The class content was alright. I didn't find it the most interesting but the workload wasn't too bad. We had weekly one-page responses about the readings, a midterm, 2 essays, and a final. For the second paper, we had to research a religious site, and Smoak was so nice about it. He offered to help us out with finding sources, skimming drafts, etc. Adjustments were made because of the strike. Smoak was the most accommodating and transparent professor I had. He cancelled some of our assignments but also made it clear that he stood with the academic workers and would not be the one to grade them. Even before the strike, you could tell that he cared about our success in the class. He offered multiple extra credit opportunities after the midterm.

Overall, I'd give Smoak a higher rating than I would the class.

Professor Smoak was a great lecturer but his slides weren't the most helpful. It is also rather hard to take notes that will be comprehensible later when studying for the midterm/final. You should also go to every lecture and pay close attention if you don't have time for all the readings assigned every week. I went into this class with little to no knowledge of Jerusalem and I was too busy to do the readings, but I found that the information he goes over in class was super helpful when writing my papers.
There are two papers for this class, one with a pretty strict topic and a second where you can work more freely. The grading for these papers depends on your TA, but in my case, they weren't too bad. The papers are graded pretty fairly, but a lot of people do end up scoring in the low B to high C range.
Overall, the class is very interesting but if you do not consider yourself to be a strong writer and you are looking to score an A, I would reconsider taking it.

I would recommend taking this class. The topics discussed are very interesting if you have any remote interest in Jerusalem or its history - however, it does not dive into its modern day dilemmas. Smoak keeps lectures interesting and going to class is not miserable at all. The workload is a lot - a one page "essay" every week, 2 6-8 page essays, a midterm and a final. Its doable - you do not need to read the assigned reading to get a good grade. Grading depends a lot on your TA, I had Bryan and I liked him.

This class was hands down my favorite class at UCLA. Smoak is an engaging lecturer and the material synthesizes different subjects (space and religion) in a way I hadn't seen before. I have never felt like I learned more than in this class. That said, if you have no interest in the material, this class might not be worth it for you. Lastly, if you notice your TA is a hard grader, switch sections. My TA would take-off points and not elaborate why, so I never got the opportunity to improve on later papers. I would suggest if you have this issue, go to Smoak's office hours because Smoak was more helpful than my TA for paper revisions.

Professor Smoak and TA Bryan are really clear and helful in teaching, and lectures and class materials are well-organized. I took this class as W2 as freshmen and foreigner, and I was literally struggling with papers and understanding of the religious texts. The writing requirement for this class is really high. However, if you are good in writing and have the capability to handle a bunch of English religious readings, please take this class since it will provide with a good opportunity to get to know histroy of Judais, Christianity, and Islam.

I took AN N EA 12W with Professor Smoak which is basically the same thing as 10W (only with less students in a class). Smoak is very helpful and nice (btw he studied at Jerusalem). The course material is very interesting!! It helps if you have a bit of previous knowledge of religion but even if you don't, you would still do good in this class. Essays are a bit heavy but in general, an awesome class!
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IM SELLING PDF VERSION OF "JERUSALEM ONE CITY THREE FAITHS" by Karen Armstrong. Shoot me a quick email if you're interested:
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Absolutely loved this class! Fascinating subject and wonderful lecturer. I took two classes with Professor Smoak and I think he was the best professor I had at UCLA, truly knowledgable and passionate about the subject matter.

I will say, however, this class knocks out a lot of GE requirements but its also super work intensive. At this same time...I think I learned how to write college essays from this class. Definitely hard work but in my opinion it was worth it - at least if you are interested in the subject and ready to learn.

This class was an incredibly fascinating combination of history, biblical literature, and archeology. The class goes through the history of Jerusalem, analyses biblical texts and archeological evidence related to the city, and discusses the relationship between the three Judeo-Christian religions. Being a writing II course, there were a lot of writing assignments (weekly one-page essays plus two 5-8 page papers) but each weekly assignment felt relevant to the class and built up to the longer papers. I would definitely take this class again, and plan on taking another class with professor Smoak in the future.

Professor Smoak could make a class on the history of drywall interesting. The lectures were generally informative and engaging, helped by Smoak's unbridled enthusiasm for all the lecture material. A lot of other comments complained about the readings, but I found them interesting and not terribly hard to get through; additionally, the essays were reasonable, although some of that may have been thanks to my generous TA (Jeremy Williams is a saint of a man). I consider myself a generally strong writer and did not have to put in too much effort to score in the B+/A- range; obtaining a higher grade may be more of a challenge, but I'm sure it's doable. Anyone reasonably proficient with the AP English standard of writing will find that they have no issues writing adequate papers.

The required reading, Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths by Karen Armstrong is so engaging of a read that even if you don't take this course, you'd be served well to read it; it's intended for a general audience and consequently is not too dense. I came to the class with limited prior knowledge of the Bible nor any of the other texts, but I did not find this hurt me; Smoak and the TAs understand that not everyone has this background, and consequently focus on explaining the events through a literary lens more than complex genealogies.

I'd greatly recommend this class for anyone looking for a Writing II GE that gets a lot of requirements out of the way. Or, you know, if you want to learn the history of one of the most intriguing cities in human civilization.

When I first signed up for this class, I was excited to have a class that put together history and English because I thought it would be more interesting than other Writing II options, but it wasn't like I thought it would be. I couldn't really enjoy lectures because I knew the information would be important for my papers, and I couldn't just write the papers because I needed to gather useful info from lectures first. This isn't a specific knock against the professor, just something I wish I had realized before I started the class.
They say you don't need prior knowledge, but as someone fairly familiar with the Bible even I struggled to follow the intricate details stressed by the instructors. This class is definitely easier for students who have prior Biblical knowledge (and I felt very bad for those who didn't).
I understand your TA's will be a constant determining factor throughout college, but my TA only offered 15 minute Office Hours, so there was no way for me to go over my papers (or even homework assignments) in depth because he didn't offer more time. This, of course, was very discouraging because your TA is the one grading your papers and when you can't meet with them or understand what they want from you, it makes it extremely hard to know how to improve. I will say, though, that my TA's comments did overall help me on my revised paper even if I couldn't go over it in person.
I felt like the grading was fair, but my main issue was not being given the opportunity to see what an A level paper looks like. We would occasionally see snippets of a "good" thesis or paragraph, but it was a struggle to write a "good" paper when both the TA and Prof never gave you more specific guidance on what "good" looks like.
On a positive note, the final and midterm were very straightforward and the professor did a great job of giving us clear study guides that related directly to the exams we took. He really tried to adapt to online learning, and I am sure the in-person exams would have been harder than the assignments/exams we took (which was much appreciated).
And a neutral note, there is a looooot of homework and assigned reading. I didn't end up reading most of the companion book because for me it was a lower priority than writing the essays and homework, but like any Writing II class there are a LOT of writing assignments.

Overall, it is not an easy class and if you want to improve you really need to find someone outside your class instructors who can help give you feedback on your essays. Prof Smoak is a nice professor, but I struggled to understand what my TA expected from my writing- for those who will take the class, try to understand what your TA expects because it will help you earn the grade you want. I wish the instructors had been more open about showing us what an A paper looks like, but the feedback and grading were (in my opinion) fair. I am grateful for the curve he gave us, but the class was harder and less enjoyable than I thought it would be.
(To anyone who wants to take it, though, I say go for it! Just be prepared for the workload and the extra effort you have to put in to understand what the instructors want from your writing. But don't be scared to take the class, just be prepared when you start it)