I regret taking English Comp 3 with Mattenson. I wish I had chosen a different professor or waited to take this class at a later time when someone who was competent in instructing was the professor. I wholeheartedly agree with the other reviews on here that suggest she thinks so highly of herself. The topic for this class was epistemology, a topic that if taught well enough could be engaging. Unfortunately, with Mattensons lack of concern for her student's learning we basically had to fend for ourselves. Her essay topics are dry and she grades extremely harshly without giving any constructive input. Even though it's been some time since i took this course, and i've taken many STEM and humanity courses, I still think she is one of the worst professors I've had, and because of that, this is one of the worst classes i've ever taken.

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!!

Mattenson thinks too highly of herself. She knows that the students are only in this class because it is required, but treats us as if we are English majors. This was my first course at UCLA and at first I thought all of my courses would be like this. Forced participation in class and forced attendance at office hours. Are they even office hours if we have to go to them? Also, the grading scheme was so unclear. I would get grades back on my essay with little no reasoning. At the end of the quarter on myUCLA only the final grade was posted. I didn't even get grades back on some of my assignments. This class was such an added stress to my first quarter on someone who struggles with english. I feel that my writing skills did not improve after this courses as it felt like the same bullshit as high school.

I took her class a long time ago, in 2014 or 2015. However, I want to share my experience to friends who might be in the same boat. Sorry for any typos.

(1) Don’t take this class if you care about your GPA! She practices favoritism. She wants everyone to treat her not only as a lecturer, but a queen.

(2) There were several students in my class who were smart and catered to her in every scenario. They all got As. You have to go to her OH, not necessarily to ask her questions about writing, but to make sure that she won’t mistakenly think you’re ignoring her or not taking her class seriously.

(3) The first writing assignment we got was to assess a paper written by her and telling her what we learned from it. You had to praise her. And literally the more you praised her, the better grade you would receive. She may deny this correlation, but I could feel how happy she was when I said compared to her I was lazier in my paper. Always say good things about her.

(4) If you want to get an A, do everything she wants you to do. And, if you accidentally annoy her (she is picky on almost everything, from what you write to the manner you communicate with her), sincerely apologize to her immediately. Don’t explain, just keep apologizing. Do whatever you can to appease her. I was yelled by her for 5 minutes for not leaving her a voice message when she had the so called “phone-call OH”... I spent another 10 minutes apologizing to her. And she only spent 5 minutes on my paper... When the conversation ended, she was still unhappy with me.

(5) After that terrible phone conversation, I was kind of “targeted” by her. Whenever I contributed at lectures, she either disagreed with me or shrugged, but she would smile and agree when those “good students” contributed. Whenever I went to her OH, she never made positive comments on my paper. Or, she would have me wait 20-30 minutes outside her office. (In fact, the longest wait I had for her OH was maybe 45 min. No chair, poor AC, no snacks. Just stood outside her small but messy office.)

(6) How I survived without getting a lower grade? Well, after the phone conversation, I learned to not debate with her or explain or make excuses. After the lectures, I would go to her and said, “yeah, you are right on this. I made a mistake...” At office hours, no matter how long I waited, I would smile to her and greet her very politely. When she trashed my paper, I would say, “Yes, you are right. My paper is poorly-written, because blah blah blah.” I knew my answers and papers weren’t that bad, but what else could I do to make her feel less negative about me? When she asked us to write the teaching comment, I praised her highly. I didn’t want to, but I feared she might be able to read my comments and retaliate me. Thankfully, these tactics worked. I could feel she thought less negative about me in the last week of the quarter.

(7) There were dramas going on all the time, reminding me of scenes in the Devil Wears Prada. It is the worst class I’ve taken in entire four years at UCLA. But I wouldn’t regret, because I am an adult, and I take full responsibility of my choice.

But there are always something positive from this experience:

(1) If you failed to do well in her class, that’s fine. There’re plenty of opportunities to boost your GPA. I ended up with the highest Latin honor and good job & graduate program offers. (She definitely taught me how to deal with some tough people in life.) Her class was bad, but it didn’t hurt me at all. And it won’t hurt you, too.

(2) I literally forgot about her. After that quarter ended, I have met so many much much much more helpful and much much much more knowledgeable professors. They are AMAZING!

(3) Hopefully she changes her teaching style nowadays. If so, ignore my comments.

I am completely fine if anyone disagree. This is my personal experience. And, what happened to me may not happen to you at all. Good luck & I know you will do well!

I love Lauri Mattenson. She is a wonderful human, so caring and easy to talk to, and always willing to help. I feel like I grew as a writer and always looked forward to this class in my first quarter here at UCLA.
That said, you get out of it what you put into it. Make an office hours appointment and she'll give you some helpful advice, or take advantage of the phone appointments. She makes time for all her students, which I really appreciated. You have to earn your grade-- grading can be tough but if you take her suggestions you should be ok. She's also patient, flexible, and encourages a challenge, and you don't always have to write so conventionally formal.
Our class discussed comedy-- so instead of analyzing long books we talked about stand-up routines with supplemental readings. The topic was fun, so that made the experience even better. Assignments are clear, and you're given plenty of time to complete the them.
Bottom line, take EngComp 3 with Lauri Mattenson. She rocks.

Lauri was awesome. She really changed the way I thought about college-level writing, and writing in general. She really cares about her students and is so excited about learning. She is beyond willing to help, no matter what. My writing skill improved so much.

This class is not easy but the professor is very helpful. She is open to helping students and taking the time to make sure you know what you're doing. She also takes note of student improvement. I thought that I was not going to do well in the class but I ended with an A-. I highly recommend her as an English Comp 3 professor.

I'll be honest her class is NOT easy. But trust me, it is very rewarding. She makes you work hard and learn a lot!! While this may not be the easiest grade you will get, this will definitely be a class you remember for years. If you have the time, patience and true urge to improve, then take this class.

Lauri Mattenson is an incredible professor! She engaged her students and encouraged office hours. To my memory, we worked off of articles she assigned to us and we wrote 2-3 papers that were no longer than 4 pages long. The essays used critical thinking and I highly recommend taking her class!

Lauri is really amazing. I am a freshman and EC3 was the first class I took at UCLA. I feel lucky to be able to spend the summer with Lauri. She is a professor willing to offer you as much advice as possible. During office hour, she is very patient and answers all the questions you have. She is really amazing!! I love her!

I want to keep in touch with her. If you really want to learn something and improve your writing skills instead of finding a "easy" professor and getting high gpa without any challenges, then take Lauri. She will challenge you, but the challenges push you forward.