Professor
Matthew Fisher
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - Professor Fisher is a tremendous addition to the UCLA English Department's staff. He is really outgoing and it makes studying Medieval Literature a lot more enjoyable. I really appreciated the fact that this class was research based so it allowed students to come up with their own takeaways from the readings, research some topics about it, and learn about some interesting trends from the Medieval Era in the process. Overall, the class is hard because it is Middle English and it is Chaucer. However, I seriously have no regrets taking this class. I have gained an appreciation for Medieval Literature from it and Professor Fisher is incredibly passionate about the subject. On top of the fact that he is also funny, he is very understanding and genuinely wants to see his students succeed. If you need to take your Medieval Literature requirement, don't hesitate to take it with Professor Fisher. It won't be an unbearable 10 weeks, it will actually be enjoyable, and Professor Fisher really brings great energy to the class environment despite it being a more "difficult" course.
Winter 2022 - Professor Fisher is a tremendous addition to the UCLA English Department's staff. He is really outgoing and it makes studying Medieval Literature a lot more enjoyable. I really appreciated the fact that this class was research based so it allowed students to come up with their own takeaways from the readings, research some topics about it, and learn about some interesting trends from the Medieval Era in the process. Overall, the class is hard because it is Middle English and it is Chaucer. However, I seriously have no regrets taking this class. I have gained an appreciation for Medieval Literature from it and Professor Fisher is incredibly passionate about the subject. On top of the fact that he is also funny, he is very understanding and genuinely wants to see his students succeed. If you need to take your Medieval Literature requirement, don't hesitate to take it with Professor Fisher. It won't be an unbearable 10 weeks, it will actually be enjoyable, and Professor Fisher really brings great energy to the class environment despite it being a more "difficult" course.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - Fisher is a pedant but he does absolutely know what he's on about. I personally really liked his lectures and learned a lot. And if you tell him you don't like something about the class' direction, he'll work to change the class and make it better. Also, he's surprisingly lenient with absences. If you really need to skip class or get an extension, he'll give it to you, no questions asked, which is surprising because at first he seems so serious.
Winter 2020 - Fisher is a pedant but he does absolutely know what he's on about. I personally really liked his lectures and learned a lot. And if you tell him you don't like something about the class' direction, he'll work to change the class and make it better. Also, he's surprisingly lenient with absences. If you really need to skip class or get an extension, he'll give it to you, no questions asked, which is surprising because at first he seems so serious.
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Most Helpful Review
Professor Fisher was at first very charming and engaging. However, my impression of him soon changed when it came time for papers. Besides the fact that he had a reader grade most papers, he was also a terrible tyrant when it came to paper ideas. If you would throw out a paper topic at him, he would say, "Hmmm..." and then ramble about how the paper was weak and how it needed to be fixed. The thing is that he wouldn't tell you WHAT needed to be fixed. He would simply go on and on until he confused you to the utmost, and then you would be left with him telling you to find the solution. So office hours were an utter waste of time. He was also extremely slack with grading. He gave short quizzes, but he would take 2 weeks to get them back, and the last quiz was never returned (though we took it in 7th week). He also lectures by asking big questions, and when people participate, he keeps pressing them to clarify certain parts. If you say something stupid or which he THINKS is stupid, he will say, "hmmm" and then immediately call on someone else. The Canterbury Tales with this man is not a class I would suggest to take. He also tends to favor certain students.
Professor Fisher was at first very charming and engaging. However, my impression of him soon changed when it came time for papers. Besides the fact that he had a reader grade most papers, he was also a terrible tyrant when it came to paper ideas. If you would throw out a paper topic at him, he would say, "Hmmm..." and then ramble about how the paper was weak and how it needed to be fixed. The thing is that he wouldn't tell you WHAT needed to be fixed. He would simply go on and on until he confused you to the utmost, and then you would be left with him telling you to find the solution. So office hours were an utter waste of time. He was also extremely slack with grading. He gave short quizzes, but he would take 2 weeks to get them back, and the last quiz was never returned (though we took it in 7th week). He also lectures by asking big questions, and when people participate, he keeps pressing them to clarify certain parts. If you say something stupid or which he THINKS is stupid, he will say, "hmmm" and then immediately call on someone else. The Canterbury Tales with this man is not a class I would suggest to take. He also tends to favor certain students.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - I absolutely hated this class and would not recommend it. This class had one six-page paper (with a minimum of ten sources), a weekly discussion post (all the way into finals week), a presentation, and another seventeen to twenty-page paper (min: fifteen sources) that was overall hell, along with long readings + supplemental readings almost weekly. You could tell the professor was passionate about his field but he was not good or experienced at working/teaching undergrads and was probably used to dealing with more experienced graduation students judging by the amount of coursework he assigned to us and little to no instruction. The classes hardly discussed readings and were more focused on him empathizing with us and the difficulty of research rather than actually focusing on class topics or instruction. And when he did focus on readings it addressed the eccentricity of it, and I failed to see how it might relate to class. Assignments were increasingly frustrating and by the end, my classmates and I were frustrated and mentally done with the content and instruction of the class. He explained he was purposefully vague with all his instructions but this made papers and presentations frustrating and I often struggled to see how assigned readings were related at all to the class topic. Unfortunately, while the professor was passionate and showed empathy it was ultimately canceled out by the amount of coursework, difficulty of topics/assignments and lack of instruction he failed to give us. So overall I would advise dodging this class if you can.
Winter 2022 - I absolutely hated this class and would not recommend it. This class had one six-page paper (with a minimum of ten sources), a weekly discussion post (all the way into finals week), a presentation, and another seventeen to twenty-page paper (min: fifteen sources) that was overall hell, along with long readings + supplemental readings almost weekly. You could tell the professor was passionate about his field but he was not good or experienced at working/teaching undergrads and was probably used to dealing with more experienced graduation students judging by the amount of coursework he assigned to us and little to no instruction. The classes hardly discussed readings and were more focused on him empathizing with us and the difficulty of research rather than actually focusing on class topics or instruction. And when he did focus on readings it addressed the eccentricity of it, and I failed to see how it might relate to class. Assignments were increasingly frustrating and by the end, my classmates and I were frustrated and mentally done with the content and instruction of the class. He explained he was purposefully vague with all his instructions but this made papers and presentations frustrating and I often struggled to see how assigned readings were related at all to the class topic. Unfortunately, while the professor was passionate and showed empathy it was ultimately canceled out by the amount of coursework, difficulty of topics/assignments and lack of instruction he failed to give us. So overall I would advise dodging this class if you can.
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