Prof. Maslan is a good professor and makes it very clear what you need to do. His lectures can be very long and a bit dry but you have to pay attention to them as the final and midterm are almost completely based on the lecture. If you pay attention and review his slides, however, they are super easy and almost a guaranteed A as long as you review

Extremely dull, overly wordy to the point of having to decipher everything he says, and overall I just dread going to his class. The quarter isn't over but I can already tell I will remember absolutely nothing from this class a month after finishing it. It's just one of those classes...

Despite his averse teaching style I actually thoroughly enjoyed his class. I hated that the midterm and final were in-person written exams, but I appreciated him giving us a clear expectation for what was going to be on it and what he wanted from it. He posts PowerPoints but they aren't too helpful unless you're reviewing. GO TO LECTURE!!!

Really nice guy, very nerdy and passionate about the material. Readings were short and generally interesting. Chill class and I really enjoyed the lectures. Would recommend!

He's a nice guy, but it is week 7 of the quarter and none of my work has been graded. I have no idea how I'm doing in the class and the drop date has already passed.

Took him during lockdown, and I ended up dropping the English major after 2 years. He made class dreadful, as he went MIA for 4 weeks and expected us to write short essay responses for the final on material we should've covered during those 4 weeks but didn't until one week before the final. Worst teacher I've ever had.

This man seems like a nice guy, but his lectures are really boring and I honestly didn't learn much. I had a hard time focusing and I feel his grading was very harsh. I got a D in the class when I'm normally a B+ student. I wouldn't recommend, but if you enjoy the course material, you might be totally fine.

You definitely have to work hard and study a lot to get an A in this class. Prof. Maslan is a really good lecturer, but the material can feel dry sometimes. He's very clear on expectations and what will be/not be on the midterm and final. He assigned a few books that were all really cheap and a few PDFs, a midterm, two papers, and a final exam.

This man is boring. So boring, so dry, so wish I had taken a different professor. The only saving grace of this class was my wonderful TA. Maslan focuses on literary concepts and their tie-ins to historical events, like the Mexican War. You are not free to draw your own conclusions, you must reiterate the ideas he lectures on for points.

I didn't appreciate how great of a professor Maslan was until I took a trainwreck English course with no structure and a catty prof so I came back here to tell y'all that this guy is quality!!! His powerpoints are *very* structured and what you learn in class/what's on the powerpoint is what is on the test. you'll learn to love his dad jokes too :)

Good class, if you have a good TA. There are 2 essays, both of which are comparative. The final is an in-class essay. The class is split into two units: abolitionist/progressive/realist literature, and romantic/transcendentalist literature. All the books/poems/essays are great. Maslan is funny, intelligent, and full of brilliant insights.

Funny, especially if you take 1 of his smaller classes. He almost always puts a "creative" prompt/writing assnmt (ex. write from the perspective of F. Douglass), which makes it easier/more fun to write essays. Must read the texts that papers are on, but often I sparknoted & took good lecture notes on the rest for exams. Moderate grader, attend lect

Makes it worthwhile to go to lecture. Can be a little boring but he tells you exactly the information you need to know and makes it relatively easy to understand. There's quite a bit of reading but less than you'd think for a literature class. I'm not an english major and i hate writing, but still thought this class was relatively easy.

He's okay. Very boring material though. He'll make you laugh a few times during lecture. Your entire grade depends on your T.A. Attending section is pretty much mandatory because your course grade gets lowered 1/3 for each unexcused absence. I had Roberta Wolfson and she was a tough grader. Two papers, midterm, final, and participation.

oh god....good luck staying awake in his class....the worst thing i ever did....it is so boring and he is not a good lecturer. You have to show up to class because tests have random things that are not in the readings.

I love Prof. Maslan! Some of the comments I read had me worried, but he's fantastic. He pointed out significance in the novels where I missed it and made me think. Also, the reading was actually interesting. He loves to joke and keeps you entertained, though he does like to poke fun at students. His exams were more than fair.

honestly, he's a social guy. As for teaching, relies too much on his power points which he reads verbatim. Show up, take notes on terms and his lectures you will be fine, assuming you have a good TA. Mine was terrible, but Show up to lecture, take notes, but most of all Read all the books. 75% of the tests is just on content, easy points!

He is super funny, he makes lectures very interesting. But he will point students out if they are talking or on the phone in class. His midterm papers are difficult but exams are straight forward.

I think he is a great professor. He is really funny and keeps class entertaining, I just found out I am taking another course with him and I am really excited for it because I like the way he teaches.

Very funny guy! Guaranteed to laugh at least once per lecture. Sometimes space out in class, but the TAs are great and the midterm was easy- just pay attention to the main themes he talks about

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Maslan has a very dry, pithy & annoying sense of humor and a very significant lack of teaching skills. Thanks for reading us your notes, not being available outside of class, and being late everyday. You were not engaging or enthusiastic at all. This was the worst, most awkward & boring english course I've taken at ucsb in 3 years.......

so far, i'm really finding his class to be pretty dull...my heart's just not in it, but i mostly blame the dry material for this and my senioritis. he does have a great sense of humor, but the laugh kind of scares me... i'm hoping the rest of the quarter is tolerable

He is very intelligent, but also very condescending if you don't give him the answer he wants. Lectures are extremely boring; he does nothing but read straight from his notes. A lot of reading, but only two papers and a final.