If you like evolutionary psych and/or AI, this is your guy. LONG tangents, often on things that seem over the line to tell students. As an English major, everything introduced in this class had already been taught to me. However, this is a decently easy class (participation, a few short assignments and papers + revisions). Go to class. No canvas.

He is my favorite professor that I have had at UCSB! I believe that everyone should take his courses! After just a few weeks in his course, I feel that my writing has improved tremendously; additionally, I have had the opportunity to re-learn how to write grammatically correctly and use semi-colons properly.

i'm in this class currently and this guy is literally the best professor ever.

I am an international student but I really love this professor. I think he is the best professor and so far my favorite professor I have encountered in UCSB. His lecture is extremely funny and full with information outside of the classroom. It is interesting to listen to and I learned a lot. He is a very sweet and nice professor!

Although his tangents seemed seemingly unrelated to most things, if you listen carefully you can figure out his main point lol. Lots of back and forth discussion between him and the class, very engaging at least. All papers are eligible to be revised for a better grade and he does individual meetings to give personal feedback. Overall good!

I overall enjoyed this class and felt like I learned a lot. He heavily emphasizes the need to learn grammar rules so I needed to brush up on some of those skills. I see negative feedback on here but I'm not sure where that is coming from. He also allows corrections on papers at the end of the quarter to receive a higher grade

Samuels is hilarious and a great professor, Im not sure why theres so much negative feedback here. Hes very interesting and I found the class to generally be easy.

If you're a decent writer, this class is easy. He genuinely cares about improving your writing and taught a lot of tips other professors hadn't touched on. Participation is mandatory, which is annoying but not as painful as I thought it would be. He goes on a lot of tangents, but they can be pretty entertaining and make class time go faster.

Loved this class. Just write your first paper really well and it'll be easy sailing from there. He cares a lot about sentence variety, using semi-colons, and avoiding run-on sentences. Do that for your first paper and you will literally have to do nothing for the rest of the quarter.

I don't know where to start... there's the semicolon obsession that made me a worse writer by the end of the quarter, the god-complex and problematic political anecdotes... but maybe it was the more general aspect of walking away learning nothing about writing or watching borat, the matrix, and seinfeld for reasons i still can't explain.. *shudders

I enjoyed this course, it is completely discussion based, often going off into tangents, but I think it was a productive course in general. I think it did its job as a seminar, allowing for an introduction into global progress. Easy to pass, just show up and participate. Prof is kind, approachable & pushed me to improve on participation

It was hard to understand what the class was all about. I didn't quite understand the point of it all. We often went off on tangents about irrelevant subjects that would take up most of the class. But it was an easy pass it was just a seminar so it was fine, but I don't think I learned much other than global progress happened and is happening

Samuels is a complicated guy. He is very smart, but also has a huge ego. He will effectively teach you, but sometimes in a more condescending way. His sense of humor is very polarizing in the sense that he likes to "push limits" in comedy, I wasn't a fan. Refuses to use any form of technology whatsoever, don't even ask about a gauchospace page.

Having graduated from UCSB two years ago, I constantly find myself looking back at my life-changing experience in this class. You will learn to employ a wide range of rhetorical techniques in your own writing, but importantly, youll leave with a deep awareness of how rhetoric is used to shape the public. You will not want to miss a single lecture.

If you want to improve your writing skills, you will enjoy this class. If you're not willing to do the work, you will not (and you shouldn't expect a good grade, either, obviously)

The worst professor ever.

I don't really know what I was supposed to be learning in the class because I definitely did not learn anything NEW about social science writing methods. Class itself wasn't very difficult and there was not a lot of work, but kind of a meaningless class overall.

The worst writing class ive ever taken.

This class should not be called "writing for social sciences" I feel like I have learned nothing regarding that subject.

One of my favorite professors I've ever had at ucsb! He's super funny and easy to understand. The class itself is very interesting and he does an amazing job teaching the class

Samuels is one of the best professors I've come across so far! He is very straight up and challenges you to think outside the box. I would definitely take another class with him.

Samuels really makes you think and respond to his hypothetical questions. Clear grading criteria with papers and will keep you engaged during class.