DO NOT GET BAILEY BERRY AS YOUR TA. I almost got a B+ because of her harshness in grading essays. She graded the first essay maliciously as she could care less that it was the first essay and we did not really know what type of writing/analysis she wanted. Make sure you guys take annotating seriously as it is graded strictly as well but that is understandable. I expected to get an A in this class based on the distribution but last year was once in a blue moon. Or maybe I just got unlucky with my TA. This is still the best Writing 2 class to take though so TAKE IT!

Grade is based on three essays. Each essay has points for two rough drafts and the final draft. The rough drafts are graded on completion. The readings are not super interesting but you can skim and be completely fine. Just work hard on the final drafts and an A is easy.

This is not an easy class. The material is interesting, but more often than not, I dozed off because the professor usually read off the slides. There was a good chunk of reading and we had an iClicker quiz on it during the next class. Usually skimming through the reading was enough. Your grade is based on three essays, and each on progressively weighs more. I'm not the best as literature analysis so the essays were a struggle for me to write so if those kinds of essays aren't your thing, I'd probably find another class to take.

Prof is awesome, but if you get a bad or unhelpful TA you get a bad grade. It's just a dice roll honestly. I felt like I got kind of unlucky because my TA didn't really give helpful feedback, even during office hours they seemed confused as to what they wanted me to do -- even then when I would do it, it still would somehow not be good enough for them. Like, they would deadass go back on their words in the WD, so it was hella misleading. Their grading sucked honestly and I had a lot of people in my class complain about their grades as well. I kind of was counting on this class for a GPA boost which sucks cuz it isn't unless you're super passionate about Scandanavian (which, like, come on -- that's so niche). It really should be, too -- its structure is ridiculously easy.

Lectures are fine but if you hate reading it will be kind of a drag. For me personally, I know I'm more of a writer -- I lowk hate reading and found the lectures uninteresting and disengaging, but it doesn't really matter since the lectures don't count towards your grade whatsoever, other than small points for participation / iClicker stuff.

I would recommend this class, but really make sure you hound your TA for what they want because if they're not clear, you will probably get graded like shite. Tho, again as I aforementioned, how hard or helpful your TA is a complete dice roll lmao seeing as they change every year. I feel like I would have enjoyed this class MUCH more if prof Ball was the one grading but c'est la vie.

Overall, I'd recommend this class, but your grade is honestly just luck of the draw -- if you take this class, you choose to gamble with the TA you get. Just hope you get lucky and don't have to fold.

Professor Ball is really helpful and gives interesting and engaging lectures. She'll quiz you on the readings during class, but the quizzes are one question and are usually so easy that you can skim through the readings and still get them right. Plus, you can miss around 4 of them and still get full quiz points in the class. The readings themselves were OK and were pretty interesting, but the way in which a lot of the early readings were written made it really difficult to make connections and good essay topics on them. The essays get easier to write as they go, however. At the end of the day, it all comes down to the TA. I had Mads Larsen and he was a pretty difficult grader, and while I did end up with an A in the class, I wouldn't recommend signing up for this class if you're just looking for an easy A.

Lots of opportunities for grade boosting.

Honestly Professor Ball is such a gem, I get so many ideas for my essay when I listen to her lecture, but my TA's involvement was honestly lackluster. She wasn't terrible, but I learned that she copied and pasted her comments on our rough drafts. I really enjoyed the class and it's actually super interesting. The required readings are very very lenient, as in the quizzes are very obvious questions that you shouldn't miss from just skimming, and the texts are interesting as well. Professor Ball doesn't edit your papers during her office hours but she does let you talk out your essay and gives you more ideas, and honestly I think some people complaining didn't make good use of her office hours. Overall, easy class, fun class, would reccomend

Professor Ball is an amazing and engaging lecturer, and I really enjoyed going to class because of her enthusiasm. The information she presents during class is helpful for when you're writing your analytical essays so don't leave after the iclicker questions. There are three essays in total for the whole quarter, and your grade really depends on your TA but going to office hours will pretty much guarantee a solid grade. The readings were interesting as well, which makes this one of the best Writing II classes.

Be prepared to do a lot of reading and writing. But the TA really helps prepare you for this. The stories an interesting and the lecture is engaging. Highly recommend taking it with the TA “Pardis Aryamand” she is outstanding. So very helpful with her writing exercises.

Interesting class about the heroic journey in Scandinavian oral tradition. The stories are actually engaging and the professor has a unique perspective of them. From what I've heard about other writing II classes, this class probably has the best readings.

Grade is determined by three essays, clicker quizzes every lecture, and participation in discussion. The final exam is the third essay which is due on the Monday of finals week and assigned two weeks prior.

The essay prompts are well defined and the TAs are usually quite helpful. I am pretty sure that their strategy is to grade kind of hard on the first essay and then ease up on the second and third one. Each essay is longer and worth more points than the previous one.

There are clicker quizzes on the readings in class every lecture. Very easy if you actually read, but nearly impossible if you did not. You can miss up to four lectures worth of quizzes and still get 100%.

Overall, I am very glad that I waited three years to get into this writing II class. Very worth it.