction because we are 1st year students. The class itself, was not very informative, lots of inspirational quotes and comics versus actually being taught anything. This class was a ton of work for only 2 credits. | Welford was not informative at all, very poor examples of "real world" legal writing. |
| Professor Thomson was a great teacher. He had a lot of interest in us as students. | |
| I'm mad that this class isn't 3 credits for us!! But good that it is now. Prof. Thomson has so much passion and it is SO apparent that he cares so much about each and everyone of us. Its nice to have a professor that you feel is on your 'side'. Not only did he treat everyone of us with respect, he always spoke respectfully about anyone he brought up in class. He effectively used class time every day. So organized it BLEW my mind. | Case map was pointless. I have better organization methods on my own. This was just more work that discouraged me from enjoying an assignment. The book was helpful. |
| Professor Thomson is very caring and concerned towards his students. I appreciate his efforts at keeping the class interesting and informative. I did experience frustration as to the lack of specific guidance, even when requested. The format of the class is also demanding and required significant out of class work. I appreciate the idea of colloboration, but this semester I feel it was a detriment to my learning based on the excessive volume and the necessary concessions. | Wellford was somewhat helpful. The issues I had with it were the contradictions between what was taught in class and what was in the text. I realize that writing is personal, but it is difficult to have focus when receiving conflicting advice. |
| Very enthusiastic about teaching this course and that helped motivate me to do my best work | |
| Professor Thomson is by far the best LP professor, and I have no doubt that I was lucky to have him as my professor. He is dedicated, professional, and truly cares about his students. | |
| I really enjoyed our 2nd semester of LP. It is great, although frustrating at times, to work in groups on the brief. Prof Thomson is always available to answer questions, and I really appreciate that. I also enjoyed our speakers – especially Judge Russell. The only suggestions I have are #1: I would like more comments from Prof Thomson on the 1st draft of our brief and #2: I would like to do more practical exercises in class like the one Judge Russell did. | Wellford is a lot more helpful when writing memos. I didn’t find it useful for the briefs and relied more on Prof Thomson’s handouts. |
| Prof. Thomson is an amazingly considerate, wise and generous teacher. He made a tedious subject digestible, relevant and even interesting. He is always available to answer questions and talk not only about class material but also law school issues in general. He is soooo patient. Can't really say anything negative about the man. He takes his job and his work seriously and expects you to as well, but he's reasonable in his expectations. | Wellford - is a necessary evil if you want to complete the assignments in the correct format. |
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| Most of my criticisms have to do with the manner in which this class is taught. I think it should be a workshop. I learned much more in meeting with my group and Professor Thomson than I ever did in class. Much of the material in class was presented in too general a manner to be useful. It would have been better to apply the material other than just in the brief. If I could have received constant feedback on my brief as I wrote it, it would have been better. Professor Thomson is a perfectly adequate professor and his heart is in the right place. As I said above, I thought he taught the material too generally, so often I felt like the class was a waste of time. One on one in his office, Professor Thomson was very helpful, although sometimes I wish he wasn't so cryptic in his answers and would just tell me what he thinks rather than getting me to say what I think. I really enjoyed the oral arguments and actually writing the brief and believe that this is an important class to have. Overall it was a productive and useful class and I feel prepared for my internship this summer. | It might have been better to argue before the senior partner the brief we had just written, rather than the unfamiliar and new argument that we were assigned a week before the argument. |
| Professor Thomson REALLY tries. He REALLY tries to get THROUGH to ALL students. Professor Thomson is a good person and excellent professor. | I wish we didn't have the same material as last year. I wish this was a 3 credit course (as it is next year!). The material for LP NEEDS to follow the learning pattern of the other 1L courses. I think that LP should follow other 1L courses EACH SEMESTER. THis type of learning will encourage, stimulate and solidify what the students are learning in other courses. |
| Prof Thomson is one the better teachers I have had. My only criticism is I would have liked to have had more interactive assigments in class. | I would have preferred more small writing assignments and an additional credit. |
| Professor Thomson is very nice. Although from talking to other students outside of class it sounds like he gave as much feedback, if not more, than other LP professors, I still wish I received more feedback about my writing. I had good experiences working with 1 partner on papers, but I hated working in a group of 3. The partners were fine, but it is almost impossible to schedule a time to meet when you have to accomodate 3 different schedules, and it is extremely difficult and frustrating to edit a paper with 3 people. I really think groups of more than 2 people writing a paper is a very bad idea. | These are comments about the LP curriculum in general: I feel like we did not receive as much feedback and support as we need for a class in which we have never done legal writing before. I wish we could have received examples of model LP briefs and motions so that we know what they are really supposed to look like. This course was WAY too much work for 2 credit course. I feel like LP completely consumed my life until oral arguments were finished. |