Efren is definitely one of my favorite professors that I've had at UCLA. During discussions, he was always helpful and wanted people to engage in conversation to really interpret the readings in a way that hasn't been thought about before.
Literally all of the texts/readings he assigned were interesting and a lot was somewhat modern, so I actually found myself *wanting* to read the reading.
He is also extremely considerate about students' circumstances, and is not a super harsh grader, but is fair.
If you are taking 4W/Writing II, please take it with Efren! :)

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THIS MY BOY EFREN. REAL RICHMOND YADADAMEAN. No but fr, take this class. Efren easily one of the best professors I've had at this school. You can tell he cares about his students and is always there if u need a hand. If your on the bubble of whether or not you should take this class, take the class, chump. You won't regret it.

I don't think I've ever enjoyed an English class so much in my life (and I only took this class for Writing II). Efren's curriculum is so refreshing and modern compared to the archaic/repetitive reading list that most other English teachers assign, there wasn't a single one that I disliked. Efren himself is extremely approachable and understanding of his students and any reasonable circumstances, and easy to reach by email (which I think is very important for an essay based class). Enough time is given for papers, which have prompts that are very open to interpretation. Reading/workload is very manageable. Efren gives the most thoughtful feedback on all questions and graded papers. Be prepared to really polish your argument and connect it to other words and/or topics about the world at large. All in all, I loved this class and would take it again in a heartbeat. HIGHLY recommend for the Writing II requirement and in general.

Efren (Professor Lopez asks us to call him Efren, what a G) was an amazing professor. He is absolutely amazing and you really learn a lot in his class.
The readings for this class are all short stories that really don't take more than an hour to read. (Efren even stated that he wants his class to be engaging and he wants people to participate so he said that he made sure not to assign long readings)
That being said, his readings are all very interesting and I actually enjoyed reading all of them. Efren has great taste in his choices, I guarantee you will not be bored reading his assigned readings.
The class is laid out with an unspoken grading scheme of participation and 3 papers. If he sees you participate, actively ask for help, or come to office hours, then he'll use the participation grade to bump you up to the next grade.

Now for the meat of this course: the papers.
I want to start by saying I did very well in high school writing classes, getting a 5 in both AP Lit and AP Lang, so I figured the papers would be a breeze. Oh how wrong I was. Professor Lopez will always be available to give feedback and review your paper before the due date, and the amount of times I had to email Professor Lopez just to get my thesis right . . .
This is definitely a college level english writing course so don't expect to somehow write a paper the night before the due date and churn out an A+
Even the conclusion is expected to be polished and cohesive, none of that AP Lang write a two sentence rephrased thesis trash.

But Professor Lopez offers tremendous support in helping you write and get an A on that paper, you just have to not be afraid to ask for it. (I mean for the most part, office hours, emailing and participation counts towards the participation grade, so why not utilize it?)

This class is a terrific class if you want to truly learn how to write beautiful and polished papers on interesting and salient stories. Don't expect an extension of AP Lang, don't expect that you can write down in your thesis "the author utilizes similes, metaphors, and idioms," don't expect that you can rephrase the thesis in your conclusion.

Do I think that there are easier writing 2 classes? Sure probably, Scand 50W is a notoriously easy writing 2 class.

But if you want to polish your writing, read interesting and important classical stories that provide critique on society, and just have an awesome professor, then definitely take English 4W with Professor Efren Lopez.