Anyone interested in journalism or just improving their written communication should take Professor Goldman’s seminar! It’s almost impossible not to become a better communicator after 191a.

The class covers a different topic each week (profiles, opinion, explanatory, PR, etc) which is discussed in lecture, and usually you have a short (<500 words) writing assignment as homework. The assignments are returned with detailed comments/feedback, which can be surprising if you’re used to just getting a grade on a paper with no explanation, but this is part of what makes the class so great.

Professor Goldman is awesome and knows a lot about the industry from first-hand experience, and she’s happy to answer any questions in class or in office hours. She has a refreshingly unapologetic sense of humor and will tell it like it is, but is extremely caring as well.

Abbe is one of the best and most dedicated professors I’ve had, and it shows in her class. This isn’t one of those classes where you can skip lecture and just cram right before the midterm/final. You need to put in some effort, but Goldman will meet you halfway and more. I’ll definitely be using what I learned in this class long after the quarter is over.

This class was great in so many ways. It helped me to develop better writing skills that are more applicable to real-world situations than the academic style of writing. Abigail Goldman challenged us to write well within tight deadlines and in different formats (opinion, breaking news, etc.). The skills I learned have already proven to be valuable and I encourage you to take this course early in your academic career because it will help you in your other classes.
In addition to the benefits of the course itself, you will love Abigail Goldman. She cares about her students and challenges them to grow beyond their expectations for themselves (i.e., what all great teachers do).
Great course. Fantastic professor.

Professor Goldman knows her stuff inside and out. Be prepared: She expects her students to develop strong critical thinking skills. At first, the class seems pretty easy, but the discussions on media ethics are tougher than you might imagine and will leave you thinking - and probably changing sides midstream, on occasion.

Every class includes debates on a variety of issues based on case studies you have to analyze before class. The debates are informal (not everyone talks in every class) You can't get by unless you participate and offer intelligent, insightful comments (on either side of a debate). She holds the class to high standards, in oral debates and writing and brings out the best in students.

It was well worth my time and a lot of fun. I highly recommend this class, and I highly recommend Professor Goldman.

This was my FAVORITE course at UCLA. I got so much out of it. The case study format (reading case studies and debating the issues in class) was so effective in teaching critical thinking. It challenges you to consider other perspectives in order to better inform your own point of view. And the in-class debates are really fun. They are exactly what you imagined that college classes could be before you got to UCLA and realized that they're mostly just boring PowerPoint lectures. On that note, this course depends on participation in class discussions. If presenting and defending your opinions to the class sounds scary, that shouldn't deter you but it is something to consider.

I can't say enough good things about the professor, Abigail Goldman. She is so good at conducting discussions in a way that facilitates respectful and engaging debate of difficult issues. This class could have gone horribly wrong if placed in the wrong hands, but Goldman really knows how to lead a discussion. Playing the "devil's advocate," she prompts students to questions their positions on issues and express opinions rationally.

The value of this course goes well beyond assessing issues of media ethics; it teaches critical thinking skills that will help you in every class and in any profession. I just loved this class and I hope that the Comm. Studies Dept. will continue to offer it. I highly recommend Professor Goldman for any course, but this one is particularly fantastic.

Abbe's class is hard, but once you get through it all, you'll really value what she has taught you.

What is good about this class is how hands-on it is. You have a weekly assignment (500-word or so). So, rather than going through lectures after lectures and having no idea where you are until the midterm, you know where you are and where you can improve week to week. She also gives a detailed feedback on your writing, which helps you a ton in her class as well as outside of her class.

Abbe is also funny in her lecture, which helps get through the dreary 9:30 a.m. lecture. She sometimes make fun of people, even in her class, but does so in a way that you feel appreciated rather than actually being mocked.

In short, take this class! I had no reason really to take this class, but I took it and ended up really enjoying it and learning a lot.

This is by far the class I attended the most consistently since starting at UCLA – in part because I enjoyed Abbe Goldman's lectures, but mostly because I was completely lost without them. The knowledge Goldman imparts in lecture cannot be duplicated through reading the course reader or skimming friends' notes, but is extremely valuable. She deconstructs good writing so that it's simple without being formulaic, which will change your life – and that's not a dramatization.

I definitely didn't give Goldman the attention she deserved, but still got a lot out of the class. She edits all of your homework assignments (turned in anonymously) and gives you tips on how to improve for the next week's assignment. In class, she also aggregates the most common flubs and analyzes particularly good portions of readings and collected assignments. You don't need to be interested in journalism to take the class and the skills she teaches aren't strictly journalistic. She'll call you out in edits if your homework is missing pieces to the story, but that's more dependent on your ability to construct a coherent piece. That said, if you've never played the reporter role, her homework assignments might force you out of your comfort zone (if you'll let them).

Goldman really makes you think about the intention behind your writing - from the really broad structural strokes to the grossly detailed syntax. She's myopic, but relevant and it's well-worth any anxiety she might induce while trying to get you to participate in lecture.

I wouldn't say you need to try very hard to get a good grade, and certainly not for a passing one. But Goldman has that quality that makes you want to impress her and try harder, if only to prove you're as competent as she makes you think you are.

Abbe Goldman's class blew away most of the classes I've taken during my time at UCLA. This class dramatically improved my writing skills and helped me understand best practices for clear and concise writing.

Goldman issues about one assignment per week, which she grades anonymously. DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO WORK ON THESE. Abbe is a very experienced editor and can tell if you didn't work on the assignment until the last day.

The class was interesting during lecture, rigorous in grading and overall a really well-balanced 10 weeks. I would absolutely recommend taking this class for anyone interested in communications, PR, journalism or really any job that requires writing and working with others. Abbe is a terrific journalist and professor, and UCLA is pretty lucky to have her.

Awesome class! We read case studies (10-20 pages of reading) before class and then debated the ethical issues presented in each one. The cases were super interesting, and the professor was great at showing us how to argue both sides. Easy midterm/final and weekly posts to online forum that were ~1 paragraph. All you need to do to ace the class is to go to class and offer your thoughts on the case studies, which you prepare before class and post on the forum. You don't even need to study for the midterm or final to get an A. Seriously.

Professor Goldman has been in the journalism business for years (she is a Pulitzer-prizewinning news writer) so she really knows what she's talking about. She loves to talk to students and is super friendly/funny, so don't be afraid to get to know her! She's also quite entertaining, so you'll be engaged the whole time. Even if you don't want to pursue journalism, it's fascinating to learn about these issues because they are so relevant to our lives. You'll develop critical thinking skills and learn how to articulate arguments in an open, safe environment, with tons of encouragement from the professor. And, you'll have fun doing it!

This is one of my favorite classes I have taken at UCLA. Abbe is an incredible instructor and I can guarantee that you will come out of this class with new insight and skills. She's an incredibly tough grader, but she provides you with all of the tools you need to be successful. You are assigned a paper to write at the beginning of each week and it is due the following class. She expects clear, concise and meaningful writing. The prompts include a Ledes assignment, a Vignette, a Profile, an Opinion piece, a Breaking News piece (she provides the "news"), a Public Relations piece, and -- potentially -- a Science piece. What she expects from each assignment is very clear and she is unbelievably good at meeting with students to help them. She wants you to do well and gives you every opportunity to succeed. The class is not easy, but if you listen to her feedback and trust what she tells you, you will leave this class a much better writer and thinker. She also grades anonymously which is great because your work is the only thing that matters.

Abbe is an incredible professor. She was one of the first where I felt like the student-teacher relationship was just easy and not intimidating, tough or scary. As long as you do the work and follow all the rules (and there are a LOT of rules) down to a tee, you'll be totally fine. I loved the small-group setting because I'm usually afraid to speak up in larger classes, so participating was easier for me. The anonymous grading helped a lot too – since there were a lot of people in the class that Abbe knew from before, the anonymous grading took out the bias and made everything a lot more fair. Overall, definitely take this class! My writing is so much clearer and more concise now, and I'd say the work was definitely worth it.