The reviews for Professor Mott will vary because this course is very subjective (depending on how you like his lectures and how effective your TA is). Personally, I thought the lectures were a joke. He spends the majority of his time on topics that are close to irrelevant to the texts read. My TA was alright. She is new so I will give her a pass on what she could have done better. Nonetheless, what I say or anyone else says here will not be true for everyone. So with that in mind, if you think you can handle this course without major problems, take it. But if you are someone who needs a lot of guidance on essay topics and discussions, find another class.

This was the first UCLA GE course I took, and I have to say it was great! It was my favorite class that quarter. :)

Pros:
- Mott's a funny guy (who specializes in dirty humor-- trust me, his book selections have tons of sexual overtones).
- I got a really great TA, so I learned a lot about how to write a compelling thesis statement and how to make an essay flow. TAs will vary. Some will make you take a lot of pop quizzes or make you write your essay/thesis/introductory paragraphs in advance. Others will simply leave it up to you to consult with them during office hours.
- Instead of following that cut-and-paste AP English Lit/Comp format they have you follow in high school, this class taught me how to think more analytically, formulate an argument, find appropriate evidence for my argument, and present it all in a logical manner. After a summer of doing nothing, this class whipped me into shape.

Cons:
- You will never get through a whole lecture. Ever. With all the shenanigans Mott pulled during lecture, I considered it a good day if we got to the third-to-last slide.
- Mott's arguments for his theses can get a bit obscure. Ask your TA for clarification if you need to.
- Mott's got some favoritism towards specific TA's/honors section students.

Overall: Seven books in 10 weeks is certainly no bueno, but it's doable. If there's one book you really can't get into, it's pretty much fine if you don't read it if you a) attend lecture and b) go to discussion. I made the mistake of not reading five books until the weekend before Week 10. Managed to finish 4/5! :) Just remember that the point of lecture is to show you the thought process behind the formulation of a strong thesis. I recommend showing up to every lecture (if possible) and every discussion.

Pretty good. Really depends on your TA, some TAs give weekly reading quizzes some don't. You read 7 books which is really unrealistic if you have other classes and a life. I happened to have a TA that didn't give quizzes so I never even read an entire book. Lectures are not the best, although not a class where it's a good idea to completely blow off going to lecture. Going about 70% of the time is usually a good idea. Mott is a nice guy, tries to be funny during class, loves to go off on tangents and make references to things that no one knows about. There are easier GEs but this is not a bad option.

I personally do not think Mott is an effective professor. I received an A- in his class. We had 7 books in 10 weeks, which was too much for us to really analyze each of the books we read, especially towards the end of the quarter. Most of his lectures were focused a thesis statement which never really related to our papers, so I didn't see the point of them. If you get a good TA, they can help you a lot with your writing, but even that has a limit due to only 2 papers assigned the entire quarter. I didn't have a good experience with this class, and wouldn't recommend it if you are looking for a useful GE to take.

I thought I would like Mott because he was fun, congenial, and energetic, but I didn't. His lectures didn't help us understand the themes in the books, and the discussions were too short to really go over anything. We had 7 books in 10 weeks, which was too fast to grasp the concepts. He even admitted when he hadn't finished the books before lecture. His focus on lectures was picking one topic and arguing it. We rarely made it past a couple of slides because he always got distracted and sidetracked. He often talked about deep philosophical arguments that were above most of the students' heads. Luckily, the essays were not difficult once you learn his style, and the final was predictable if you took time to plan it out. I still know nothing about those books, which is a shame because some of them were actually good.

I took this class my first quarter at UCLA, not knowing anything about it, and I have to say it has paid off tremendously. This class really nails home how to devise a thesis statement, which has come in handy everytime I've had to write an essay. I actually feel my Writing II class instruction, which was basically the same in that we read novels and wrote essays about them, was inferior to this one. If you want to know how to write a thesis, take this class. Yes, you may struggle at first, but that's because you are breaking your old 5-paragraph cookie cutter structure model they crammed down your throat in high school. Most helpful were the "key words" he highlighted that will tell you if your thesis is argumentative rather than just a summary ("condemns" rather than "shows", for example). I use those words to this day and consistently get "strong thesis" comments.

Beyond discussing how to write well, one of the reviewers below nails the style of lectures on the head when they say that the lectures are designed to lead you through a thought process of how to delve into and analyze a theme of the book. They are not there for you to copy or to be held as the only possible interpretation. You will have to use your brain in this class.

The books we read were hit or miss. I'm sure they change every year, but I particularly enjoyed Benito Cereno and Double Indemnity. Yes, lectures could be boring, but overall, recommended if you want to improve your analytical writing.

Mott seems like an interesting man, and he's obviously brilliant, but his lectures are horribly off topic. About halfway through the quarter I just stopped going to lecture because I realized that they just weren't necessary to get a good grade. The books were somewhat interesting...although Mott waits until about a week before finals to give you the general meaning of what an american novel actually is. His 1 hour and 15 minute lectures could easily be done in 20 min. if he would stop wasting time having conversations with his honor students in the middle of class. Discussion for this class can be really interesting if you have a great TA, so make sure you go to all of those. Like I said, lectures are unnecessary, but if you still feel like going sometimes I would suggest going to one of the lectures per novel (he has 3 lectures for each novel). The final wasn't too horrible, I was really sick when I took it and didn't try that hard. Overall I got an A- in the class.

Mott was a good professor overall. I didn't get what he was trying to accomplish in his lectures until later in the quarter. The information presented in lectures isn't meant to provide information for you to reiterate in your essays or the final but rather to demonstrate a process of thinking about and formulating a debatable argument. That is where many students miss the point and why I never took notes in lecture. To do well in this class (I got an A), read the novels and KNOW them in terms of characters and what happens etc. and then be able to analyze key passages through close reading. Furthermore, know how to build an argument throughout an essay. Get to know your TA's and their expectations and read the comments on your first essay to show improvement on your second essay. It was not an easy class I got a B on the first essay but got an A on my second essay. Work hard, read the novels, and try to create an argument in your essays that is debatable and insightful. I recommend Mott and that you get to know him on a personal level. I also recommend Jacob Lang as a TA because I really learned a lot from his sections and he helped me to improve my writing through the loads of comments that he wrote on my first essay. Take the class if you want to improve your writing and your ability to analyze and critique all forms of communication.

Did not enjoy his lectures and rarely attended them. His powerpoints were unorganized and he usually chose one side of the novel to talk about for the entire hour and 15 minutes. If I went to lecture, I usually paid attention for the first half hour and then found something to do on my laptop or fell asleep. He tries to be funny too, but I didn't really enjoy his jokes. There were occasional funny ones but most of the time, they weren't. His class doesn't have a midterm which was nice but there's two essays and a final. The essays were graded pretty harshly. You really need to go to your TA's office hours to find out what he/she wants to see in your essay because they usually grade them. The final wasn't too bad. Consisted of 5 passage explications out of the 6 novels you were assigned to read (the amount of reading wasn't too bad, depending on whether or not you enjoyed the books) and an essay. You're given the essay prompts beforehand but not the passage explications. Overall, I didn't enjoy the class because I didn't feel like I got anything out of it or my writing improved. I just got frustrated. If you like English and you're a good writer (a really good writer), then you'll probably like it.

Mott is a pretty funny guy and certainly amusing in class, but I personally did not enjoy his lecture style very much. He chose one thing that interested him about the book we were reading each lecture, and only talked about that one thing for the entire hour. I would have preferred a more organized lecture that explored more aspects of each book to give us more ideas of what to write about, since we were able to choose our own topics. Because of this, lecture was often a waste of time if what Mott talked about did not interest you personally because you were only evaluated on your two papers pretty much. I also thought the grading was a bit harsh considering how much time I put into it, and several of the books are extremely uninteresting.