I took seminar 9: Grim(m) Indeed with Dr. Laura Lorhan in Spring 2020, the quarter we were all first adjusting to online classes. This is probably my favorite class I have ever taken at UCLA (which is saying a lot), I could not recommend Dr. Lorhan enough. Lectures were SO engaging as we actually got to actively participate and make comments throughout because of the seminar format. Dr. Lorhan formatted the class so well in my opinion, which was even more impressive due to the sudden adjustment we all had to make to online learning. Each week we focused on a new Grimm's fairytale, reading the original, several retellings (a mixture of modern and classic), and watching a film. Several of the retellings were from the books Dr. Lorhan suggested we get, and I actually liked a lot of these retellings so much I continued reading these books even after the class ended. I also thoroughly enjoyed the films included in this class, and I really appreciated that Dr. Lorhan included such a wide breadth of movies: new, old, French, Korean, Spanish, B & W, silent, etc. We wrote three mini essays (less than 3 pages) on any of the retellings we wanted to choose, had a presentation project on a retelling we found outside of the class (you can do whatever you want, I did Harry Potter), then wrote our final paper. With the amount of guidance and help Dr. Lorhan offers, you seriously can't do bad on the final paper, and she is super generous when it comes to choosing a retelling to write about (I wrote about a YA novel I read in high school and got an A plus haha). Overall, this was a fantastic class and I have nothing but praise for Dr. Lorhan. She not only has created an interesting, engaging class, but I also feel like I gained so much confidence as a writer because of her feedback. I am so thankful I got to take this class with her, it really provided a bright spot in my week despite it feeling like the rest of the world was kind of falling apart due to covid-19. Love her, love the class, take it if you can!!

Selling the books needed for this cluster class. Email *************

Cluster 30cw is the best section of the Myths class. Besides fulfilling the Writing 2 requirement, the class steers away from the normal curriculum by providing lectures that are about social media and the influence of art. Last Spring, one of the TA's concentration was Muralism, and there effect on LA, which was very relevant to what was going on in society.

In this class, I was expecting to not have to stay up until 4 am in the mornings as an incoming freshman. I felt that this quarter had heavy reading material . Sometimes we would have to read stories ranging from 10 pages to 50 pages and that was not suitable with me as I was taking 2 other classes that were somewhat light-heavy in material. You have 2 papers, each paper is offered a second revision, but be aware that your first revision and second revision both earn a grade. The TA that I had for this quarter was not satisfied with any of my papers, she was continuously focusing on my grammar criteria rather than my analysis. I didn't feel comfortable in this class for the first quarter as I did not learn proper essay writing in high school, so I had to start this quarter off with English Composition 2. I think the grading criteria for this quarter should be less critical to students who are taking an English 2 course on campus because they haven't developed the excessive skills needed yet as students in English 3 have. Furthermore, having not learned proper grammar usage, I highly encourage anyone taking this course to go to the Undergraduate Writing Center a couple of times to make the essays as clean and organized as possible. You would be surprised by the end result. However, second quarter was a little less vigorous on content probably because of the Evals sent to the professors. Although there was massive content, there are also 5 quizzes for the quarter ( 1 quiz towards the end of class every 2-3 weeks). I personally disliked the quizzes as I did not find memorizing all of the reading material would be useful to my success in the future of this class and beyond or help me understand anything. Personally, I thought Professor Burdoff was excited to teach the class, but as her specialty is in European literature, we read stories that are from this region. However, I wish we could have read stories coming across different cultures besides mainly European sources in this class, so that I could read different perspectives that other cultures had on mythology. Overall, I still have no idea how myths apply to today, but it is a good course to take if you are interested in reading many stories, scholarly articles and books, and learning about these concepts beyond a narrative setting.

If you're new to the whole cluster thing, well there's three different professors that lecture on different days. Professor Burdorff was definitely the most engaging professor to listen to. I never found her presentations that boring and I usually remembered the most information from her lectures. She engages with the class and uses contemporary shows such as Adventure Time and Frozen to showcase mythology that exists today. Definitely the best of the three professors

As for the class itself, it is heavy on reading, but honestly if you go to lecture and discussion then you should be good. Not saying you'll get an A on all the quizzes, but you'll do well enough. There are a total of four quizzes, and the lowest quiz grade is dropped. Sometimes that quizzes ask about stupid things that are really specific, but usually they are reasonable multiple choice questions.

There are two essays for this class, each with rough and final drafts. The TAs grade them, so go to office hours (for your TA)! They will tell you what they're looking for and make you a better writer (thanks Jonathan!). Both essays are doable, and if you make the proper revisions then you will usually get a better grade on your final draft.

Laptops and electronics aren't allowed during lecture and section, but I usually saw some people sitting all the way in the back with their laptops out.