Professor
Rachel Fretz
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Most Helpful Review
Dr. Fretz is honestly one of the nicest teachers I have had in college. If you treat her with respect and actually try in this class, she will give you the respect you deserve as a student and I promise you will gain so much out of english comp! I can't even explain how much this class taught me! I considered myself a good writer before college, but taking this class made me a great writer. I have improved SOO much with my essays (from building a strong thesis, to making my transitions flow, to forming conclusions, to making quote sandwiches that support my argument, etc) that even though the work load may have been heavy, it definitely paid off in the end. Knowing how to write a powerful, well-written essay is one of the most valuable things to know in college, so I say definitely take Dr. Fretz's class because you WILL learn and grow as a writer. Just some words of advice coming into the class though: -manage your time (there will be three essays in this class, write them well and make sure you have lots of time to spend on them while also making time for your other classes.) -participate in class (you will get so much out of it) take the reading logs seriously (they will help you so much with your essays) -visit a writing tutor for all of the three essays -trust Dr. Fretz's process, it may seem tedious, but she is a very intelligent woman with lots of knowledge and knows what she is doing -keep a positive attitude! the class can be so much fun if you get into it, stop freaking out about the workload and just get excited about the work you are doing. After all, we are in college to learn new things -Visit office hours! Dr. Fretz is so nice and you can really see that during office hours. Get to know her! She has an amazing life story. -Take advantage of the journal Dr. Fretz has you write in. It may seem like a hassle at first, but writing in my journal was one of my favorite parts about the class. Making time for you and your thoughts is so important, especially in college, so definitely take advantage of that freedom you have to explore your mind as you write. Write lists, goals, your worries, what makes you happy, free writes for essays, and even doodle. It is the best. Going back to Dr. Fretz as a person, regardless of what these other reviews say, Dr. Fretz is so sweet and truly cares about the betterment of your writing. Not only that, but she loves all her students and wants them all to succeed. All of the classes are valuable, and Dr. Fretz goes above and beyond in supporting her students. She is in no way a racist, and I am really confused about what these other reviews are referring to. If anything, she is genuinely interested in learning about other races and cultures since her theme for the class was "love stories in different cultures," which I found really interesting. So yes, the workload will be heavy, but remember the things I said earlier, and it will all pay off. At the end of the quarter, Dr. Fretz bought us all pizza with her own money (what other teacher does that?!) and had us give compliments to one another on our essays that we had worked so hard on. It was so thoughtful, and really reveals how much she cares about us. She also said that she is there to help her students even after they leave the class (with written statements in job applications, graduate school essays, etc) so I feel really lucky to have had her as a teacher. As I left the last day of class, a group of her students and I were talking about this and they all agreed with me. However, most people who write reviews are the people with negative things to say, so I thought I needed to say how I felt. All things considered, take the class if you are willing to put in the time. You will learn so much. :)
Dr. Fretz is honestly one of the nicest teachers I have had in college. If you treat her with respect and actually try in this class, she will give you the respect you deserve as a student and I promise you will gain so much out of english comp! I can't even explain how much this class taught me! I considered myself a good writer before college, but taking this class made me a great writer. I have improved SOO much with my essays (from building a strong thesis, to making my transitions flow, to forming conclusions, to making quote sandwiches that support my argument, etc) that even though the work load may have been heavy, it definitely paid off in the end. Knowing how to write a powerful, well-written essay is one of the most valuable things to know in college, so I say definitely take Dr. Fretz's class because you WILL learn and grow as a writer. Just some words of advice coming into the class though: -manage your time (there will be three essays in this class, write them well and make sure you have lots of time to spend on them while also making time for your other classes.) -participate in class (you will get so much out of it) take the reading logs seriously (they will help you so much with your essays) -visit a writing tutor for all of the three essays -trust Dr. Fretz's process, it may seem tedious, but she is a very intelligent woman with lots of knowledge and knows what she is doing -keep a positive attitude! the class can be so much fun if you get into it, stop freaking out about the workload and just get excited about the work you are doing. After all, we are in college to learn new things -Visit office hours! Dr. Fretz is so nice and you can really see that during office hours. Get to know her! She has an amazing life story. -Take advantage of the journal Dr. Fretz has you write in. It may seem like a hassle at first, but writing in my journal was one of my favorite parts about the class. Making time for you and your thoughts is so important, especially in college, so definitely take advantage of that freedom you have to explore your mind as you write. Write lists, goals, your worries, what makes you happy, free writes for essays, and even doodle. It is the best. Going back to Dr. Fretz as a person, regardless of what these other reviews say, Dr. Fretz is so sweet and truly cares about the betterment of your writing. Not only that, but she loves all her students and wants them all to succeed. All of the classes are valuable, and Dr. Fretz goes above and beyond in supporting her students. She is in no way a racist, and I am really confused about what these other reviews are referring to. If anything, she is genuinely interested in learning about other races and cultures since her theme for the class was "love stories in different cultures," which I found really interesting. So yes, the workload will be heavy, but remember the things I said earlier, and it will all pay off. At the end of the quarter, Dr. Fretz bought us all pizza with her own money (what other teacher does that?!) and had us give compliments to one another on our essays that we had worked so hard on. It was so thoughtful, and really reveals how much she cares about us. She also said that she is there to help her students even after they leave the class (with written statements in job applications, graduate school essays, etc) so I feel really lucky to have had her as a teacher. As I left the last day of class, a group of her students and I were talking about this and they all agreed with me. However, most people who write reviews are the people with negative things to say, so I thought I needed to say how I felt. All things considered, take the class if you are willing to put in the time. You will learn so much. :)
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - The essays that you are assigned in this class might be boring, which is about family love stories( I've heard that she has stuck with this topic since she started to teach.) However, this class is definitely an easy A cause I believe most of the work is graded by completion not accuracy and as long as you follow her suggestions when revising.
Winter 2019 - The essays that you are assigned in this class might be boring, which is about family love stories( I've heard that she has stuck with this topic since she started to teach.) However, this class is definitely an easy A cause I believe most of the work is graded by completion not accuracy and as long as you follow her suggestions when revising.
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Most Helpful Review
It's quite amusing to see that everyone's negative reviews about Dr. Fretz is absolutely true. I just spent the most horrible ten weeks of my undergraduate life in her class and I can say, it was by far, the worst course that I have ever taken in my four years here at UCLA. First, the paper. We spend 10 weeks on a huge paper [the paper itself usually averages to about 25-30 pages] and we eventually turn it as a bounded project with appendices, draft plans, etc etc. So, in total, it was about 80 pages [imagine printing that out and then having to go to Kinko's to get it bind for $5.49] COMPLETE WASTE OF PAPER, MONEY, AND TIME. That is what you turn in at the end of the course. The ten weeks leading up to this is no better. I spent countless hours transcribing and revising drafts over and over again. On top of that, she had almost weekly conferences to discuss peer editing and all that other bs. I think she does not realize that we have other classes that we have to worry about because there is so much work that is assigned. Don't get me wrong, the work is not difficult. It's just that its tedious and she hardly even looks at it. She checks your portfolio around 6th or 7th week and just gives you credit for "completeness." In my view, it just takes the workload off of her. And she does not allow you to express your own opinions in your paper! She wants the paper so completely structured in her format that she even "suggests" quotes that we should use. She wants things to be interpreted HER way, leaving very little freedom for the actual writer to express his/her own thoughts. The only freedom I had was in picking my narrator. I dont think I learned anything of substance in this class besides the importance of revising since we had to do about ten drafts!!! If you take this class, be prepared to spend a fortune on ink and printing. I would not recommend her. I don't mind if professors are difficult or require alot of work if I actually learn something of substance in return. But I didn't in this class. If you can, stay away! and to end, i think she makes racist remarks. STAY AWAY FROM FRETZ.
It's quite amusing to see that everyone's negative reviews about Dr. Fretz is absolutely true. I just spent the most horrible ten weeks of my undergraduate life in her class and I can say, it was by far, the worst course that I have ever taken in my four years here at UCLA. First, the paper. We spend 10 weeks on a huge paper [the paper itself usually averages to about 25-30 pages] and we eventually turn it as a bounded project with appendices, draft plans, etc etc. So, in total, it was about 80 pages [imagine printing that out and then having to go to Kinko's to get it bind for $5.49] COMPLETE WASTE OF PAPER, MONEY, AND TIME. That is what you turn in at the end of the course. The ten weeks leading up to this is no better. I spent countless hours transcribing and revising drafts over and over again. On top of that, she had almost weekly conferences to discuss peer editing and all that other bs. I think she does not realize that we have other classes that we have to worry about because there is so much work that is assigned. Don't get me wrong, the work is not difficult. It's just that its tedious and she hardly even looks at it. She checks your portfolio around 6th or 7th week and just gives you credit for "completeness." In my view, it just takes the workload off of her. And she does not allow you to express your own opinions in your paper! She wants the paper so completely structured in her format that she even "suggests" quotes that we should use. She wants things to be interpreted HER way, leaving very little freedom for the actual writer to express his/her own thoughts. The only freedom I had was in picking my narrator. I dont think I learned anything of substance in this class besides the importance of revising since we had to do about ten drafts!!! If you take this class, be prepared to spend a fortune on ink and printing. I would not recommend her. I don't mind if professors are difficult or require alot of work if I actually learn something of substance in return. But I didn't in this class. If you can, stay away! and to end, i think she makes racist remarks. STAY AWAY FROM FRETZ.
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