GY 402: Sedimentary Petrology (W)

Dr. Douglas W. Haywick

Twit This Class!

In the last writing assignment of the semester, GY 402 students were asked to provide advice that would help future students to do well in the class. The catch was that they had to follow Twitter rules; no more than 140 characters of text (including spaces). Their twits are provided entirely unedited below. Not all of the responses provided advice. Some were complaints, others were compliments. Whatever the message was, spelling mistakes, gramatical issues and other typos were faithfully reproduced.

If you are about to take GY 402, read these twits and take the advice of your fellow students. Most of them are providing you with survival information. Were necessary, I have provided rebutals or comments to student twits. My responses are in italics.

Acknowledgement: Thanks to Ms. Cory Rhodes for converting the handwritten submissions into a text file.

 

Spring 2009 class
1

Enjoy the class but the writing really holds the class back Haywick also does a good job keep it interesting

Doug's response: The writing assignments were the single biggest issue with GY 402. See Twits #6, 10 and 14.
2

This class is a lot of busy work Keep a calendar and there will be no issue Thin sections can be trippy if viewed in an altered state of mind.

Doug's response: Future GY 402 classes will get a calendar of all assignment due dates at the start of the semester.

3

This is a good course but it is a lot of work.
4

Beprepared to write your tail off!

5

Keep up with lab work and pay attention to the slides. Don’t fall asleep during lecture or Doug will be angry. Dr. Haywick is superdelicious.

Doug's response: A darkened room with a PowerPoint presentation playing on a screen can make you a bit sleepy, but I don't get angrey if a student falls asleep. I actuall appreciate it because it's about the only time that I get an upper-body work out. Throwing a 5 kg quartz arenite specimen at a sleepy student at the back of the class is really good exercise. Super delicious? Really?

6

Sed: Weekly writing assignments are excessive. Thinks he is helping you by criticizing your writing style but instead discourages you.

Doug's response: Yes there are weekly writing assignments and yes, I will criticize your writing. That's the purpose of a W class. I try as much as possible to review student writing in a constructive fashion.

7
Class was great had a lot of fun. Maybe more assignments to do with reading a scientific paper since a lot of people have a problem with this.

Doug's response: I agree. A replacement library research/reading assignment will be added in the Fall of 2009.
8
More work than any other class you will ever take. However, there is a good chance that you may learn more than in any other class.
9

Keep up on work. Not a bad class so have fun! Haywick also likes you to work on stuff from other classes so go for it! HAHA

10

Sedimentology was an enjoyable course but there are way too many writing assignments. It shouldn’t be a writing class. Already plenty of work

Doug's response: GY 402 became a Writing class in the Spring of 2009 to fill a hole in the Geology curriculum. All USA students need to pass 2 W classes befire they graduate and in Geology, the faculty opted to have one at the sophmore level (GY 304) and one at the senior level. The choices were GY 402 or GY 403 (Structural Geology). Which of the 2 would you prefer had weekly writing assignments? See addition comments to #14.

11

B very thoro with drawings n notes, you will need them later. Cool class – enjoy it. Do as many redos as possible.

Doug's response: And do those redos as soon as possible.

12

Best not to have many classes with sed. It’s a writing course a Haywick takes that as a personal vendetta to work you to death

Doug's response: This is true. I supplement my salary by selling your body parts to organ donation banks and pet food manufacturers.

13

I have learned more in this class than any other. Dr Haywick does an outstanding job teaching the material and gets you involved.

14

Good class learned alot from writing assignments but ther were too many drove me crazy but DH is an xcellent prof leave lots of time for GY 402

Doug's response: I tend to agree with the students that state that there were too many writing assignments in the Spring 2009 semester and have reduced them a bit for the Fall 2009 semester. However, it should be noted that most of the writing assignments were short (less than one page) and designed to be done in a relatively short period of time.

15

Very understanding, intelligent and fair.

16
This class is not hard, it is just work intensive. A lot of writing assignments.
17

Show up to class and you will have no problems class was cool

Doug's response: Showing up is not enough. Take notes in class, study effectively and get your assignments in on time and you will have no problems with the class.

18
This class is not easy, but it is important. Coming to class is a must to pass. Haywick is hard but fair. If you try he will try.
19

If you are taking Gy 402 then you should find someone to proofread all your papers.

Doug's response: Excellent advice. Get one of the other students in GY 402 to proof your writing and proof their's for them. You actually learn a lot mor about how to write by reading other people's work.

20
Don’t kill yourself on the first draft, but make sure you redo them exactly as corrected. The key to doing well is take your time on your lab notebook.

Doug's response: I would prefer that you not to kill yourself doing anything, but do not assume that this student is recommending that you do a crappy first submission in order for me to make corrections for you. The maximum increase in grade that you can get for a redo is 10%. If you submit a weak first draft, even a brilliant re-do will NOT get you an A for the assignment. See the resubmission policy statement in the syllabus.

 

 This page is maintained by Dr. D. Haywick. Please feel free to email 
him if you have any questions concerning it.
url: http://www.usouthal.edu/geology/haywick/GY402/twit.html