highkey feel like all these super positive reviews are fake, because there is only one harsh review on this class's reviews. the other harsh reviews are on her english 3 reviews instead of english 3d, and tbh, those are more reflective of her teaching style.

this class was heavily unclear, she encourages you to write what you want and doesn't give proper feedback, but then grades harshly. most classes are discussion based which honestly gets tiring. she never gave any sample essays, and she went over some discussion posts, but never clearly told us what type of analysis she prefers. she says cliche things like "one person might not like this analysis but others will", like just tell us the one you will give an a to. also, she emphasized a lot to not write like a high schooler, but never really taught what she thinks is good college level writing. like i genuinely dont know what she thinks a good analysis or good essay is. for the fact that most people take this class to fulfill writing 1, it sucked. there's south campus classes easier than this. would not recommend.

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.

For this class, we had to watch stand-up comedy (mostly clips on YouTube or specials on Netflix). Those were interesting to watch and the professor encouraged us to expand our views on the meaning of stand-up comedy. The class was based on discussions (whether in groups or as a whole class).
The professor emphasizes that we write beyond our high school depth papers and learn how to use our voices in our writing.
The midterm final was given comments and a grade. However, the final paper was not given comments, but just given a grade (which we cannot see, as she just updated our final grades without posting the essay grade). The criteria for an A paper is not given because the professor emphasizes using our voices. This makes it kinda hard to know how to write an A+ paper since the whole "voices" thing and the criteria is really subjective (I guess that's for all classes but more so here).
The final is an 8 page paper based on a couple stand up clips or specials from the syllabus. In one class, you have a peer review session in which about 2 of your peers and have to write comments on their essay.
I like how we could discuss the stand up and readings in class but I'm not sure the whole guessing your grade thing is worth it.

I took this class to knock out both the Writing I and Diversity requirements, but I would suggest that if you also intend on doing it for the same reason, it would probably be better to take another easier EngComp 3 class-- because it's really easy to just fulfill Diversity (a side quest you don't even think about) along the way with some other G.E. class...
Cons: Like the other reviews have said, her instructions were pretty unclear without any definable rubric. All she tells you is that she wants to see "progress" throughout the quarter, and she's very nitpicky in office hours. The way she grades is subjective-- and typically, for these kinds of teachers, all you have to do is figure out what they want to see before doing just that, but it's hard to tell what she wants. She emphasizes using your "voice", and gives a wide range of contradictory reviews for both formal and informal pieces. She tells you to abandon the conventional way of writing that you've learned from high school, and then you have to flail like a fish on land to satisfy her. One time, she was providing examples of previous works in class for us to evaluate. Throughout the quarter, a very common criticism is that we have to be hyper specific and not overgeneralize the messages of the media that she wants us to consume (typically videos, articles), but when she was telling us the grades she'd give the past works, it seemed so arbitrary? One would be scrutinized for being too general, a general quote from another work would be deemed "acceptable." There was one writing piece that most of the class, including me, thought kind of sucked but she loved it.
Pros: The main theme of the class revolves around watching comedy shows (some at least an hour long), which was pretty fun, at the least. Didn't really like the sheer amount of writing we'd have to do, and how she would make us write a small essay within a couple days' notice, but it was manageable. Mattenson herself is not at all a bad person, you can see that she's passionate about her class-- it's just her grading is wonky.
I would suggest going to office hours, participating at least once in each class-- she says that she takes note of it when she's inputting your grade, although I'm not sure how closely she keeps track. I think she likes it when people show their "voice" in their writing by like raving with emotion or integrating your personal experiences or opinions into the analysis, but don't worry too much about it, because my own writing style is formal for the most part. You can probably get by okay as long as you show her that you care (*cough* about your grade), and you're trying to implement whatever she's toasted you on.

Definitely recommend this class, the theme was very interesting and Prof Mattenson is super understanding and insightful

Um…don’t take this class. Is it terrible? No. But I’m positive you can find a better English class. The professor is nice and understanding, but she’ll expect so much from you. She encourages you to use this class as an opportunity to explore different aspects of your voice in your writing, but will grade pretty harshly either way. Some of her notes did not make sense to me and there were a lot that I simply did not agree with. You basically have to deconstruct the way you write normally to appease this teacher for the quarter, which wasn’t ideal (and you do write quite a bit). You don’t know your grade until the very end. It literally is the biggest wild card. There is also a presentation. All in all, it’s a whatever class. There’s better out there.

Overall Lauri is a nice teacher she just expects so much from her students that it feels like you have to please her. I dreaded getting my grade for this class because it was literally a wild card you don't know how you're doing in the class because she doesn't let you see your grade. She says she knows we care about grades but that she doesn't believe in them and she just wants to see us improve and not care so much about the grade we have. She expects you to know the material and do the readings and watch the videos because there is a lot of in-class participation and group work that is due before class ends. There were a couple of times at the beginning of the quarter when I noticed she gave me attitude or was rude even though I didn't do anything or was simply trying to talk to her but that changed as she got to know me more and we talked one on one. She says she cares about her students a lot, so if she thinks you need extra help or guidance, she will let you know she wants to meet with you privately and talk about your work. In my opinion, she really wants to see you go out of your way to see how you're doing or get her opinion on your writing before you get into the essays. She can be very picky and would just go at every line and make you clarify or ask you questions about everything you talk about. She basically wants you to forget about everything you've already learned about writing and do things the way she liked. I cannot stress this enough, she will ask you to be VERY specific in your writing about literally everything. She doesn't like clichés or just writing to meet a word count. She wants to see you write about what you actually think of the material. She has very high expectations. At first, I thought she was too much but she really does want to see you and your writing improve. Everyone learns differently so take all of this into consideration before taking her class.

If you want an "easy A" then I don't recommend taking this class to satisfy your writing 1 requirement; Lauri, the professor, even mentioned in one of our lectures not to take this class if you are looking for an "easy A". Instead, she values the growth of a student's writing and places less emphasis on the grades they get for assignments. If she sees you grow, as both a writer and a speaker, she will grade you according to the immense growth she saw in you.

Coming into her class, I thought I was a good writer, but our first midterm essay showed me that I still had a lot to learn and improve. She also loves when you have scheduled office hours with her and will work with you to find not only the grammatical errors but also unnecessary phrasing or broad stroke ideas, which were problems I honestly was not aware of in my midterm essay. She has a great personality and is understanding and empathetic to the incoming freshmen who are getting used to college. Also, PARTICIPATION matters! if you have a problem with speaking in front of a class, maybe do not take this class. I was participating in her class constantly, and I kind of felt like my participation helped me get the grade I got because of what I brought to the table. If you can get out of your comfort zone, then you will see that participating in her class is actually quite fun!

She also does a quarterly topic that her class will focus on. My quarter's topic was the value of stand-up comedy, which was an unorthodox topic but was fascinating and cool to talk and discuss about. If you want to take her class, just be aware of the topic she is doing for the quarter as it could determine whether or not you want to take this class. And honestly, I feel like the different topics she does quarterly will affect how she teaches or instructs her class. For my quarter, we just watched a lot of Netflix shows and did a lot of in-class discussions about what we watched.

Would I recommend you take her class? Yes, if you do want to improve as a writer in your future courses at UCLA. Otherwise, I wouldn't take her class just because her grading is much more critical, and there are easier English teachers you can get an A in. Also, she doesn't have a grading rubric (b/c again, she doesn't value grades) so you are going in blind when doing your essays.

Lauri was awesome! The class was about analyzing stand up comedy, so it requires a Netflix account. But theres only two essays plus discussion posts, and she gives super helpful feedback on both of those. She's funny, kind and definitely worth taking,

I would totally recommend this class. Professor Mattenson is the best Professor I have ever had. She is so kind and so helpful, she will never be rude and is always open minded. The class load is not too bad but do make sure to read all the readings and watch all the shows as they are essential for participation points and for doing good in essays. Make sure to participate during class and discussion forum because it counts a lot for your grade but it's not too bad. The class is very interesting and Professor Mattenson really helped my writing skills improve and my idea of how an essay should really be written.