19 students submitted evaluations for this course.
95% 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? | 10 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 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 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Never | Rarely | Usually | Always | Other | |
| 3. Indicate how often, on the average, you read the assigned materials prior to classes. | 0 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 0 |
| Strongly Agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly Disagree | |
| 4. This professor stimulated my interest in the subject matter of this course. | 5 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 5. The assigned readings were valuable to my understanding of this course. | 1 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 0 |
| 6. The professor covered the course material in depth. | 6 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 7. I found this course to be well organized. | 14 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8. The professor held my attention in class. | 7 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 9. This professor is always prepared prior to class. | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10. This professor was willing to assist me outside of class. | 17 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11. This professor was responsive to my questions. | 12 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 12. This professor makes good use of class time. | 9 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 13. This professor taught the class at a level that challenged me. | 10 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 14. This professor effectively communicated the content of the course to me. | 12 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 15. I would recommend to others that they take this course. | 10 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 16. This professor motivated me to do my best work. | 11 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 17. I was able to keep up with the work load for this course. | 6 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 18. I would enjoy taking another course from this professor. | 10 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Positive and Negative comments about the professor: | Positive and negative comments about the course materials: |
| Thomson appears very formal in class and it seems like he is almost reading his lecture material from a prepared speech. Thomson does not like to be questioned on the way he teaches his course, and is not receptive for student suggestions regarding change. He provides necessary information bit by bit,and it feels gamey. Thomson does go out of his way to make himself available to students outside of class. | The Calleros text was pretty good. Just writing feels like a re-run of high school English and did nothing to advance my understanding of legal writing. |
| Prof Thomson is such a strong professor. DU is lucky to have him here. He puts so much effort into each class, and his love for his work is apparent daily. He is just as hard on us as he needs to be without adding undo pressure but making us produce our best work. I look forward to next semester. | I really liked the three-ring binder. Prof Thomson was right to give it to us at the beginning of the semester. The books were useful, too. More than anything, his advice outside of class helped. |
| I found Professor Thomson to be highly organized, highly motivated, and a thoughtful teacher. | I don't know if there can be a better book on writing, but I did not find our texts very helpful. I really enjoy LP and find it worthwhile, but at the same time I do not feel we need to spend as much time on the academic portions during the semester. I would like more in class library research exercises, more non-graded memo writing exercises on small subjects that we could do and discuss in class, and perhaps writing a claim (I don't know whether we do this next semester or not). Writing full memos each time was extremely helpful, and I really enjoyed doing our own research. I also think it could be worthwhile to split up the ICW BlueBook exercises and do a portion after each Bluebook academic section. |
| Sometimes Professor Thomson would answer a question with a question. That's extremely frustrating when you're trying to learn. | |
| Positive - Thourouhly prepared for class, thoughtful in-class exercises and handouts, approachable and available to students, obvious in-depth knowledge and ability on subject. Clearly a professor who enjoys his profession. (Negative?) - Lectures sometimes felt "scripted" and this distracted somewhat from overall engagement with class. Process of "piecemealing" out information throughout the course felt overly restrictive. Would have liked more in-class writing exercises. | The binder was a very effective way of organizing the information and course materials. I would have appreciated more discussion on some topics in the books. Note to law school administration: Given the cost per credit hour for the course, I not only prefer but EXPECT that materials can be given to students in an effective manner as the educator sees fit, including organizational materials such as binders and tabs. It is clear that this assembly took a great deal of time and planning, and I am sorely disappointed by any lack of support from the Administration on this issue. |
| Professor Thomson was extremely helpful and responsive to questions both in and outside of class. His enthusiasm made the class very enjoyable. | The logical organization of the class was effective in building upon conceptual topics. I wouldn't change a thing. |
| The Calleros book was hard to read. I know that it is hard to find a good book. I think I would rather have a book with more examples of memos that concentrate on Torts since we took Torts this semester. The example memos in Calleros were with contracts and harder for me to grasp the writing as much as just understanding the content. | |
| It's evident Prof. Thomson really enjoys teaching this course. He seems to really care about the success of his students. I also appreciated how helpful he was outside of class when we were writing our memos. He provided guidance while at the same time still making me find answers to my questions on my own. Overall, I enjoyed Prof. Thomson as a professor. | I thought the examples, although every basic, helped me understand and remember the concepts. I don't think the book was that helpful, but I'm not sure there is another book out there that would be more helpful. I did like the electronic quizes we did in class as well. |
| Professor Thomson is the consumate professional. While the class by definition lacks energy and excitement, he always brought his own excitement and energy to each and every class. The material is dull and the writing can be boring, but Professor Thomson never was and I always got the feeling from him, whether in class or office hours that he was genuinely excited about the law and even more so in passing his proffession on to a new generation of students. I highly reccommend him to my fellow classmates and look forward to taking another class with him at the helm. | |
| Professor Thomson is always prepared and really gives 110% for all of his students. Makes himself available at anytime and is always helpful. | |
| Professor Thomson is terrific. He is exceptionally well-organized and professional while also being funny and laid-back. He tries to keep the most tedious course loose and fun; he is a joy to be around. He is relentless in assigning work (a good and bad thing)and sometimes his answers to questions about assignments are a bit too vague. His grading is also brutal but it is a good indoctrination. A great professor. | |
| Professor Thompson was good at providing both positive reinforcement and constructive criticism. In a course like this, I could imagine that a lot of professors just rip apart students' writing without much thought to their confidence. I really appreciated that he tried to build our comfort with being effective writers and advocates. As far as negative comments, I don't have that many, except for this: I frequently found myself struggling with the expectations for the memo. He gave general guidelines in class, but they were somewhat amophous. I can't say that it was inconsisten, it was just I really had no idea what he was expecting until I went in to talk to the TA. | I rarely read the course materials. I didn't have time for it in the semester. Perhaps they are for people who really need to develop their basic skills. My recommendation is to shorten the readings only to the most critical. You'll find that more people will do the reading. Also I recommend the book "Getting to Maybe; how to perform in law school." Make it required reading for everyone! |
| Professor Thomson is the best professor I have ever had. He is always willing to meet with students out side of class and answer any quesitons a student may have. He was always in touch via email as well. He challenged me but the work was always managble. He made Lawyering process as interesting and fun as it possible could be. | The course was orginized in the "everything is a memo" format. THis was very challenigng but inthe end I think this was the best way to learn the material. THe text books used were helpful and easy to use. I especially found the power point presentaitons helpful after the fact. He made the power points available on twen which was helpful. I found his ability to present the material in different formats very helpful, using many visuak demonstrations to help bring his point across. THe best professor I have ever had. |