Short and abrupt on the phone. Marks are very arbitrary. Doesn't offer advice other than: "My mark is my mark. You need to read more."

horrible one!

tough marking

Fun as a bowl of old, cold oatmeal. Run from this one!

Whoa. This guy should have kept writing his best seller because he doesn't like teaching.

perhaps the worst instructor i've ever had. Offers almost no comments to help you improve. He also marks arbitrarily, an inexcusable attribute for an instructor. He is also rude, unhelpful and discourteous on the phone.

Bad& Rude Prof, never take with him

This professor is the worst i ever had. for ur own sake, don't take this professor. this professor is strict in spelling, grammar, even punctuation. He deserved to be fired. When I took his Engl 100, he gave me zero to my biggest assignment that I really had worked so hard on it by MYSELF. He is too objective.

he is rather rude and lazy when I talked to him through email. His comments to my assignment is vague. you are not encouraged to take his courses.

Horrible one!! please do not take with him for your own sake

Worst professor in all of BC. If you know whats good for you and you care about your academic career. I suggest you don't take any classes with this man.

WORST TEACHER EVER, DONT EVEN TAKE ANY COURSE WITH HIM!

i recommend other professor if u want at least pass in tru ol course..most terrible instructor i ever had...he teached nothing just comment on student's essay. because of him , i will not take any course from tru .

Absolutely HORRIBLE professor.I do not understand how he still has a job with this many bad ratings! He really needs to pay attention to the subject matter of the essays and not only on grammar alone. I will never again take a course online again at Thompson Rivers because of him.

The worst professor I ever had. Do not take this course! He didn't help when I ask for help, incredibly hard marker with no suggestion to fix things that I did wrong.

Just awful. Drop whatever course you get with him and re-register. Hopefully you'll get a better tutor.

Worst teacher I ever had in my whole life! If you want to get anything over a 60% do not take this course.

Hard marker, not suggest

He is the worst instructor I have ever met. He only cares about what he thinks on your essay but not what he can learn from your essay. Only cares about the grammar but not the meaning or your thoughts. I HAVE NO CHOICE OF CHANGING THE INSTRUCTOR EVEN IF I FAIL THE COURSE. TOTALLY WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY to take the course under this instructor

I think the essence of writing is the content. Although grammar is important, it is not the end goal of writing. However, Don Stanley only cares about grammar, not the content. In fact, he only likes his own kind of grammar. He will not tolerate passive voice or complex sentence structure.

a horrible teacher didn't give clear grading criteria at all, doesn't care about what you have to say but more so what your grammar is like. lol

Dosen't grade the assignment according to the criteria,but according to his random impressions of your essay. Seems confused about syntax about the most normal words, how does that happend when he is a english professor when he cannot make sense of the words. Seems only care about the grammar instead of the content .Completely unprofessional.

Super hard marker, but fast reply er

All over the place with grading. I poured my heart and soul into some papers and would get outrageously low grades, then I stopped caring and just pumped papers out, hardly putting an effort in and I was getting 90s sometimes. Idk. I asked for clarification but he didn't give me anything.

He is the worst tutor. doesnt care about his own marking criteria. comments are too generalized. In 4 assignments commented all: lacking syntax and incorrect usage of direct/indirect articles. Only with these 2 mistakes, I got 50-60 prcnt in each assignment and in final exam too. asking for detailed feedback he said I can challenge him if I want.

don't take this professor if you want to pass with good grades.

probably the worst instructor. never give you the marks you deserve.

DO NOT take this professor if you want to pass!!! He is the worst teacher ever!!!

never take this professor if you want good grades. just for a few mistakes, he gives me 45% in an assignment. he never values your hard work. he tests way too heavy for level 1 English. choose any other instructor you will be good.

He gave really low marks without clear comments. When I ask any question, he told me to read the comments. One time, I think he even did not read my email, just to me to read the comments. I will suggest do not take any course with this professor, especially when you need the high grade.

He is by far, the worst instructor I have met. First of all, he is a tough grader. Just because you make one or two grammar mistakes, you won't be able to get B or above. If he doesn't like what you are writing about, he will give you C- at best. He pretty much grades papers by his wit only. He also doesn't give helpful feedback.

I cannot say that I like him. He is a tough grader. I told me that my assignments are horrible, but I seriously have no idea about that. I even used the writing institution. He gave me 0 scores. I know that my essays are not worth A but I put a lot of efforts on my essay. he also gave me horrible feedback.

I have already graduated from a top 10 institution and I am taking this class to satisfy a requirement for a Canadian school. I have never received such horrible yet unreasonable grades for my assignments. The comments and edits are the worst. I have met such an unprofessional professor. I guess it is a class you can only expect to pass.

not good at all, i don't know what level of assignment he wants at 1 year of university, remind him that engl 1001 is not masters level couse

He gives almost no feedback and doesn't give out good grades. I am a decent writer and have gotten A's in other university English courses but in this one, he says my papers are good and then gives me an 85 which doesn't really make sense. His email responses when you ask for more details are lacklustre too. Not enjoyable at all.

I hear people on this forum stating that the people who complain should just practice their grammar more and improve. While I do agree to an extent, let's be honest, as a professor this guy is useless. He provides little to no feedback on each assignment (literally no feedback for content and very vague grammar comments) and is completely unhelpful

Gives quick reply, which is good. Cannot believe this is intro university writings. Very tough grader (even I already graduate from a university before taking this class).

CONVOLUTED! CONVOLUTED! CONVOLUTED!

The worst course I ever took, he wants to train you to be a writer, it is too hard for level 1 English, and tough grader, no help and support, if English is your second language, don't even think about, drop the course, if this is your mandatory course, take it somewhere else, you won't regret it!

The only positive thing I can say about this particular professor is that the marking turn around time is quick. That is all. Avoid at all cost.

Don is a super tough grader even though the course is easy and interesting. He does not provide appropriate feedback. We never know what he is expecting of us but still will not think once before grading. Will ruin your grade for no reason. Unhelpful in most cases. He expects professional writing for an intro course.

Very tough grader, doesn't give a lot of feedback. Expects a lot from an introductory English course.

I honestly should have taken an English course from Douglas .

Very tough grader, i wish i would have taken course from another college.

Very tough grader, i wish i would have taken my course from different college.

WORST PROF EVER!!!! So terrible, gives no feedback or advice, marks ridiculously hard, has no examples of what he wants. All his comments are invalid. Overly negative feedback without any suggestions for improvement. Strongly dislike this class, wish I took a different one.

Don Stanley was by far the worst Professor I have had in all 4 years of university. I highly recommend taking this course with another teacher as Don Stanley makes everything 1000x more difficult than it needs to be. He gives terrible feedback and is not willing to help even when asked.

I instantly regretted taking this course. Avoid at any cause!

Don Stanley should absolutely not be marking a 100 level course. He clearly does not care about the students taking this course. I asked 3 times for constructive feedback because his grades for the assignments did not match the feedback. An even more frustrating point, he marked an Indigenous literature course, and he is not Indigenous.

Do not take this course if you struggle with writing and english. Don is a difficult, hard marker who provides nothing but negative feedback. The instructors at TRU are lazy, they don't upload any lectures and expect you to teach yourself everything. The exam is worth 40%, all of your hard work means nothing in the end.

If you are thinking of taking ENGL 1001 with Don, think again. Don's feedback is horrible, not constructive, and contradicting. His feedback on assignments will not help you in the slightest. Oh, did I mention he is one of the toughest markers I ever experienced. Even if you email him asking for clarification, he will give you absolutely nothing.

If English is your second language don't do this. There are no rubics and grading is purely subjective. Don is a heavy grader and feedback is useless. I cannot believe that this is intro class. I was so stressed out the whole time. Ridiculous.

Tougher grader. When submitting the assignment, he does not give effective feedback, and you don't know his criteria for grading. It seems that he grades randomly, not professionally, and he is unfriendly to those students who learns English as second language. I totally lose interest and confidence in this course, feel high stress in this course.

No feedback, no marking consistency, and he doesn't respond to emails. Every small error is worth 10-20% off the grade-made one error, and the only feedback was "excellent work," and got a 70%. He marks as if he is an editor, not a professor, and from what I have seen, you can easily fail your exams based on using a phrase that "he wouldn't use."

No proper feedback, no marking consistency. Every small error is worth 10-20% off the grade-made one error, and the only feedback was " good luck for next assignment," and got a 5%. He marks as if he is an editor, not a professor, and from what I have seen, you can easily fail your exams based on using a phrase that "he wouldn't use."

Expects students to be writing at professional level - good luck if you're ESL. Inconsistent feedback.

I had to take ENGL 1001 as a pre-req for my teaching degree and can honestly say it was the worst class I have ever taken. Don Stanley marks very hard considering it is a first year course and provides little to no feedback. When adjusting to his little feedback you still receive the same mark or lower. The final is worth 40% so Goodluck.

Unclear expectations, shameless subjectivity, makes constant mistakes in assessments, and when corrected suggests that those incorrect assessments "did not influence the marking". Unwilling to admit objective mistakes.

His online class structure doesn't seem too bad at the beginning: 4 ASSIGNMENTS, and 1 FINAL exam. He writes a few useless sentences as feedback, and says everything you write is convoluted yet basic at the same time! DO NOT let him be your professor unless you wanna fail. He replies to emails sort of quick. He expects a Shakespeare-esque essay lol