Professor
Lauri Mattenson
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2016 - She has favorites. I took this class thinking I would improve as a writer but no nothing o that sort. She encourages her students to not worry about what grade they get and just write the papers without asking too many questions. If you ask questions, she will not answer saying, "I don't know, what do you think?" Like shut up, you'll be the one grading my paper, not me. She treats office hours like it's mandatory, lady, we have other classes too. I can't be coming to office hours every week. In fact, she doesn't even have office hours, you have to make an appointment with her in advance. I felt like if you didn't agree with her on something, she sorta disliked you and liked the majority of the class that kissed up to her. She is a hypocrite, she says don't do this but then when a certain student does that she says it's okay in that context but not otherwise. But then again, if you are really concerned about your grade then literally just do everything she ask of and you'll get a decent grade. Don't try to add anything on, just agree with everything. Be fake!!
Winter 2016 - She has favorites. I took this class thinking I would improve as a writer but no nothing o that sort. She encourages her students to not worry about what grade they get and just write the papers without asking too many questions. If you ask questions, she will not answer saying, "I don't know, what do you think?" Like shut up, you'll be the one grading my paper, not me. She treats office hours like it's mandatory, lady, we have other classes too. I can't be coming to office hours every week. In fact, she doesn't even have office hours, you have to make an appointment with her in advance. I felt like if you didn't agree with her on something, she sorta disliked you and liked the majority of the class that kissed up to her. She is a hypocrite, she says don't do this but then when a certain student does that she says it's okay in that context but not otherwise. But then again, if you are really concerned about your grade then literally just do everything she ask of and you'll get a decent grade. Don't try to add anything on, just agree with everything. Be fake!!
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - I don't know if I'm the odd one out here, but I genuinely did not like Lauri or this class. Yes, she is a good professor who is passionate about the topics, but she so obviously chooses favorites in the class and grades unfairly based on that. Essay prompts were UNCLEAR as she does not provide rubrics or any kind of prompt. She was extremely unhelpful during office hours and is harsh (not in a helpful way) with criticism. She acts like she wants to be super cool and down to earth but she clearly is not. Overall: enjoyed the class setting and the material covered; strongly disliked Lauri.
Fall 2021 - I don't know if I'm the odd one out here, but I genuinely did not like Lauri or this class. Yes, she is a good professor who is passionate about the topics, but she so obviously chooses favorites in the class and grades unfairly based on that. Essay prompts were UNCLEAR as she does not provide rubrics or any kind of prompt. She was extremely unhelpful during office hours and is harsh (not in a helpful way) with criticism. She acts like she wants to be super cool and down to earth but she clearly is not. Overall: enjoyed the class setting and the material covered; strongly disliked Lauri.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - I'm not really sure why her classes have a super high rating. She didn't give us a rubric or any type of idea of how she wanted our essays to be written, so we basically wrote them blind. It's confusing because she'll tell us not to care about what grade we get because grades don't matter (even though they do?), and then when you ask her how she wants us to write our essays, she just tells us to write it the way we want to. The prompts are super vague too, so that doesn't help either. To put it over the top, she then grades your paper SUPER harshly (which makes no sense because why would you grade hard if you don't even give your students specific prompts and rubrics?). For my midterm essay, I made an appointment with her so that she could give me feedback, and even after fixing all the things she told me to fix (which were a lot of things btw because she gave me super harsh critiques), she still gave me a B on that paper. It was really frustrating. I also didn't even know what my grades were until final grades were posted, so the whole time I wasn't sure how I was doing in the class. I also felt that she was a little passive-aggressive. She clearly had favorites. I advise anyone taking this course to just agree with everything she says and to not argue with her if you want her to like you. I noticed that the people that kissed up to her were the ones that were her favorites and got good grades on their essays. If you're thinking of taking this class, I would choose another professor that is actually clear and specific about what they want out of your writing, and one that will actually post grades and won't mark you down for not agreeing with her opinions.
Winter 2022 - I'm not really sure why her classes have a super high rating. She didn't give us a rubric or any type of idea of how she wanted our essays to be written, so we basically wrote them blind. It's confusing because she'll tell us not to care about what grade we get because grades don't matter (even though they do?), and then when you ask her how she wants us to write our essays, she just tells us to write it the way we want to. The prompts are super vague too, so that doesn't help either. To put it over the top, she then grades your paper SUPER harshly (which makes no sense because why would you grade hard if you don't even give your students specific prompts and rubrics?). For my midterm essay, I made an appointment with her so that she could give me feedback, and even after fixing all the things she told me to fix (which were a lot of things btw because she gave me super harsh critiques), she still gave me a B on that paper. It was really frustrating. I also didn't even know what my grades were until final grades were posted, so the whole time I wasn't sure how I was doing in the class. I also felt that she was a little passive-aggressive. She clearly had favorites. I advise anyone taking this course to just agree with everything she says and to not argue with her if you want her to like you. I noticed that the people that kissed up to her were the ones that were her favorites and got good grades on their essays. If you're thinking of taking this class, I would choose another professor that is actually clear and specific about what they want out of your writing, and one that will actually post grades and won't mark you down for not agreeing with her opinions.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - I absolutely loved this class, one of the best at UCLA. You do have to apply to get in, but if you are able to, it will most likely be the highlight of your quarter. This class focuses on the interactions between body and mind, and how those are portrayed in literature. Lauri is such an amazing professor. She not only wants you to succeed but enjoy her class, which is easy to do with the readings and writing assignments she assigns. For all of our writings, we always had the ability to correct and improve, and I felt as though I was writing a story and not an essay. Lauri greatly valued mindfulness and movement, so we would take time to meditate or go for walks around campus during our 3-hour Wednesday class. I highly recommend this class, especially as a Writing 2.
Spring 2019 - I absolutely loved this class, one of the best at UCLA. You do have to apply to get in, but if you are able to, it will most likely be the highlight of your quarter. This class focuses on the interactions between body and mind, and how those are portrayed in literature. Lauri is such an amazing professor. She not only wants you to succeed but enjoy her class, which is easy to do with the readings and writing assignments she assigns. For all of our writings, we always had the ability to correct and improve, and I felt as though I was writing a story and not an essay. Lauri greatly valued mindfulness and movement, so we would take time to meditate or go for walks around campus during our 3-hour Wednesday class. I highly recommend this class, especially as a Writing 2.
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