FORMER STUDENT from 1970's - Yes, he went off topic then, yet was brilliant and caring. Now that I am a university professor myself, I look back with fondness on a man who inspired me and contributed to my formation. I could never have done it without him. I'm sorry for those students who merely thought of him as an "old man." Your day is near.
It's obvious that he's knowledgable in linguistics, however he has a hard time effectively teaching. The final is extremely hard and unfair (anything that he says or distributes is fair game). This is made harder by the fact that he is very unorganized and unclear. The class is a little more bearable since he is witty and nice enough.
I would barely even call it a class. Schwartz would go off topic about unrelated stories to the material during every lecture. He was very unclear about what to study for the class, and I doubt he even graded our finals. Don't even consider taking this class.
Old guy who really needs to retire. Can be funny at times. This is a class where nothing really helps you understand what youre learning. The book he recommends you getting is useless. Homework is easy. Memorization is a must from classwork (HW) and also on the final. Way too much info to take in. Hard to understand through his mumbling accents.
Obviously a very intelligent and educated man, however I think he has far surpassed his peak. The class is confusing and frustrating for those without a significant background in Linguistics and he supplements his lectures with very little outside material, meaning if you don't understand the concepts in class you are pretty much out of luck.
Crazy old man, quite funny at times. but don't take this class unless you are good at keeping up and following new things. I left after every class wondering what on earth the teacher had talked about for the last hour not having a clue, but a select few seemed to always know what he was talking about!
He is very intertaining in class, but has a tendency to get off topic. Sometime's his instructions aren't very clear. Ths class is somewhat challenging since the book is too outdated to be of any use, so lectures are very important, even though they are hard to follow sometimes. Overall, he's a good teacher, but he isn't the easiest.
An abstract thinker but nevertheless, a very interesting class. Learned many new things that I didn't know before. There r some crazy tricks in the Eng lang and if you stick around & pay close enough attention to him you can learn a lot of helpful and insightful info about our daily lang, espec w/ regards 2 the hist of how we speak and write Eng.
I don't recommend this class...at all. Lectures are disorganized, incomprehensible, and off topic for the most part. Schwartz is knowledgable but can't deliever it for the world.
If you expect to be spoon-fed, then you will not care for this professor. However, some of us attend a university because we want to be challenged. That is exactly what he does. I found him to be extremly helpful, not to mention brilliant.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!!! Hard to understand compounded by a complete and total lack of structure in class. If you already have a degree in linguistics and know what you are doing prior to taking his class you will do fine, but don't make the mistake of coming to learn, because you won't! Oh yea...NO BOOK or any other guide to help you study.
do not take this class! i am warning you!!! i changed it to pass/not pass and didn't show up after the 3rd week. i could not even sit in class, he lectured about nothing and didn't even present all the material he expected us to know. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!