Professor
Joseph Bristow
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Most Helpful Review
Bristow himself is cool. He's an entertaining and insightful lecturer, and spent most of class close-reading the texts he assigned for homework. Unfortunately, his assignments were ridiculous. Every essay prompt was like a joke, and the final exam had so many restrictions that it made my head spin. It's not that the essays or the test were difficult in and of themselves--but Bristow's extremely restrictive instructions were bordering on bizarrely compulsive. I would only take him again if there were fewer assignments, because I don't think I could handle such condescending prompts and restrictions again.
Bristow himself is cool. He's an entertaining and insightful lecturer, and spent most of class close-reading the texts he assigned for homework. Unfortunately, his assignments were ridiculous. Every essay prompt was like a joke, and the final exam had so many restrictions that it made my head spin. It's not that the essays or the test were difficult in and of themselves--but Bristow's extremely restrictive instructions were bordering on bizarrely compulsive. I would only take him again if there were fewer assignments, because I don't think I could handle such condescending prompts and restrictions again.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2023 - The syllabus for this class was not awful, but the way that many texts were spoken on and discussed made me continuously ill. Minorities were often the topic of the class (Bristow is white btw) and in his eyes they can only exist as people of struggle. Black people could not exist as free people without the help of White people, immigrants only come from countries that are dangerous and never feel welcomed in their own communities, lesbians only want to be men. This was a large majority of the syllabus and what Bristow took away from the readings, if he even did ANY close reading at all. Lectures went over and it often feels as if he focuses more on what historical tidbit he thinks is interesting or the author's struggling parents than the readings themselves. The structure was extremely unorganized and quite a few of the readings ended up being omitted or even added as extra material (in the form of recordings posted less than a week before the final). Bristow is not helpful in any way with student's writing, and instead complained about the abundance of low grades this quarter. He believes there is a standard to be upheld at UCLA; but only by the students, because him as a professor, he's sooooo perfect! There's no way he could improve at all! Don't ask him about your feedback, I hear he will be awful to you. The really saddening part of this class was that while the colored people, immigrants and the lesbians struggled internally with their identity, the gay white men experienced struggles because of society. There was no real internal struggle, and while the colored gay men's stories always ended with them still mentally unsatisfied, the white, gay men's stories ended with them mentally uplifted, discovering their struggle was only placed on them by the boundaries of societal opinions. The next major qualm I had with this class was its paper topics. Topics were trivial, and often worded to make them seem smarter than they are, and you won't really get paper #1 back in time for paper #2 but it's okay! That is completely on purpose. You will not emerge from this class a better writer, or feel like your writing has improved. In fact, you may hate your writing and loose all confidence. It's almost as if he wants you to feel awful about your papers, with no change of getting better, or even knowing what you need to improve on. Just glad I've learned my lesson: I am actively avoiding this distinguished professor and his classes like the plague.
Winter 2023 - The syllabus for this class was not awful, but the way that many texts were spoken on and discussed made me continuously ill. Minorities were often the topic of the class (Bristow is white btw) and in his eyes they can only exist as people of struggle. Black people could not exist as free people without the help of White people, immigrants only come from countries that are dangerous and never feel welcomed in their own communities, lesbians only want to be men. This was a large majority of the syllabus and what Bristow took away from the readings, if he even did ANY close reading at all. Lectures went over and it often feels as if he focuses more on what historical tidbit he thinks is interesting or the author's struggling parents than the readings themselves. The structure was extremely unorganized and quite a few of the readings ended up being omitted or even added as extra material (in the form of recordings posted less than a week before the final). Bristow is not helpful in any way with student's writing, and instead complained about the abundance of low grades this quarter. He believes there is a standard to be upheld at UCLA; but only by the students, because him as a professor, he's sooooo perfect! There's no way he could improve at all! Don't ask him about your feedback, I hear he will be awful to you. The really saddening part of this class was that while the colored people, immigrants and the lesbians struggled internally with their identity, the gay white men experienced struggles because of society. There was no real internal struggle, and while the colored gay men's stories always ended with them still mentally unsatisfied, the white, gay men's stories ended with them mentally uplifted, discovering their struggle was only placed on them by the boundaries of societal opinions. The next major qualm I had with this class was its paper topics. Topics were trivial, and often worded to make them seem smarter than they are, and you won't really get paper #1 back in time for paper #2 but it's okay! That is completely on purpose. You will not emerge from this class a better writer, or feel like your writing has improved. In fact, you may hate your writing and loose all confidence. It's almost as if he wants you to feel awful about your papers, with no change of getting better, or even knowing what you need to improve on. Just glad I've learned my lesson: I am actively avoiding this distinguished professor and his classes like the plague.
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Most Helpful Review
I took Honors Collegium 117, not English 117 I love Bristow! I was in a seminar with him, and it was amazing. He is passionate, a great discussion leader, and is fun to talk to. He is always available in office hours, and can really help clarify your ideas for essays. Would recommend, definitely!!!
I took Honors Collegium 117, not English 117 I love Bristow! I was in a seminar with him, and it was amazing. He is passionate, a great discussion leader, and is fun to talk to. He is always available in office hours, and can really help clarify your ideas for essays. Would recommend, definitely!!!
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