Professor Mehdizadeh is definitely one of the most helpful professors I have had at UCLA, and she definitely shows that she cares more about student learning than assigning grades. She is willing to help you with literally anything about writing (and helping you emotionally when you are absolutely freaking out about writing, haha). While she is really empathetic and uplifting, she is always absolutely honest with her opinions and has HIGH expectations for her students and heightens those expectations over the course of the quarter.

Another word of warning, the workload, as many reviewers suggest below, is intense. While the workload is generally consistent throughout the quarter, the first two weeks are the most difficult since you are getting used to her assignments and the amount of work she assigns. A few of my classmates and I definitely spent three-four hours every other day doing homework for the class because there is a bit of a learning curve to the assignments. Despite the workload and readings, you never feel like you're necessarily wasting your time because you definitely improve as a result.

I'd definitely recommend Professor Mehdizadeh's class! While the class is undoubtedly tough, you learn quite a bit, and even though I was stressed out for a lot of my quarter with her class, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Dr. Mehdizadeh is a very friendly and engaging proffessor. The entire class is based on Shakespeare's Othello, and is actually pretty interesting. However do not be fooled, its a lot of work. If you are willing to do the work though, highly recommend Dr. Mehdizadeh.

I would truly recommend this class to fulfill your writing II requirement. The professor is very helpful and as long as you do your work you will get an A.

Mehdizadeh is a great professor. Albeit somewhat opinionated at times, she is very organized and helpful, and very critical during class discussions, helping to facilitate a truly academic dialouge. She gives detailed essay help during conferences and is very clear about what she expects from students, and is not the harshest grader. If you need assistance, she will be there to guide you along. 5W was quite a nice class because of this and I definitely recommend taking it with her. As long as you try, and care about the material, you shouldn't have much of a problem getting an A. The grade distribution doesn't lie.