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.

In a nutshell, TAKE THIS CLASS. If you're looking for a fun, memorable EngComp class, do take this!

Hands down, one of the best classes I took in my two quarters at UCLA, if not the best. Professor Mehdizadeh ensures the point of this class is for us to leave as better writers and more critical and compassionate individuals. In the initial few classes, it might seem like a lot of work and she acknowledges that too, requesting you to hang in there. Trust me, you should. Over time, you see a change in your own writing and will enjoy immensely the work you might have complained about earlier. Her teaching style is very participatory in nature and places you at the center of your own learning experience, while she chips in with very meaningful insights. She offers a lot of help on your final essay with individual and group conferences. This class is as good as you want it to be.

The topics we covered in Winter 2020 were 'Race and Technology', 'Women in STEM', 'Transgender Rights' and 'Immigration and Undocumented Status'. We could all pick a topic we wanted to to work on for our final essay. While the topics might seem over discussed, her take on the class, the articles we are meant to read allow you to really form logical arguments for your stance rather than support politically correct or popular opinions on these hot-button topics. There's really something for everyone in this class.

Dr. Mehdizadeh is always there for her students. She has weekly assignment and readings that are pretty straight forward. While at first glance it may seem like a lot it is really not. It is pretty straight forward work. Mostly writing summaries and your thoughts on readings that were pretty short or videos that were short as well. The project is an essay that you're working on throughout the quarter so it never felt like a huge workload. At times you may be frustrated with her feedback on your essay throughout the quarter, because it seemed like she always wanted me to change something about my essay. Your writing will also improve throughout the quarter because she gives a lot of tips to improve. Overall, I would take this class again with her. You will be fine if you do the assignments and show up to class, and listen to her feedback on your essays.

I don't see why everyone is raving about this class. I did like prof Mehdizadeh, but personally I did not find the material engaging or very interesting. It wasn't life-changing like most reviews make it out to be nor did I really see improvement in my writing.

The class is very work heavy, and you really need to participate. She also seems to grade harshly at the beginning, and then loosens up once you turn in your final submissions I assume just to motivate you to actually try rather than glaze by at the bare minimum.

Do I recommend this class? Sure, if you have the time - you'll most likely get an A if you put in the work and you'll get the diversity requirement out of the way. It was also a nice change to be in a 20 ppl class rather than a large lecture hall.

Overall, very much not a fan of this class. Honestly, I am very very surprised at how positive all of these reviews are. I talked to many people in my class and they all had the same opinions as I did. Dr. Mehdizadeh can be pretty condescending in the way that she talks to students and although she acts like she really wants to help you, she offers incredibly ambiguous suggestions to your writing. Although I thought that this class wasn't absolutely terrible, it was definitely decent at best. Based off of the reviews for this class, however, I expected it to be my favorite class. If you are a good writer and good at arguing very leftist/liberal opinions, you will be fine. However, many of my friends have told me about how easy their English Comp 3 class was, so there are DEFINITELY better options out there. It's also very easy to fulfill your diversity requirement with another class. I would definitely recommend taking an easy English comp 3 class and fulfilling your diversity requirement through another easy GE. Trust me.

This class was ridiculously workload. I thinkI am a good writer but she literally criticized everything saying I had a lot to work on. She discouraged me a lot and I would even go to the writing center to get feedback on my essays and the blogs we had to do every week and they said my writing was good. I like overwriting and doing more than what is expected. The blogs had to do with diversity and traveling which is a good topic and so you basically have to go and explore LA. I talked to a student in the class and his blog was literally like three sentences and he got an A. I wrote about 10 sentences and received a D. And I was literally so upset, I went to her office hours and she didn't explain anything about what was wrong. All she said was that I needed more "detail". I had other students read my work and they said the same thing. She's an incredibly hard grader and expects way too much. I understand that we are constantly learning and becoming better writers but this was way over the top.

As a professor:
Honestly speaking Dr Mehdizadeh is a good professor. She is REALLY clear and she teaches REALLY useful writing skills. I still use what she taught me in my other classes. After learning from her for a quarter you can see yourself improved in writing. And of course she can see that too, and she takes into great account your participation and improvement, so do the readings, be active in class, and put effort in your essays. This is good especially for those incoming international students with a not-so-strong English background (like me myself lol).

Dr Mehdizadeh also cares a lot about her students. I remember during the first class she said that she would try to memorize everyone's name and two days later during the second class, she did memorize everyone's name correctly. She also welcomes questions and she responds to emails fairly quickly.

As a class:
And here's the BUT. This class is by no means easy. You'll have weekly assignments starting from week one, together with required readings for every class. The readings are absolutely REQUIRED not only because you'll need them to write your essays, but also because she asks for annotations on every article and she'll check them. She also assigns two essays, one due in the middle of the quarter and one due at the end. She has schedules individual appointments prior to those due dates and you need to bring your drafts to her. This teaching style does help you improve along the way but it pretty much keeps you rolling through the entire quarter, which can be very stressful.

In a word, it's great class with a ton of work to do. I'd say I struggled through it but I don't regret taking this class. So decide for yourself and good luck studying :)

As someone who typically doesn't like English she made the class as painless as possible. There is a decent amount of reading with a decent amount of writing but that is to be expected.

I took this class for English Comp 3D (which counted for the diversity requirement) and I really enjoyed it. My friends who only took comp 3 said they had at least 4 essays and it had a lot of reading, but Mehdizadeh didn't work that way. She assigned readings for us to annotate and small research assignments, but I wouldn't complain about the HW load. Also she only had 2 essays for the whole quarter, none of which revolved around reading a book beforehand. It revolved around diversity of course. Anyways she is really willing to help you and if you can, take this with her! (especially 3D).

I really liked this class, Dr Mehdizadeh is really friendly, engaging and a great lecturer. I took English Comp 3D with her, and so all the material was focused on diversity, and she really knows what she's talking about. She also takes a genuine interest in her students. I would recommend going to office hours. Her assignments required a reasonable amount of work, but they were interesting and very open ended. Overall this was a great class.