David is the best! he is so understanding and entertaining. it is fun to go to class. if you get a ta that is in the witness protection program, dont trip- macfadyen will be there for you. take the class, you will learn a lot of interesting things and it is a great writing 2 class.

This class was pretty easy given that it was a W2 class. We had to write three five pg essays based on each of the author's we read: Tolstoy, PUshkin, and Turgenev. He chooses short stories so we won't get bored with the longer works of russian authors so its pretty nice. He is a very entertaining professor who loves Russian works. This class is by far one of the most fun ones.
As for the reading and work...You can slack off a little in the readings so long as you catch up by the time a paper is due. They're all short stories so its not bad. Longest story was about 100 pages but I think the minimum stories were about 35pgs. As for the pace of class, You read about 1-2 of these each week. Then you discuss them in lecture. These are pretty helpful to pay attention to to guide you with your essays. He pretty much makes up the essay questions in class with you after the first set of essay questions. You get to choose one of three essay questions to write about.You are given one week to write your rough draft and about 1.5-2wks to turn in the final draft. The only downside to this class is that your grade is given by the TA's. THe professor acts as a tie breaker. So if you get a bad TA, then its a bit harder. However, the professor is really fair about it if you talk to him. The class was enjoyable and I'd definitely take another class by this professor!