I HIGHLY recommend taking this class with Professor Kipen. He is by far the best professor I've ever had. He has a good sense of humor and he really encourages you to be creative and take risks in your writing and he made me fall more in love with creative writing.

TLDR: If you are an english or literature-related major and/or want to pursue creative writing, please take this class. If not, I wouldn't suggest it.

The class was about films but from my understadning it will be about biographies from this point forward. It had an average-to-low workload with 3 total essays and 2 readings per week that spanned from a couple paragraphs to 50+ pages long. The professor checks that you're doing the readings through a quote submission system (emailing him a quote before class) and he calls on each person during class to talk about their quote. I gathered halfway through the quarter that you could submit any quote and talk about its grammatical aspects instead of it's content, and that would be sufficient enough for him to start rambling on about some sort of writing skill - whether you had done the reading or not.

The real kicker with this class is his grading. No matter what you do, unless you are a naturally-talented writer, you WILL get a B+ on the first paper, so I wouldn't put that might thought into it. Thank goodness that paper is only worth 10%. The next two papers were on a film of our choosing: 5 and 7 pages in length, 30% and 40% of our grades respectively. Note that he grades the first two papers in person, as in you book a time with him at YRL and have him grade it in front of you (could be stressful). Although he never ended up giving any of us horrible grades, we always felt that the papers demanded all of our effort or else we would be doomed. This is mainly because he wanted us to write in his style, which is free-flowing and extremely expressive. As someone who is studying engineering, I could do without reworking how I write essays while I'm being pummeled by my STEM classes.

Another thing is that class has mandatory attendance and is extremely boring. Expect to be staring at a wall for essentially 70 minutes unless you have friends in the class. I had some friends in mine and it honestly felt like highschool.

Overall, Kipen is an extremely caring man who clearly has a passion for creative and critical writing, and I definately learned more about writing in his class than I have in any other class. Give him a chance if you're willing to put in the work, but if you're just trying to get rid of your writing requirement(s), this might not be the best choice.

LOVED!! (took online through zoom fall 2021)
No tests, quizzes, or textbooks.
3 papers: 1 page of diary entries, 5 pages about your home town (midterm), 7 pages about an author you read during the quarter (final).
Participation is VERY important! It's a small class of about 25.
Heres how a typical class would go: a few (usually lengthy) readings are assigned and you have to bring one quote from any of them to talk about. Usually you want to personally connect with it and share why you connect with it or you just point out the metaphor/simile/personification and why it heightens the reading overall. He expects you to read all of them but it's very easy to skim until you find one quote without anyone knowing. After about 30 minutes of discussing quotes, he switches to a writing assignment for the rest of class. It's super easy usually just 1 or two sentences about a prompt he gives you. Everyone reads their writing while he critiques it and then class is over.
Kipen is SUPER nice and understanding, if you are funny with him he will be funny right back! The key to passing his class is taking in his critiques and growing as a writer (which will surprisingly happen naturally.) I would take another class with him in a heartbeat!

Kipen is a nice and funny professor, but his lectures are REALLY REALLY boring. Before each class, you pick a quote from the assigned reading (not that long you can skim through it) and email him your quote. During the lectures, Professor Kipen would spend half of the class reading and discussing the emails you sent. Then he assigns a five-minute writing exercise and spends the other half of the class reading the responses out loud. As you see, the class isn't very interesting. When Kipen isn't reading your quote/response, half of the class are messing around, making noises, and going on their phones. In terms of improving your writing, Kipen's class is meh. I learnt to make a couple of sentences interesting to read but I learnt nothing about how to support an argument I am making and how to create a professional piece of writing. The only thing you are learning is tailoring your writing style to match Professor Kipen's personal taste. If you are trying to be a story writer or an article writer, his class would help. To succeed in his class, you have to be conversational and personable in your writing which is something he likes. He also enjoys first-person a lot (not the type of writing for more professional writing). For my first two essays, I got 2 B+ and I am not sure what I got on my final essay but it was enough for a A-. The workload isn't that much so if I spent more time, I could have gotten a A but given my other STEM classes and his harsh grading, I was more than happy. This is my experience with his class and I don't think I would take it again. I know there are other ENGCOMP3 teachers who give out more work than Kipen but are more generous with grading and make you a better writer.

David Kipen is very interesting. He's a great speaker though his class and assignments lack variety. He truly cares for his students and ins incredibly passionate about writing. Make sure to use a conversational style and you'll be fine. More student cooperation would make this class significantly better. Kipen has a lot of room to improve and I could tell he is up for it!

Professor Kipen was an amazing instructor. The workload was manageable. There were movies listed on the syllabus that we had to watch weekly and then read reviews about them from critics to discuss during class. Before class, you are required to send in a quote from the reading that stood out to you to explain during class why it did. The discussion is minimum and although it works with the timeframe of the class, there were times when I wanted the class to engage in further discussion about the movie. Kipen gives 5-6 minutes to write about a prompt and has you email it to him so he can display it for the class. He critiques it and gives advice, something I found very helpful. There are 3 essays in the quarter (3 pages, 5 pages, 7 pages) with no midterm or final. After each submission (excluding the final paper), Kipen has grading conferences where he reads the paper and does a live grading either on zoom or in person. Overall, it was a great class taught by an even better professor.

I absolutely loved this class and at the same time would say it's definitely not for everyone. Kipen is extremely passionate about writing, and if you're also passionate about writing, this is great. If you don't enjoy writing and just want to get your English requirement fulfilled, I wouldn't recommend this class. The first half of every class is spent discussing the week's reading (my class was centered around film reviews, so watching a movie and reading about 2-5 pages in film reviews every week, but this curriculum could change.) In the second half, he gives a writing prompt, usually personal, and you have about five minutes to write a few sentences. He then displays people's writing one by one and honestly critiques it. I loved this format because I really enjoy receiving feedback on my work and I appreciated his honesty, but if you have any anxiety around sharing your work, I imagine this would be hell.

Overall, I feel like I'm a better writer leaving this class and his genuine passion for teaching, reading, and writing was refreshing and made this my favorite class I've taken at UCLA. The workload was fairly light as well (three papers, all of them fairly open to creative interpretation, seven pages at most) and I genuinely enjoyed most of the readings. However, if you don't care about or enjoy writing, go with any other professor.

This class is nothing like your other typical freshman ones. It's 20 people in a room where Prof. Kipen talks for an hour and 15 mins. Yeah, it gets boring. Most people are on their computers playing games or avoiding a deep slumber. If you consume a stupid amount of caffeine before (or just lock in), it will help you grasp his writing style, which will be useful for your papers.

Kipen is a really good, funny and wholesome teacher. He cares about his students, even if he's a bit old fashioned in the ways that he does it. If this class didn't have grading, I think everyone would like it a lot more. But the harsh grading stresses people out, which makes sense.

Grading: Kipen is a harsh grader. Most people get a B+ in this class. But Kipen likes to see upward trajectory in your writing. He gave me a B+ first, then an A-, and then an A on the final paper. It's a little bit weird that you don't earn good grades with good writing. Rather, good grades come from catering to Kipen's style and humor. If you pay attention during class, you'll pick up what Kipen likes and what he doesn't, and then you should use that in your papers. Honestly, I was surprised to see that I got an A. I didn't think anyone in that class would get an A. My best advice is: be kind and nice to Kipen! Respect his time and teaching by thinking through your sentences and putting a lot of time/effort into your papers, and the rewards will come. He likes it when you are passionate about the material and put effort into your in-class work + essays, so definitely lock in.

The way class is structured, you watch a movie or two every week (most people didn't actually watch them) and read a movie critique that Kipen picks. At the start of each class, you email Kipen a sentence that stood out to you from the critique/review. For the first 45mins, Kipen puts his email on the screen and goes through your quotes, one by one. It can feel very pointless at times, but it's ok just power through. Then, Kipen gives you 5 minutes for an in-class writing exercise where you email him about a vague prompt. And he reads those aloud too on the board, which is where he really critiques your writing. Honestly, I got a lot out of it. 25% of your grade is also class participation so make sure to be engaged and give good answers when your email pops up on his screen. It can be intimidating for a lot of people, especially if you're a quiet or shy person by nature.

he was really funny, and I enjoyed writing in the class. There were 3 major essays due, but I enjoyed learning about different concepts and objectives the class had to offer. def take this class for your english requirement.