Course Evaluation Results » Spring 2008 » Thomson

Thomson - 4386 - Lawyering Process II - Spring 2008

16 students submitted evaluations for this course.
67% of the students enrolled in this course submitted evaluations.

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	Zero	One	Two	Four	Four +
1. Approximately how many times were you absent from this class since the beginning of the quarter?	9	6	1	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	4	3	0	1
	Never	Rarely	Usually	Always	Other
3. Indicate how often, on the average, you read the assigned materials prior to classes.	2	5	5	3	0
	Strongly Agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
4. This professor stimulated my interest in the subject matter of this course.	12	4	0	0	0
5. The assigned readings were valuable to my understanding of this course.	2	5	4	4	0
6. The professor covered the course material in depth.	13	2	1	0	0
7. I found this course to be well organized.	12	3	1	0	0
8. The professor held my attention in class.	8	5	1	2	0
9. This professor is always prepared prior to class.	15	1	0	0	0
10. This professor was willing to assist me outside of class.	16	0	0	0	0
11. This professor was responsive to my questions.	15	1	0	0	0
12. This professor makes good use of class time.	7	7	1	1	0
13. This professor taught the class at a level that challenged me.	11	5	0	0	0
14. This professor effectively communicated the content of the course to me.	13	3	0	0	0
15. I would recommend to others that they take this course.	12	4	0	0	0
16. This professor motivated me to do my best work.	13	3	0	0	0
17. I was able to keep up with the work load for this course.	8	7	1	0	0
18. I would enjoy taking another course from this professor.	13	3	0	0	0

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Positive and Negative comments about the professor:	Positive and negative comments about the course materials:
He is a great teacher and more importantly, a great friend and professor who truly cares how you do not only in writing, but in law school and life in general. He is brilliant and so well organized, and I would like to take a lecture style class from him someday.	I got more out of class time than Just Briefs, but I suppose the book could be useful in the future
Prof. Thomson is an excellent teacher. His methodical, step-by-step approach to legal writing proved to be extremely helpful in furthering my understanding of writing both memos and briefs. Although the material Prof. Thomson is required to cover is, at times, dry, Prof. Thomson always strives to makes the material tangible to students by using creative imagery to enhance the presentation of the material. Further, and most important to me, Prof. Thomson takes a genuine interest in his students. Unlike other professors, Prof. Thomson actually cares about his student's success both in class and out of class. He is sympathetic to the trials of first year, and continually promotes a positive learning environment, which destresses grades, and places more emphasis on a mastery of writing and research. I thoughroughly enjoyed learning from Prof. Thomson, and hopefully will get the chance to take another class from him in the future.	I am very pleased with the first year LP program. I certainly feel as though it made me a better legal researcher and writer. I think the overall mission of the program is excellent, but I do have some reflections: First, I think there should be more writing assignments. I know this sounds unbelievable coming from a first year, but I feel as though the progress made from one assignment to the next is far greater than progress made by reviewing writing styles through lecture. A man I met hiking once told me that his friend asked him how he trained to be able to hike 6000 ft. mountains(obviously I'm from the east coast), his reply was that the only way to prepare to hike 6000 ft. mountains is to hike 6000 ft. mountains. Similarly, if writing assignments were made smaller, but more frequently assigned, with one on one feedback from the professor, and then the semester culminated in a larger memo or brief, the overall writing ability, in my humble opinion, would be greatly improved. This leads me to my other problem with the LP program: I found the mandatory partner assignments extremely frustrating, innefficient, and unhelpful in improving my research and writing skills. First, innevitably one partner is a stronger researcher and writer, and that person effectively becomes a crutch for the weaker researcher or writer, and thereby detracts from both the improvement of the weaker student by not forcing him/her to learn the material through trial and error, and detracts from the ability of the stronger student to make the best product possible, because they are teaching the other student how to research or write. First year students are not the best people to teach other first year students, that is for the professor and the TA. However, the biggest problem for me is the inherent variety of writing styles among the students. By forcing people to work together, students will critisize each other's writing styles. This can be a good thing if the person critisizing the writing is in fact a stronger writer, but very often it is the person with a bigger personality(ego), and not necessarily a better writing style, who is critisizing a good piece of writing because it doesn't sound like theirs. This can actually detract from the better writer, with a weaker personality, because by taking the weaker writer's advice he is regressing his legal writing.
Best writing professor I have ever had. Always said the right things at the right time to help me get through my first year.
Prof. Thomson is one of the most well prepared, hands on, and passionate teachers I have ever had the privilege to learn from. The only minor complaint would be that I feel I am a "finished-product" oriented individual, so the process-oriented nature of the class drove me a little nuts. However, I feel that more than any other class, this one has prepared me for the reality of working as a lawyer and that Prof. Thomson is responsible for making me a good legal writer.	Just briefs is much too expensive and short on substance.
Professor Thomson did a great job of trying to make a boring subject (legal writing) interesting.
Best Prof. I had first year. Went out of his way to make everyone in the class feel like they were part of something more than a money machine. I think DU losses sight that the law school is supposed to be about the students and teaching them how to become professionals. Unfortunately, students don't feel like a priority here. Classes are bunched up and given at odd hours. Professors aren't here a bunch of the time. Fortunately, DU has a professor who acts like a professional and goes above and beyond expectations. DU made the right choice in having Prof. Thomson run the LP department. Single handedly made my choice to transfer harder. If DU has any desire to stop the fast track to a third tier school, they should get professors who work and care as much as Prof. Thomson.	Book wasn't the most helpful. However, I am sure Prof. Thomson's book will be more applicable. Good luck with the full summer!
While LP was never my favorite course, Professor Thomson covered the material very well and in a effective manner. I always felt that I could go to him with questions and he never made me feel like I was asking stupid questions, even if they were. I feel very comfortable approaching Prof. Thomson for advice.	LP seems like somewhat of a review course of college English. I think it could be condensed and taught more clearly. I struggled last semester because we weren't really ever shown what a memo was supposed to look like. I learn from reading good pieces of writing and having what works pointed out to me and I feel I struggled in LP much more than I should have because the class is not taught in this manner.
Simply the best professor. He haas a strong commitment and interest in his students.	The books we used were a bit choppy, with too many examples that continuously distracted from the message.
Professor Thomson is pretty much the most dedicated professor I've ever had. He cares so completely about the success of every single student - it shows through in the way he structures the course as well as the sheer genuineness of his feedback. I know there were other students who were often frustrated by "hiding the ball" answers to questions about approaching certain legal arguments, but when you're talking about a persuasive writing class, we do all have to find our own paths/methods, and I thought he was very good at guiding us while leaving room for individual voices.	Especially this semester, I found his supplemental reading materials really helpful.
Fantastic professor. He really cares about his students and is willing to help you one on one. The readings were not helpful. I think the book would be better used as a recommended material to help people who need it, but i never read and i did just fine.	The readings from the book were not helpful. I think the book would be better used as a recommended material to help people who need it, but i never read and i did just fine. The course handouts were usually helpful, however there may have been too many of them. Not really a big deal, since you don't have to pay for them.
Professor Thomson is one of the best professors I have ever had. His interest and investment in teaching are evident in every class. His effort and enthusiasm encourage us all to do our best work. He went to great lengths to make himself available to us all as we worked on our final appellate briefs -- I can't imagine how much time he spent meeting with us all and answering e-mails about the brief, but he never seemed as if he were tired of talking about the same brief or answering the same questions. I've never gotten the sense that he wished he were anywhere else. Professor Thomson is just a gifted professor. I feel so lucky to have been able to take this class with him rather than another professor, and I feel as if I really do have a good grasp on legal writing. I don't think I could forget about IRAC if I tried. I would be taking another class with Professor Thomson in the fall if it hadn't filled up so quickly.	Just Briefs was a great resource when I was actually working on the brief. I was not always as diligent as I should have been about reading before class, but I think I went back and covered all the assigned reading when I was working on the brief. It provided a lot of good examples. The most helpful course materials were Professor Thomson's PowerPoint slides that we were able to access on Blackboard. They were truly invaluable in writing the final brief. They were certainly very helpful when Professor Thomson presented them in class, but they were probably even more helpful when I was writing on my own.
Professor Thomson is an amazing professor. He cares about his students, challenges his students, and as a result, his students excel. Out of all of my first year professors and classes, I can say that Professor Thomson's class was a bargain. He taught me how to think, speak, and write like a lawyer. There simply are not enough words to expound on all of the good things I can say about Professor Thomson. His class is frustrating, very time consuming, and it was not easy. But having been through it all, there is no way that I would do it differently.	Maybe Prof Thomson's book will be the new course book? I hope so, because I didn't find the current course books particularly valuable. They collected a lot of dust...
Prof. Thomson is a loving and caring man. He has very high standards for his students and is willing to help you be your best. The class time is kind of a waste as I hear it is in all LP classes and from what I know of Thomson's class it is at least the best, but this class would be better if it was only 30 min. a week and the rest was used to work on your projects.	The book for this class is boring and offered poor examples of what we where taught in class.