TLDR: Great class, lots of social interaction and fairly easy overall

With online school it's tough to be social, but Mott wanted to change that. He did a number of things to facilitate social interaction.
*Cut the lectures short by 15 min to give people time to talk to each other before their next class
*Gave group work assignments every week
*Engaged with a student at the start of every class, asking them about their country/ zoom background/ their day
*Told people to come to office hours if they just wanted to casually talk

I really appreciated all this because Mott and my TA Rebecca are the only instructors I connected with this quarter.

The coursework was different since the quarter was online:
As far as the work of the class goes for every novel you had to write a paragraph or so linking a passage in the novel to a social issue in the world. There would also be weekly group work to combine the ideas each person wrote in the previous assignment into a group hypothesis. These assignments were graded solely on participation so it was never something I stressed about.
There are no tests for the class. Instead your midterm 1 is an essay and midterm 2 is an outline of an essay. Mott pushed the due date for both of these back by 3 days the week it was due and it seemed like he and the TAs were very willing to give extensions.
The final was a presentation diving into one of the objects found in the novel. It was pretty easy and interesting
The only thing I didn't like is that sometimes Mott would lose me during his presentations. He's super fun and interesting up until he puts up a Powerpoint.
Also pray that one of your TAs knows how tech because Mott does not

My favorite class at UCLA. Mott is highly engaging, really humble, and genuinely goes out of his way to continually shift the class according to feedback from students. A very underrated skill for professors is working well with TAs — Mott and his TAs fluidly worked together to support students and guarantee they learned. The class gives students a lot of freedom, but also substantial guidance.

The grade is mostly based on two 5-6 page essays and one final project. There is a lot of reading (4 novels), but they are legitimately enjoyable novels and you can get away with only reading 2 if you really want. The reading and analysis of this class made me feel smarter by the end of each essay. The final project is super easy and you can basically talk about literally anything you want for four minutes. We had A-level presentations on Superman, Scrabble, garlic, and so on.

All in all, 85 is a pretty low-stress course, with a couple moderate essays, where you learn a lot through the professor, TAs (shoutout Anthony if you're reading this), and even other students (most of them were way smarter than me).

MOTT IS SUCH AN AMAZING PROFESSOR!!!!! This class was so so fun and such a good GE to take as a freshman. He is super intent on creating community, and there was a lot of collaboration. Group work usually annoys me, but this felt really productive and fulfilling. I think the community of this class was part of what made it so good, so I'm not sure how it would transfer to an online format.

You rarely have homework outside of this class except for reading the novels (obviously) and the occasional forum post. We read 4 novels:

1. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
2. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
3. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and
4. Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Viramontes.

My favorite part of this class was when Mott talked about the novels in class. He did it in a way that was so engaging, but also kinda collaborative? Like it didn't feel like he was talking at you, but like he was talking with you. He's just overall a really cool prof and obviously loves what he does.

This class literally made me switch my major from a STEM one to English. If you're someone who enjoys reading, this class is so wonderful. If you don't enjoy reading, I wonder if this class would make you a reader. Take it and find out!

Mott is one of my favorite professor personalities at UCLA by far. He is the only professor I have had in virtual learning who truly fostered a friendly and communicative culture in his lectures, and all he had to do was small talk with us before he started! At times his lectures are rambling, but if you try to listen he has some very interesting thoughts. Sometimes the instructions aren't clear, and some of the TAs grade a bit hard, but Mott makes sure that you will do well, and is prone to extending deadlines. I learned a lot; but, a disclaimer: the class hardly matches the class description. The class description is: "Development, with emphasis on form, of American novel from its beginning to present day. Includes works of such novelists as Hawthorne, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Ellison, and Morrison." We focused on none of these authors, and it was a lot more contemporary and focused on themes that I wasn't expecting.

Professor Mott was an amazing professor. Very caring and easy to talk to. The reviews for Fall 2020 are very accurate. It wasn't difficult, especially with it being online, however it wasn't easy either. I didn't feel like I learned a lot (no notes required) but it definitely expanded my understanding on real-world concepts and systemic flaws in America! The prof and the TAs were very understanding regarding the pandemic and being remote. Definitely recommend but not necessarily an easy GE.

Despite my upward trajectory regarding the 3 essays/writing assignments (first two each worth 15% and final project was 20%), I wasn't able to reach the grade I had hoped for. They curved the essays, which brought my grade down to an A-. I felt pretty bummed about this because my first essay was my lowest grade but then it ended up giving me the most points for the class. Essentially my writing improved, but not within the scope of the entire class :/

Although this class was a good class to satisfy a GE requirement, I don't feel like I learned much or took anything away from this class. Professor Mott was a great guy, always super excited about the material and wanted to know how we were doing outside of school. I would certainly recommend him as a professor, as he was quirky and funny and extremely enthusiastic. However, I'm not sure I'd recommend the class. Do not be fooled by the course description that lists classic American authors like what you may have read in high school--this class involves many lesser-known novels, one of which hadn't even been written long enough to be available in paperback. Almost every lecture involved groupwork and breakout rooms where the group would have to come up with a collective thesis statement or summary paragraph, which got exhausting quickly when the same students kept winding up doing the work. Rebecca was also a good TA and had engaging discussions, but I would often listen to the lectures while I did something else, no real need for notes. Overall, a good class if you really, truly enjoy literature, but if that's not your thing and you just want an easy GE, maybe look elsewhere.

This class is great. The novels are very interesting, and the discussions in class are great. Take this, you won’t regret it.

Mott is an awesome guy and his lectures are usually interesting, if a bit long-winded. Goes on tangents often, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are no tests; the grade is composed of two essays, a final project, and a participation grade. That isn't to say it's not a lot of work reading an average of a book every two weeks with essays in between, but office hours are accessible and helpful for both Mott and his TAs. If you're a freshman, regardless of major, I'd recommend this class.

Prof was super funny / engaging / chill. Knew everyone's name and face and was always willing to help, always took the TAs and students advice about what would be best with due dates and projects/assignments. Two papers which were not that hard (although the turnaround was a bit quick if you're busy with other classes) and a final project/presentation that was easy and graded leniently. You do have to do the reading but the lectures are helpful and there are a ton of CCLE posts to help keep up if you didn't do stuff on time

Mott is a sweetheart and both the TA's seemed great. If Shouhei is a TA when you are taking this class I would recommend him, he was awesome.

This class is very doable, all there is is 2 essays, a few online discussion posts about the books, and a short final PowerPoint presented to your discussion section. There are 5 books assigned but you can definitely get away with reading 3 since you only need 3 for your essays.

To be honest I skipped a lot of lectures but Mott seemed like a great guy when I went. He tries to learn everyone's names and he is so supportive and kind. Even cooler is that he encourages you to steal his ideas or the ideas of classmates and write your essays on them LOL. If you aren't great at analyzing books, you can just bounce off of your classmates' ideas.

Would recommend for a chill GE if you don't mind reading and writing a little.