First Class Review!

As in, the first review I am doing of a class, not a review of the most superior order.

Class: Rhetoric 10: Introduction to Practical Reasoning and Critical Analysis of Argumentation
Instructor: Amy Jamgochian
Semesters offered: Fall only (tradition is to take this and then Rhetoric 20 in the spring)

Pluses:

• You get to read good authors, by which I mean Those People Referenced in Highbrow Jokes. 
• Prof. Jamgochian is herself really interested in the material, and more importantly, in your interpretations and responses to it. Yes, yours, the student's.
• In my experience, the instructors are all pretty nice people. The professor insists on being called "Professor Amy" to reduce the formality, to give you an idea.
• The content for this class is actually awesome, if you like this type of stuff. Language's interaction with race and class, the evolution of language, and (my personal favorite) theories of self-formation and self-realization are only a few of the topics covered, and it's fantastic. I gush, but the point is made.
• There's no attendance taken at lecture! (technically)
• Amy's a brilliant lecturer, and is actually really funny in addition. One of my favorite parts of this class was listening to her stories from life as connected to the reading (she was semi-friends with David Foster Wallace, for example).
• Only twice a week, plus section. I enjoyed the scheduling, anyway.

Minuses

• You're going to read the aforementioned authors, and you're going to read the crap out of them. The reader for this class looks fat, and it's not an illusion; barring interruptions from silly things like campus wiring exploding, you're reading all of it.
• Furthermore, the reading tends to be "dense" (i.e. phrases like "psychoexistential complex of negative value definition" pop up frequently). Some of the font gets pretty microscopic too, but that's only occasional, and all of it's legible.
• The lecture is traditionally from 9:30-11:00 A.M. At the start of the semester, that's not a huge deal. By halfway through or so, that's basically the crack of dawn.
• They don't take attendance at lecture, but you'd best go if you want to survive. Whether you read or not, Amy's interpretations are complex, deep, salient, and in all capacities worth hearing. Also, she has a scaling willingness to help you based on how often you go to lecture, and her memory is terrifying. 
• The tests in this class are really difficult in terms of time management, especially the midterm. For my class, Amy prefaced our midterm by saying "We are entirely aware that you will not likely finish this." It's a matter of there being a huge amount of content and writing required.

Eh

• There aren't very many assignments in this class. Aside from the forum responses for the reading, there are two papers, a midterm and a final. This is very much an "all in" sort of class; nail the two papers and coast, or fail to submit one and be struck down with giant stones. Depends on how you like to do things.
• The class actually has very little to do with its official title, because Professor Amy "does not teach public speech or ethics." It's actually what she referred to as a "greatest hits introduction to rhetorical thought and theory," which in my opinion is much more helpful and useful than the title would suggest. For my two cents, this was much better than the title, but be advised.

TL;DR Overall rating: 7.5/10. It's hard, and it has horrible times, but you're going to come out a more informed, self-realized, and generally equipped human being.