Morehead State University / I / Terry Irons

I had this course a few semesters ago with Dr. Irons. I was leaving an evaluation for another instructor when i happened upon a scathing review of this course as taught by Dr. Irons, and so, would like to share MY experience as a contrast. The subject matter is DIFFICULT for most english students i have known. I have often seen this confused by students who blame the difficulty of the subject matter on Dr. Irons. I found him to be an excellent instructor, and i only got a C but that is because thats the level at which i grasped the material. It had nothing to do with Dr. Irons instruction. Your grade is NOT a reflection of how good an instructor is. Dr. Irons helped me understand lots of things I previously had no clue about. As far as "faculty gossip" mentioned in the evaulation by somebody else, I did not experience that with Dr. Irons. He was just, fair, and competent, and it is simply not his fault when students fail to understand subject matter that is a little more difficult than writing opinion based essays like we do in most english classes. Linguistics are generally looked upon with much disdain by ENG majors, and i dont think students have a very positive view toward the field because of the lack of previous knowledge most of us have on the subject matter. Because most of us have not had extensive experience in this area, it is up to the student to apply himself accordingly in order to grasp difficult material. Dr. Irons is an excellent instructor. I'm tired of hearing people go on about how Foley is so much "easier." i'm sure she is a fine instructor as well, but Irons expectations are NOT unreasonable from my experience.

I had this class a couple of years ago. Remembering my struggle with the class, I decided to warn future students. MSU has an excellent grammar/linguistics professor. Her name is Dr. Foley. If you wish to truly learn, take Dr. Foley's class. If you wish to listen to faculty gossip, or gain insight as to how much smarter the professor is than the rest of the class, take Dr. Irons. I know I failed his course and it probably seems like I'm out for revenge. But I took the class over with Dr. Foley. I got a B and really learned a lot. I really think out of the four years of having English classes this was the worst, most pointless one. I could not decipher Dr. Iron's notes on the board, nor understand his lectures. One day he came in and told us our book was wrong and that we had been doing things wrong from the beginning. We continued to use the same book. I also feel pretty confident that the other students in the class were having trouble understanding, but were just trying to make it through to get the grade.