I have mixed feelings about Blake. He is funny and tries to make class fun and he is obviously an intelligent man (he went to Harvard and Oxford). But, I don't actually know what I learned. We mostly just sat in class listening to other people's opinions and occasionally talked about the novel we were assigned to read, followed by a midterm and a final that were essentially easy if you have good close reading skills.

I spoke up in class once and felt unsupported so never felt confident to do so again and it was the same when I asked for help via email on my paper and he provided no such thing. I thought that's what Professors were for, but it seems like Blake doesn't really want to teach and tries to have it be student-led in order to do as little as possible. The surprise at the end of the quarter was a waste of time and although I'm glad I took this class, I don't think I'll take another class taught by unorganized, unstructured, and harsh Allmendinger. My final grade was not an accurate reflection of my knowledge of the subject but I basically had no energy to fight it.

You walk into his class thinking he's so chill, and excited about teaching the class. However, ultimately, aside from being an entertaining professor, what matters is how helpful he is. I went to his office hours, and tried to understand what he expected of my writing, and how I could improve my writing skills in his class, and he was never helpful. He is never serious, and going to his office hours is not beneficial. He is also a harsh grader, and he is unclear about the criteria that you must follow to get an A in the class.

Such a fun class. Class is essentially a group discussion and if you don't participate you can't get an A. Grades are mostly weighted on the final paper, which is 10-15 pages. He gives many extra credit opportunities just for sharing notes with others (utilize this from day 1!!)
Important to note that the quizzes are super difficult if you are not a close reader who can memorize specific details. Many people struggled, but Professor reassured us that it is a very small part of the grade.
This class is so fun, Professor Blake is so funny and highlights such interesting conversations. I would recommend this class mostly if you are willing to put yourself out there and participate!

Uncle Blake is fun and informative, but he’s not a great teacher. Don’t let his Ivy league background fool you because he cannot guide his students in the direction he wants them to go. He’s unorganized himself.

His lectures ARE very educational, though I’m not sure if I could call them lectures. They’re more like seminars. But I wish he explained more about what students should do to receive a good grade in his class.

For me, I worked my ass off just to end up with a C+ (The worst grade I’ve ever received despite my effort).
The thing is, whenever I asked him for some advice, he would help only once and leave the rest up to me. He would “politely“ dismiss me by saying he has provided enough information.

In terms of assignments, we only had to worry about writing our own detective fiction for the quarter, 4 installments total. It was fun overall but don’t let that fool you again, he is a hard grader with no logical explanation or instruction on how we could’ve done better. He simply gives you a grade and a brief comment.

Basically, if you don’t consider yourself “creative” enough, I suggest you avoid him at all costs!

I really enjoyed Professor Allmendinger's teaching style, he was always so chill in his class. Although personally I never went to his office hour, I found the materials not hard to catch on. The midterm and final are two in-class essays you need to pick from four of the questions, as long as you are okay at close-readings you should be fine. What is a bit confusing is the final paper/project, which could be ambiguous since there's so strict grading rubric-- I did my own short detective story and received some useful advice from him. To sum up, if you are interested in detective stories and want to learn about the histories and genres behind them, this is your class, and he is really supportive on your own writings as well.

Take the class if :
1. you are good at close reading;
2. you are creative & have a lot to talk about.
He is definitely a humorous person, and his lectures were really enjoyable for me. His tests were close reading questions, and I don't feel like our learnings of course materials were tested. So if you are not good at close reading, definitely consider if you do want to take this course. The paper topic was 100% up to our own choice, which was tough for me as I knew nothing about what he was expecting. But it would be good for you if you have a lot of ideas (and creative writing is welcomed). His lecture was really like a seminar where he gave some background introduction and then we discuss about some topics. I like his lectures, to be honest, but did not feel like learning a lot. BTW, he was a harsh grader for tests, but the readings were so interesting and enjoyable...

Allmendinger is a personable professor, however his instructions on what is expected of the students is very unclear. I thought I did superbly on the term paper, but that ended up being my lowest grade in the overall class. The mid-term and finals were also somewhat confusing. Some people thought they nailed it, but ended up performing lower than expected.. The class is also a seminar-like structure, not a lecture per say, therefore just do the reading and give your opinion.

I am so glad I chose this for an English elective, it is an outstanding class. The reading material is fun and engaging and moreover you leave the class feeling like you really learned something about the genre. It is clear Professor Allmendinger enjoys teaching this class he is very engaging and super fun. The exams are not a given A but if you put in the work it is achievable. I highly recommend this Professor and this course.

This is the best class that I have taken at UCLA so far. The readings are fun, the lectures are interesting, and the paper topic is 100% up to the student. Professor Allmendinger really loves what he does, and it shows.