Diane Downs

School: Drexel University
Department: English
Location:Philadelphia, PA
Overall Rating
rated by 20 students
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 Really not as bad as I expected her to be based on these reviews, though she can be a little crochety at times. Keep in mind 1)her grading style is old fashioned and 2) she has a major anti-freshman bias -- that may be a contributing factor to the way she teaches her 100 level English classes. She loves teaching higher English lit electives though (i.e. Romanticism to Modernism.) If you're an upperclassman, attend all classes, and do your work you'll probably be OK :)
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 Dr. Downs is not an easy A, however, if you do the reading she requires, come to class, and speak up, you will not have any problems. She is slightly bitter, but a lot of people on here are exaggerating -- she really isn't that awful. Her literature choices are definitely different, but are easily understandable. She's not fantastic, but she's definitely tolerable.
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 Leaves ZERO room for creativity, if your paper does not include exactly what she wants to see in the exact order with all of the exact details, expect to get a "rewrite" where the highest grade you can then achieve is a C+. The stupid journal assignments she assigns often follow the same principle: include details, quotes, and references to every little thing or you'll get a zero for the assignment. She often is rude and mocks students for not answering her questions within .5 seconds after she asks them, or being creative or thinking outside of the box. Very strict and demanding professor!
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 Dr. Downs
Go Fuck yourself. You are a fucking cunt bitch that should burn in hell for all that you have done. I hope one day that you realize that you are a terrible person and don't deserve to teach. You have a major boner for the environment and will not allow a student to pass who doesn't write positively about it. Additionally, the stories that you force the masses to read suck floppy donkey dick. Why was the final paper an informative essay? The class was called persuasive writing dyke child. Somehow, I passed the class, barely, no thanks to this fucktard. With the multitude teachers out there, I would suggest taking a different teacher, unless you like chow down on her saggy old vag.
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 You have to read the books, do the work, and put in effort. She goes out of her way to offer times to help with all assignments. The books we read were based on the votes of the previous class, and we voted on what should be read or not. She knows what she's talking about and tries to make class interesting. Participation helps, otherwise it's really boring.
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 I had Dr. Downs for English 105 and it wasn't exactly my favorite class. Let me make it perfectly clear that I had all of my English requirements transfer over through AP credits and that I was taking her class for fun. The first paper I wrote was an autobiography. She gave me a C on it because she didn't think I was ready to talk about the issue I was narrating. After that paper, I realized what type of English teacher she was and did all I could to get on her good side. I ended up with a B in the class because I was too opinionated for her liking in the last essay to get an A. She wasn't a horrid teacher, but her class was insanely boring and she graded on attendance and favoritism. I've had worse teachers, so I won't rate negative, but I probably wouldn't take her class again.
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 DO NOT take her if you want an easy english class. She is very boring, condescending, and uninterested in her students. Her 3 classes a week were absolutely brutal to sit through. Her journal assignments and essays were tedious and pointless. Very, very picky grader and does not have a lot of nice things to say about a student's writing. I never got higher than a B- on her assignments and it's not because i'm not a good writer. You also can only miss 2 classes and she takes attendance every class. Do not take her unless you enjoy putting out effort and getting it spit back into your face.
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 If you LOVE the environment, take her. If not, you should probably take another section. Journal entries WEEKLY and a lot of time you wouldn't get the assignment until 1 class BEFORE it was due. Three essays and a group debate. Lots of reading and she will quiz if she can tell people are not reading. She is not also often not clear in what she wants. She also will make a fuss if you are late, unprepared or not turning things in but we are in college soooo...
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 To be honest, I am a little surprised at the volume of negative feedback on here. Dr. Downs is strict and she expects her students to write at a college level--something that apparently is impossible for the majority of Drexel students. However, her class is interesting and often leads to good discussions. Attendance and being on time are really important if you want her to have a good opinion of you.
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 I love Dr. Downs. I don't understand why everyone hates her, but I can say that every bad review has serious grammar errors, so why don't we start there? She was always so nice, and I thought she had great analyses and opinions, and always treated students with respect. I take any of her classes anytime that I can, and I think you would be doing yourself a favor by taking her class.
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 I took her for Eng 105 and did not like her one bit. She assigns homework everyday and then discusses it the following class. She does not have a set grading system so you won't know what you received in the class until she acutally has to submit final grades. Her grading system is very arbitrary and biased. She definitely gives better grades to those she likes.
Even if you go to her to have your papers proofread, she will still give you a poor grade on your essay. The best way to get a good grade in her class is to basically visit her lots of times during her office hours and send tons of e-mail about things you don't even have questions on. Do that and you're pretty much set even if you do not have amazing writing skills.
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 ZOMG! She was the worst teacher ever. She does not care for students at all and she is very bitter. This one time a kid was smart enough to drop the class. He came in and asked her to sign the paper but told him to wait until after class. He kept complaining until she finally signed the paper. Then for the rest of the week she was just a bitch to everyone and gave us like 100 plus pages to read everyday for the rest of the term...
Don't ever take her...
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 This professor makes it a point to make students feel bad when they don't know the right answers. She'll ask a question, call on someone who's not raising their hand, then get all impatient and angry when the student is wrong.
She's a tough grader and was very intimidating to talk to about the course material, being as the class was all about the 60s and she lived through it... it was like the students were wrong no matter what they said.
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 I liked this class. There's a lot of easy writing and reading to do but all you have to do is answer the easy questions and participate in the first weeks to get on her good side becuse she likes to play favoritism. Oh, and one time, she made us read 100+ pgs for the next class and no one did it. She got mad but eased up on the workload.
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 She is a tough cookie, but I'm doing pretty well in the class so I can't complain. You have to be up for a challange and not just want a class where you can sleep all the time. She does make the class interesting. There are never test, just a few pop-quizes on reading. Three essays throughout the whole term, and you can always go to see her and she'll help you write it. I feel like I learned a lot from her, yet it is a lot of work for people with a hard major..
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 There are a lot of reading assignments, but the books are interesting so it's not difficult to do. All she requires is that you read and come to class knowing what happend. She has a real smart tongue and I think some people are offended by that, but shes one of the best English Teachers I've had. She's down to earth and actually made me like English class, before her all my teachers said I was a horrible writer, but she actually encouraged me to take some Honors classes, so it all depends, if you don't like to read don't take her, but other than that, shes great!
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 An absolute ton of work assigned every class. She's one of those professors that assumes her class is the most important to you and you will treat it as such. She grades fairly, I'd say, but I know other people have complained. If you're a really, really strong reader and really, really enjoy reading, then take this class, but otherwise shy away. She's also totally senile and probably won't remember your name with any consistency until near the end of class.
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 Very very serious about english. Treats the class like a master level class: expects expertise, harsh grader, ENORMOUS workload.
The whole class was about the 1960's... more of a history class in reality.
If you want to TEST your english skills, take this teacher (but don't expect to learn anything about english from her).
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 I have more work in this class than in my other 4 classes combined. Infinite reading stupid journals and essays due basically every class. Doesn't care how much work you have for other classes. Rambles on about the Bible, Puritans and other pointless sh*t from 1674. Some advice, bring a sharp object to class so you can stab yourself in the eye (or the ear so you don't have to listen to her dull, redundant statements).
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 Honestly, worst teacher i've ever had. If you're interested in reading over 50 pages of boring bullsh*t A NIGHT (i literally had to read an entire book in 3 days, no joke), writing pointless journals, and wasting $500 of ink and paper, then you want to take her. Because this is a requirement for all business students, i advise you to find someone else. If you get stuck with her, you're better off killing yourself.

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