ENGCOMP 3D
English Composition, Rhetoric, and Language
Description: Lecture, three hours. Enforced requisite: satisfaction of Entry-Level Writing requirement or course 2 or 2I (C or better). Not open for credit to students with credit for course 3, 3DS, 3E, or 3SL. Rhetorical techniques and skillful argument, with focus on diversity and inclusiveness. Analysis of varieties of academic texts and writing of minimum of 20 pages of revised prose. Completion of course with grade of C or better satisfies Writing I requirement. Letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - I don't know if I'm the odd one out here, but I genuinely did not like Lauri or this class. Yes, she is a good professor who is passionate about the topics, but she so obviously chooses favorites in the class and grades unfairly based on that. Essay prompts were UNCLEAR as she does not provide rubrics or any kind of prompt. She was extremely unhelpful during office hours and is harsh (not in a helpful way) with criticism. She acts like she wants to be super cool and down to earth but she clearly is not. Overall: enjoyed the class setting and the material covered; strongly disliked Lauri.
Fall 2021 - I don't know if I'm the odd one out here, but I genuinely did not like Lauri or this class. Yes, she is a good professor who is passionate about the topics, but she so obviously chooses favorites in the class and grades unfairly based on that. Essay prompts were UNCLEAR as she does not provide rubrics or any kind of prompt. She was extremely unhelpful during office hours and is harsh (not in a helpful way) with criticism. She acts like she wants to be super cool and down to earth but she clearly is not. Overall: enjoyed the class setting and the material covered; strongly disliked Lauri.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - I found Dr. McIver to be really engaging and caring about her students. The reading workload was very minimal: we didn't need to buy any books as our readings were all from pdfs she posted, and all she expected was that we printed, read, and annotated the assigned readings (though she only checked annotations once early on) so we could discuss them in class. For my quarter we had 9 total readings (most of which were short), usually one for every class. The other classes were either writing conferences during a time slot that we signed up for (30 minutes, 2 students at once) in place of class, writing workshops on days we submitted working drafts, or a library workshop to help us for our research paper. The grading scheme is 80% portfolio and 20% participation. The participation should be easy as long as you skim the readings, and the portfolio consisted of three major essay assignments plus a learning letter. She assigns due dates throughout the quarter for a working draft and revised draft of each essay (usually about one week apart), and though the final drafts aren't due until the end of Week 10, it's best that you try to put your best effort in so you don't end up with three complete essays to write during Week 10. The essays were an explication (750 words; kind of rhetorical analysis), a research paper (1800 words), and a personal manifesto (no word limit; this will probably vary later since the topic of our class was manifestos, but probably won't be in future quarters). I found writing pretty time consuming since I'm a math major who hates English, but I feel that with a reasonable amount of effort anyone can get an A. For the learning letter, she expected us to explain how our writing progressed between each draft of each essay (e.g. quoting specific passages that improved) which would be how she approached grading our final portfolio. She encourages students to come to office hours, which were pretty helpful; she helps students one-on-one and tries to guide you towards the ideas she wants you to express in your final draft. Also, since she's a teacher union leader, she sometimes has us read and discuss articles on learning and college education in general.
Winter 2019 - I found Dr. McIver to be really engaging and caring about her students. The reading workload was very minimal: we didn't need to buy any books as our readings were all from pdfs she posted, and all she expected was that we printed, read, and annotated the assigned readings (though she only checked annotations once early on) so we could discuss them in class. For my quarter we had 9 total readings (most of which were short), usually one for every class. The other classes were either writing conferences during a time slot that we signed up for (30 minutes, 2 students at once) in place of class, writing workshops on days we submitted working drafts, or a library workshop to help us for our research paper. The grading scheme is 80% portfolio and 20% participation. The participation should be easy as long as you skim the readings, and the portfolio consisted of three major essay assignments plus a learning letter. She assigns due dates throughout the quarter for a working draft and revised draft of each essay (usually about one week apart), and though the final drafts aren't due until the end of Week 10, it's best that you try to put your best effort in so you don't end up with three complete essays to write during Week 10. The essays were an explication (750 words; kind of rhetorical analysis), a research paper (1800 words), and a personal manifesto (no word limit; this will probably vary later since the topic of our class was manifestos, but probably won't be in future quarters). I found writing pretty time consuming since I'm a math major who hates English, but I feel that with a reasonable amount of effort anyone can get an A. For the learning letter, she expected us to explain how our writing progressed between each draft of each essay (e.g. quoting specific passages that improved) which would be how she approached grading our final portfolio. She encourages students to come to office hours, which were pretty helpful; she helps students one-on-one and tries to guide you towards the ideas she wants you to express in your final draft. Also, since she's a teacher union leader, she sometimes has us read and discuss articles on learning and college education in general.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - I absolutely loved Dr. Mehdizadeh's class. She is so passionate and well-informed on all the topics she discusses and it shows. She also does a great job of addressing the several nuances of diversity as a concept. Participation is essential in this class - even a large component of the grade is based on it - but don't worry about that as the topics are very engaging and evoke natural participation. The class is very heavy on workload but you get used to it with time. The assignments in this class are as follows: a reflection (on as assigned reading) due at the beginning of every class, and a 3-5 page final paper - which is supplemented with a 3-page personal reflection and an annotated bibliography. We worked on several drafts of this final paper and its components throughout the quarter. The professor holds individual meetings and peer review sessions to help us improve our drafts up until week 10. Personally, I think having so much writing work was very beneficial as it helped me get writing practice. I believe my writing skills have dramatically improved over the course of this quarter thanks to Dr Mehdizadeh. IMPORTANT WARNING: Dr. Mehdizadeh might seem a bit harsh at first, and the coursework might feel too heavy to handle in the initial weeks. So if after the first class you are tempted to drop out, I'd highly recommend waiting it out. Even I was initially intimidated by the workload and the seemingly harsh grading scheme. However, I assure you that one gets used to the workload and even the grading is eventually lenient. I really think Dr. Mehdizadeh is the best professor I've had at UCLA and I'm going to miss her.
Winter 2020 - I absolutely loved Dr. Mehdizadeh's class. She is so passionate and well-informed on all the topics she discusses and it shows. She also does a great job of addressing the several nuances of diversity as a concept. Participation is essential in this class - even a large component of the grade is based on it - but don't worry about that as the topics are very engaging and evoke natural participation. The class is very heavy on workload but you get used to it with time. The assignments in this class are as follows: a reflection (on as assigned reading) due at the beginning of every class, and a 3-5 page final paper - which is supplemented with a 3-page personal reflection and an annotated bibliography. We worked on several drafts of this final paper and its components throughout the quarter. The professor holds individual meetings and peer review sessions to help us improve our drafts up until week 10. Personally, I think having so much writing work was very beneficial as it helped me get writing practice. I believe my writing skills have dramatically improved over the course of this quarter thanks to Dr Mehdizadeh. IMPORTANT WARNING: Dr. Mehdizadeh might seem a bit harsh at first, and the coursework might feel too heavy to handle in the initial weeks. So if after the first class you are tempted to drop out, I'd highly recommend waiting it out. Even I was initially intimidated by the workload and the seemingly harsh grading scheme. However, I assure you that one gets used to the workload and even the grading is eventually lenient. I really think Dr. Mehdizadeh is the best professor I've had at UCLA and I'm going to miss her.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - Would definitely recommend to take her class. You have to write three essays throughout the quarter and Mrs. Nagami is super helpful! She literally reads through your essay during office hours and tells you what she is looking for. She also has a cereal party on the last day of the quarter as well!
Fall 2018 - Would definitely recommend to take her class. You have to write three essays throughout the quarter and Mrs. Nagami is super helpful! She literally reads through your essay during office hours and tells you what she is looking for. She also has a cereal party on the last day of the quarter as well!
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - Take HER!!!! It's a really interesting class about gentrification around the U.S. You will be assigned a group at the beginning of the quarter which you would do work with. There are a couple essays (2 or 3) and a playlist. Class meets were asynchronous, with her sending out slides with voice notes. Highly recommend. Would definitely take her again!
Spring 2020 - Take HER!!!! It's a really interesting class about gentrification around the U.S. You will be assigned a group at the beginning of the quarter which you would do work with. There are a couple essays (2 or 3) and a playlist. Class meets were asynchronous, with her sending out slides with voice notes. Highly recommend. Would definitely take her again!
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - This class was heavily based on discussion of the novels. Dr. Drissi only spent a class or two talking about the structure of an essay, which is the five-paragraph formula. Other than that, we spent most of the time discussing what hair means culturally and socially. So I didn't really learn a lot about writing essays from her and I don't think I improved. But I went to her office hours and she did provide valuable comments on my essays. So if you want to do well in this class, definitely go to her office hours. However, she replies to email really slow, so definitely email her a few days prior. She also did offer many extra credit events that boosted our grades by 10% ish. Overall, Dr. Drissi is a really nice person and very funny in her lectures, yet I didn't really learn a lot about writing essays from her since the lectures were basically discussions on the readings.
Fall 2019 - This class was heavily based on discussion of the novels. Dr. Drissi only spent a class or two talking about the structure of an essay, which is the five-paragraph formula. Other than that, we spent most of the time discussing what hair means culturally and socially. So I didn't really learn a lot about writing essays from her and I don't think I improved. But I went to her office hours and she did provide valuable comments on my essays. So if you want to do well in this class, definitely go to her office hours. However, she replies to email really slow, so definitely email her a few days prior. She also did offer many extra credit events that boosted our grades by 10% ish. Overall, Dr. Drissi is a really nice person and very funny in her lectures, yet I didn't really learn a lot about writing essays from her since the lectures were basically discussions on the readings.
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