Okay, I like Prof Johnson's humor, but this class IS JUST SO HARD FOR NO REASON. The theme of the class is the American Dream, which is pretty funny as I am not an American. We have to do journals before classes, and these journals can take HOURS because we have to watch television shows and write three pages about them. The journals are graded upon completion tho.
WE HAVE TO PAY FOR HBO AND NETFLIX SUBSCRIPTIONS. The textbook was trash, except the AXES structure that you must use in your essay unless you want to get a B.
If you finish everything on time, you will get a B. The final portfolio involves a cover letter and two essays, each of them are six pages long. We have to write three-page drafts for three essays, and you can choose two of them as part of your final portfolio. Only the portfolio will actually be graded.
BUT! In the syllabus, he said
if you get EXEMPLARY on both essays, you WILL GET AN A.
if you get one EXEMPLARY and one SATISFACTORY, you will get an A- or B+ depending on which essay you got exemplary for.
if you get two SATISFACTORY grades, you will get a B.
HE MENTIONED NOTHING ABOUT LOW OR HIGH EXEMPLARY

I got TWO LOW EXEMPLARY on both of my essays, and MY GRADE WS 92/100, which WAS AN A-, NOT AN A!!!!!!!

To start off, you can tell Darien is a quality person. This review has nothing to do with him as a person, entirely him as a professor as well as his class. I won't lie I'm not even done with the class but I'm already aggravated with the work I've had to do and the amount of it. You have to do journal entries before class that can be based off of tv shows, articles, small videos etc. I've spent HOURS writing these and it all SCREAMS busy work. The most irritated I've been so far is when we had to watch Cardi B music videos and write in our journal about it. I mean come on. I never thought I'd have an English teacher ask me to watch the Bodak Yellow music video and develop analytical assertions based off of my observations. It's infuriating when this is what you're asked to do when paying A LOT of money for an education at one of the best schools in the nation. Could be just me but I'm really unhappy about this class. Only sticking around because ENG 3D is a great way to kill two birds with one stone when it comes to GE req's. Darien is a great guy... but this class and the way he's decided to teach it isn't for me and I'd guess at least a few would agree.

Professor Johnson is so helpful in letting you know how to improve your writing. He hosts writing conferences throughout the quarter which help a lot with expanding your thoughts and giving you recommendations on what you can improve on. I honestly feel like my writing improved so so much from the beginning of the quarter to the end. Super understanding and kind professor. The material is also really interesting and it covers media and articles that are relevant to today in our world! The assignments (journal entries) can take quite a bit of time but he grades them on effort and they are helpful with giving you a start for your writing projects in this class. The class is based on two writing projects that you spend all quarter working on and he provides a lot of conferences and office hours for you to get help on. I recommend taking this class with Professor Johnson :)

This professor is one of my favorites here at UCLA! I would recommend so much if you have take comp1. You won't regret it!

Work for this class consists of a journal that has to be submitted before each class, and then the three writing project rough drafts of which you choose two to turn into final drafts for a final writing portfolio which acts as your final. The writing projects were very reasonable in terms of the amount of time you have to do them and the grading. The journals are honestly an unnecessary amount of work, but just remember when you're writing them that they are entirely based on completion and you don't necessarily have to give a ton of thought and revision to them. Overall everything in this class was very fair and Darien is very helpful with conferencing as well as in-class peer review.

Darien is one of the best professor I have ever met. If you worry about your writing skills and are afraid of writing essays, then take this course. You will improve a lot. His conference and office hour really helps a lot and he gives useful suggestions on essays revision. Since 80% of the grade is based on completion, you can get an easy A. The only thing you need to worry about is the final portfolio which contains two long essays. But we have worked on these essays throughout the course so it will not be so hard. Highly recommend this course!!!!!

In my opinion, it felt like nothing I did the entire quarter actually mattered for a grade and the work I put into it did help my grade at all until the final grade. The homework I did throughout the year took so much time and I put so much effort into them but my final was basically based off of the essay we did at the end of the quarter. What I got on that one essay (even though we did a few throughout the quarter) was basically my grade which I didn't realize to the end.

Darien is a great professor. His teaching style is community-based and he promotes discussion among his students. I found his community learning approach to be very helpful, as classmates have different lenses for what constitutes helpful feedback. The textbook was also very useful and appropriately priced. If you want to do well, follow the AXES structure in your essays and do every assignment.

The readings were not long, but the writing assignments were. It's all just busy work that I would look at as brainstorming because it eventually leads up to a big essay prompt. The workload is definitely questionable, but honestly Prof. Darien and the environment he fosters makes it worth it.

Loved this class!!! The material is super relevant and captivating. Professor Johnson is awesome and is super entertaining. Would definitely take this class again :)

I took this class because I did not satisfy the entry-level writing requirement upon entry to UCLA. I have always struggled with writing and this class was definitely a big help. We learned different rhetorical and conceptual competencies in order to succeed in college writing. This class was not hard at all because Professor Johnson creates mini assignments that build up to help form a big paper. This course is highly focused on identity and you will explore different identities and compared them to yours.  

We only had 4 major writing assignments but don't worry you will be able to do rough drafts and you will meet with the Professor and discuss how to improve your essays.
Writing Project 1 will be a summary essay on the ideas of the thinkers we will read in the first part of the quarter.
Writing Project 2 will be a paper solely expressing your own thoughts on identity.
Writing Project 3 will be a synthesis paper offering a critical analysis of your ideas with the ideas of the thinkers we’ve discussed in the beginning of the quarter.
Writing Project 4 will be an analysis paper of media sources from later in the quarter which will cover the identity of Generation Z.

For this class, you are required to purchase the McGraw Hill Guide: Writing for College, Writing for Life which is via McGraw Hill Connect Access on CCLE which costs $44.01.

Professor Johnson is really cool and would highly recommend this class!