16 students submitted evaluations for this course.
80% 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? | 6 | 6 | 3 | 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 | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| Never | Rarely | Usually | Always | Other | |
| 3. Indicate how often, on the average, you read the assigned materials prior to classes. | 2 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Strongly Agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly Disagree | |
| 4. This professor stimulated my interest in the subject matter of this course. | 6 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| 5. The assigned readings were valuable to my understanding of this course. | 2 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
| 6. The professor covered the course material in depth. | 4 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 7. I found this course to be well organized. | 11 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 8. The professor held my attention in class. | 6 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 9. This professor is always prepared prior to class. | 11 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10. This professor was willing to assist me outside of class. | 13 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 11. This professor was responsive to my questions. | 11 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 12. This professor makes good use of class time. | 4 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 13. This professor taught the class at a level that challenged me. | 9 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| 14. This professor effectively communicated the content of the course to me. | 5 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| 15. I would recommend to others that they take this course. | 9 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 16. This professor motivated me to do my best work. | 9 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 17. I was able to keep up with the work load for this course. | 6 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 18. I would enjoy taking another course from this professor. | 9 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Positive and Negative comments about the professor: | Positive and negative comments about the course materials: |
| We do not get enough feedback in this class. There are rarely any comments on returned assingments that are useful. Going to Thomson's office helps some, but he still does not answer questions as clearly as he could. | I rarely ever used the books for this class and when I did for one assignment Thomson didn't like how it was done. |
| Prof Thomson loves his job and couldn't be a better professor. I'm so happy to have had him in my first year. | |
| Prof. Thomson is great. He truly believes that legal writing is one of the most important skills we will learn during law school and he takes the time to make sure you will excel. | The reading was pretty much pointless. You can gather almost everything you need to know by going to class and listening to Prof. Thomson lecture. Anything questions you have remaining can be filled by referencing the book without completing all the assigned reading. |
| A terrific professor. Well-organized, experienced, smart, funny, kind. I am convinced that my section walked away with the best understanding of how to research and write because of Prof. Thomson. He is demanding and expects our best, something that you grow tired of in February but appreciate in April. I really think he's great. | Calleros and Just Writing were OK. More examples for memos and briefs would probably be helpful. |
| Professor Thomson is an excellent teacher. When I compare the level of legal writing to my peers in other sections, I often find that I am often better prepared. I do know I need more experience with legal research through the use of the actual books. I do not feel compentent in that area yet. But, that is more of my fault for doing all my legal research on lexis-nexus and westlaw. However, I think more class time could be better used by doing library exercises | I did not think the book was very helpful. I would reccomend a book with more examples of the types of legal documents that we work on. |
| Professor Thomson effectively conveyed subject matter that is difficult to teach. From my conversations with students in other sections, the level of writing Thomson expected was higher than other LP classes - while this made the class a challenge, I think it it led to the further development of valuable writing and critical thinking skills. I felt lucky to have had Thomson as an LP teacher, would take another class with him, and would certainly recommend his course to other students. | |
| I really enjoyed this class. I think I learned a lot and I am more comfortable with my research and writing. | I think this book is helpful at the time when you are completing the assignments, but it isn't as helpful to read in advance. |
| Professor Thomson is the only professor I have thus far, who I actually feel cares about the students and wants us to do succeed and do the best we can. We wants to help students inside the class room and out. Although the reading for class is sometimes a bit boring, it is LP and Professor Thomson makes it as interesting and fun as possible. I would take another class from him. | |
| The material in LP is often boring and monotonous, but Prof. Thomson always brought his A-game to class. His own sense of purpose and dedication to us as students and the legal profession as a whole always showed and helped give more meaning and importance to the class. He is a stand up man who is willing to go to bat for his students and is genuinely concerned with our welll being as good students, good lawyers, and most importantly good people. It was every bit my pleasure to have him as a professor. -nick temming- | |
| As I look back, it's hard to separate my criticism of this course with the frustration that necessarily comes with it. Learning to write legal materials is inherently difficult and confusing. I think Thomson did a good job in teaching the formula, however I found myself having difficulty in determing how to succeed in this course. I remember asking questions and the responses would be either somewhat evasive, equivocal or tentative. Perhaps, it is all part of the "grey area" that legal questions involve. To be honest, I found that there is some lingering hide-the-ball technique in Thomson's style. He doesn't want to spell out the answers. He wanted us to squirm with the material. I didn't like this teaching style. In my opinion, the most effective style is when it is perfectly laid out what we are supposed to do instead of grasping to figure out what the heck he wanted. Other than ideological differences on teaching style, I would say that Thomson is a very warm, supportive and thoughtful man. I really appreciated how he taught more than just legal writing and research. He introduced us into the world of being a lawyer and also, he gave us life lessons that helped keep our sanity. My advice to Thomson is: throw us a bone on what you want. Be more explicit because I just didn't understand what you consider to be good legal writing. Also, allow students to edit each other's papers. The most effective moments for me were getting feedback about my writing from another person. Having just Kate Stoker, Bryony and you look at my paper made me feel constrained. I didn't feel like I had many opportunities to get feedback beyond those rather limited resources (Kate was always booked, generally you didn't read whole parts of our paper and Bryony didn't want to read the papers in depth either). | I didn't find the books helpful. I looked at them for some organizational and analytical examples, but usually they were on other topics and it didn't build my understanding very much. It must be tough to find good books for this class...but these did not strike my fancy at all. |
| Prof. Thomson sincerely cares about the success of his students. He uses varied approaches in his teaching style to approach the same subject from multiple directions. However, this often means that a little too much time is spent on each "point." Overall, obviously enjoys being a professor and takes pride in his work. | Would appreciate more concrete examples, more time comparing/contrasting and editing/improving sample briefs as exercises. |