Professor Kipen himself is an interesting character....he refuses to give students A's right away and is a great criticizer. At the end of the day he looks for growth in students writings. Only thing I did not like was his very vague comments on how to better prepare for essays. For example I would ask "How can I make sure my essay doesn't seem too opinionated? How can I equally spread out my opinion, evidence, facts, etc?" and he would respond "Well that is tough, but keep in my mind opinion in an essay is necessary and important but refrain from using too much or it will take over the entire thing, just make sure to add enough evidence." Like SIR you did NOT answer my question.

Kipen is an interesting guy. His class is only around 20-30 people and the desks were organized around him so that he was always facing you and ready to call on you if nobody raised their hand to volunteer.
His class works like this:
-you get assigned reading from the course reader ($20) every day after class and by the next class, you should have read it and be ready to talk about it. (if the passages were long I usually read them an hour before class but most of them I read the first few paragraphs at the beginning of class and then tried to explain something early so he wouldn't call on me later).
-"Class discussion" (Kipen explaining the piece) takes up most of the class so be ready to listen for an hour
-The last thing you do at the end of the discussion is to email him an answer to some question that he gives you and then he critiques everyone's responses in front of the class
-There are also 3 writing assignments that make up most of your grade. Mine were: Write about nature (3 pages), choose an author and explain their writing (5 pages), and Choose any topic you want (7 pages).
-Conferences: the week after you turn in your paper he holds conferences where he meets with everyone individually and reads their work in from of them. He makes a few marks and makes noises but he doesn't give you any helpful comments.

Tips:
-Volunteer at the beginning of class to get your participation and also so he doesn't surprise you when he calls on random people
-Get rid of the formatted high school writing because he likes pieces that are more conversational so try and make it chill
-Try to have fun even though it's super boring. Kipen is a chill guy and his class is super easy

I love his classes, and I improved a lot in writing.

PROS:
Only three papers throughout the quarter ( 3page+ 5 page+ 7page)
No finals or Midterms
Easy participation points, just need to show up every class.

CONS:
In the end of each class, he will ask students to write a paragraph. He will project the paragraph on the screen and ask students to read it and judge it.

this is the class to take if you want a B+. great guy but very vague. hard to get an A in his class.

Class is composed of 3 papers and class participation
paper 1: 20% - 3/4 pages
paper 2: 25% - 5 pages
paper 3: 30% - 7 pages
participation: 25%
No extra credit, no homework/busywork
Attendance is mandatory
If you have to miss class you need to let him know in advanced and do an alternative one for missing the in class assignment. Do NOT be late to class, he takes it to heart. Kipen is a good person but not the best prof. Its definitely doable to get an A in the class, but I'm pretty sure majority of people didn't get it. Class is basically useless, but you still had to show up. Everyone was either playing chess or on their phone and he always starts right on time and uses the whole time. He doesn't actually teach, he just critiques your work and expects you to learn from that. The papers are not difficult but there is no rubric or example paper so it is difficult to know what he wants. Make sure you start the papers well in advance so you can really turn in your best work, because profs can really tell if you write something in one sitting. The prompts are super open ended and he is really open to anything (I included pictures that took up half the page for one of my essays) which can be a blessing in disguise. He grades the first two papers in front of you which is really nerve-wracking, since he's ivy educated with a degree in Comp. Lit from Yale. He's an intelligent person who is very knowledgeable about literature and very open to helping students, but you have to reach out to him. I would say he is a pretty lenient grader (I don't think he has ever failed anyone and I submitted my first paper late for no reason and still got a B+ on it) but since he is so passionate and intelligent he finds errors in your work that other profs probably would not point out and then all those small mistakes add up. If you need an extension on a paper he is super lenient and willing to grant it to you, just let him know in advanced. Overall I'd say his 4.1 star Bruinwalk rating is accurate. He is a good person and you can do well in the class, but you really have to put in the work into your papers if you want that A.

Selling required class book $20 (originally $30)
Email: *************

kipen is alright! the class is pretty easy and the reading isnt too heavy. at the beginning of every class you talk about the reading, and at the end of the class you write a prompt. when youre done writing, you email it to him and he puts it on the board for everyone to see while he critiques. definitely anxiety inducing.
aside from that, the workload is light. you'll write two papers and then a third extra writing assignment thats pretty easy. he's a lenient grader and is nice with his critiques. you'll have to meet with him and you grade your paper together, but its not that bad.
I'd take this class again. Kipen is nice. hes ego is pretty big, but its UCLA and everyone here is like that. sometimes his prompts arent very clear and hes not too accessible via email, but he'll answer your questions and then some if you ask in class.
attendance is pretty much mandatory, but lectures are only twice a week.

If you want to learn in-depth about a writer's life, then take the class. It's centered around discussion with him lecturing most of the time. Classwork is a short writing assignment via email, which he'll open up on google and point out corrections. Do the classwork!! There are three essays, but they're very flexible (the first one was a diary of your day, the second a book review, and the third about an author you covered in your course reader). The course reader was $25 when I took his class. He goes on tangents, but if you're interested in history or literature, then listen to him. He dresses like a librarian with blazers and that red sweater, and HIS EYEBROWS ARE ON FLEEK. He's really interesting to listen to from self-depreciating humor to book recommendations. But I feel that it didn't help me with my writing, but he taught me to enjoy what I write instead of sticking to conventional mechanics. He's picky about certain word usages but if he likes your content then it's okay. Don't be afraid to talk to him! He also owns a little bookshop check it out it's near UCLA~~

Professor Kipen is a very interesting guy. He is a pretty funny character, and has a lot of passion for writing and his students. His class will definitely make you a more confident writer and will have you thinking critically on a higher level. The amount of creativity that his class has to offer is incredible. My fall quarter was shaped around his own book, Dear California, and was a very easy read. Each class session, you are expected to email a quote from his book and write a couple sentences about a rhetorical question he asks you. Pretty easy participation points on your part, but be creative and go beyond your comfort zone because he will share your response in front of the whole classroom. For the papers, he grades hardly. He doesn’t give out any easy A’s at all, so you have to work very hard to get to that point. He starts many of you and your classmates below an A- or B+ on your first paper, and you are to use his feedback to build up to an A. All you have to do is write 3 essays: a diary, a argumentative essay, and a research paper about two authors. I really loved writing in this class more than ever before because his paper prompts are very creative and he gives you no rubric, allowing you to write in your own creative way. Lastly, professor Kipen is a very helpful and open guy, as he is willing to helping you improve as a writer inside and outside of the classroom. But, be ready to get lost a couple of times because his clarity isn’t the best when he gives feedback or direction; it kind of is a bizarre combination of a theme statement and a comment. That’s my honest review :)

Professor Kipen's class is great if English is not your forte - he really pushes you to go above and beyond in your writings, even in our biweekly in-class mini prompts. The class begins with talking about the reading assignment and ends with a writing prompt, but the majority of class time is listening to Professor Kipen talk. His grading is fair, gives great advice on how to improve for the next paper and is honest about any feedbacks.

This class was just horrible. This class was so disorganized as well as making it very boring to go through. His grading was harsh and also gave very vague feedback. I had read the previous reviews for this class and they didn't make the class out to be so bad, but once you're in it, it's definitely not at all what the reviews make it out to be. I just finished this class last spring of 2022 and I recommend trying to avoid this professor at all costs if you can. I used to love writing essays but taking this class made me feel small and tanked my confidence in writing. My friends took the same class with different professors and got easy A's. Also, if you don't participate very often, he WILL call on you and participation is a huge part of your grade and impacts your grade a lot as well as the essays.