22 students submitted evaluations for this course.
85% 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? | 12 | 7 | 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 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 2 |
| Never | Rarely | Usually | Always | Other | |
| 3. Indicate how often, on the average, you read the assigned materials prior to classes. | 2 | 4 | 13 | 3 | 0 |
| Strongly Agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly Disagree | |
| 4. This professor stimulated my interest in the subject matter of this course. | 11 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 5. The assigned readings were valuable to my understanding of this course. | 3 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 0 |
| 6. The professor covered the course material in depth. | 9 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 7. I found this course to be well organized. | 14 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 8. The professor held my attention in class. | 10 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 9. This professor is always prepared prior to class. | 20 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10. This professor was willing to assist me outside of class. | 19 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 11. This professor was responsive to my questions. | 15 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 12. This professor makes good use of class time. | 10 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 13. This professor taught the class at a level that challenged me. | 12 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 14. This professor effectively communicated the content of the course to me. | 8 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 15. I would recommend to others that they take this course. | 12 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 16. This professor motivated me to do my best work. | 17 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 17. I was able to keep up with the work load for this course. | 10 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 18. I would enjoy taking another course from this professor. | 12 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Positive and Negative comments about the professor: | Positive and negative comments about the course materials: |
| Professor Thomson is perhaps the clearest thinker I have ever met in higher education. I think he teaches LP in a sensible manner and tries to be very sensitive to students. I would recommend Professor Thomson to anyone. I think he is only of the most over-qualified person to teach LP. | The Caleros book is a very good LP book. I like the way Caleros presents simple examples and everyone can relate to. |
| Prof. Thomson is a nice guy, but sometimes his teaching is too much about babying people and not really teaching the class. | The course materials were fine, but the Calleros writing book could have been a better, more integrated piece of writing to help us out with LP. |
| When it came down to the final assignment, we asked for an extension of two days because it was the weekend after Easter and after a big exam. However, it was denied because he said he had to get the briefs back to us for our oral arguments, yet I never saw my paper until the last day of class, two weeks after my oral argument. So really, what would two days have done? | |
| Thomson is a good and highly innovative teacher. I appreciate his understanding of and dedication to teaching to different learning styles. While not all of his experiments in different teaching methods worked, I applaud his ability to keep trying. | This class is really so important it shoudl be allowed more class time. We rushed to get through everything, and had to do a lot of trial and error learning. |
| While I enjoyed the fall semester with Professor Thomson, I enjoyed the spring semester even more. Professor Thomson's powerpoints were terrific and his thoughts on persuasive writing gold. I thoroughly enjoyed the range of assignments this semester, and felt that they were more engaging than last semester's assignments. Also, having Judges Russell and Carparelli come to speak to us was invaluable. Judges Day was fantastic. This was a great LP class, and I have no complaints. | All the materials were helpful! |
| Great enthusiasm and love for his subject - Helpful and availble. Learned tons Great humor. | Loved the material and projects. Loved the learning test too. Did not really like the VERY detailed blue booking - thought we could do more blue booling specific to the class. |
| Professor Thomson is a true teacher. He is deeply interested in how to best convey information so that his students internalize and access that knowledge later. Professor Thomson delights in watching his students progress through the class. He offers encouragement and delivers criticism respectfully, thoughtfully. He sees his students as full human beings ready to expand their horizons not as somehow less-than-fully developed. His sense of humor, humility and intellect place him among the best professors I've known. THANK YOU! | Professor Thomson's supplemental materials ran the gamut from personal development articles to articles on developing strong oral arguments. All were helpful and interesting to me. I appreciated that he thought to bring a humanistic quality to the class and materials. |
| excellent class | the materials were just fine. |
| Professor Thomson has been my most influential professor on any level of education | |
| I think he really really cares about the students and their learning. I am not sure he gets the information across in the most effective way every time. But you can certinly tell he is passionate about the class and the students. This semester was deffinitly better than last. Give more examples at the time of assignment not 2 days before it is due. I know it is hard but the more comments on a paper the better. Maybe offer more oprotuinites for rewrite. Thanks! | Didn't really like the book. |
| Professor Thomson genuinely enjoys his job, which makes things easier for his students. Althought this was a difficult class for me, I found professor Thomson helpful and receptive to my questions. | I think Calleros is better as a reference tool than as a textbook. It has a lot of good things to say, but none of seems to make sense until you are in the thick of it. |
| This isn't a job for professor Thomson; it is his profession and passion. It shows and I appreciate it. One example: to help us with persuasive writing, he used methods from the ancient Greeks to Supreme Court Justices to Dr. Suess. Finally he sincerely cares about us as people, both now and in the future. My only regret is that I only had him for one semester, not two. I do think I miss out on a lot in the Fall. | |
| He's a very good professor, sometimes class dragged a little bit but on the other hand there's only so much you can say in-class for a legal writing class. You can tell that Professor Thomson really wants everyone to succeed, which is a great and rare thing. | Generally helpful, though again there's only so much writing you can learn from a textbook. The real strength of the course is the feedback from Professor Thomson, and just doing the writing and research yourself. |
| From what I hear about other LP classes, Thomson is one of the best, if not, the best LP prof. He is always prepared for class and has outlined goals for what he wants us to learn. He even knew my name before the first day of class (in the fall). He is always willing to help inside and outside of class. Even though we had a heavier work load than some other LP classes it was worth it because I know how to do a lot more now. Thomson is my favorite prof. so far. | Could have gone without the texts. I used them more as a reference than anything else. |
| Prof. Thomson truly cares about his students. While at times his teaching method is frustrating, I believe that it comes with some value. Prof. Thomson is extremely well organized. I would prefer to stay more on track during class-numerous times we got off on point, which is irritating. Also, scheduling oral arguments during another course is a problem, especially since we are all first year students with the same class. Lastly, Thomson is willing to meet with students outside of class. | Numerous times Calleros was wrong! If we are going to use a book in class, it should adhere to the same style that we are required to use for our papers-the book is an example after all. Just Writing is a decent book. |
| Thomson is one of the best professors I've ever had. LP can get kind of slow, but that is completely due to the material, not the professor. Thomson is very caring and always accessible. I highly recommend taking any course he teaches. | |
| He is a great councilor, and helped us through the first year. He really taught the legal style of writing well, I think, and I feel prepared for a job this summer. He really cares about the students and is clearly interested in our success and happiness in our future careers. | Calleros sometimes is pretty helpful, and Just Writing is very helpful for all the grammar rules. His powerpoints are extremely valuable, and his supplementary handouts. |