Superb lecturer, highly recommended!

Professor Batten is one of the most amazing lecturers and professors I've had here at UCLA. Take a class with the man, he can be difficult, and he'll assign a ton of reading, but it's all to further your educational merit. Again, great professor, take the class.

I can't say I particularly care much for either Neoclassicism or Romanticism. All the same, there were plenty of times when I read something, had absolutely no idea what I just read, went to class, and became relatively enlightened when he went over it during lecture. He's not HILARIOUS, but he is funny -- he likes to pick on people in order to stage funny scenarios (like making a girl swear at him), which he then somehow uses as analogies or metaphors to explain an idea in a poem. He uses a LOT of these metaphors as explanations, which may or may not be helpful to you.

Agreeing with the other posters, the essays and midterm/final are both pretty straightforward. The IDs are usually very easy; he never picks extremely obscure passages, though he will pull from works that haven't been discussed explicitly in class. I barely studied for the midterm (but I had read pretty much everything during the first half of the quarter), didn't get halfway through the essay, and still got something in the B-ish range. The final usually involves more writing than the midterm, and it is cumulative, but it's heavily weighted toward the second half of the class. Overall not that much more difficult in comparison.

My TA was Anthony Camara -- really helpful, sweet guy, though he was a bit... socially awkward sometimes. He's a little tougher on the grading scale, but he grades the second essay based on improvement from the first. Definitely ask for help if you need it; generally he'll reply with a whole plethora of ideas that you should be able to incorporate into your writing.

I took him for English 10B during one of the summer sessions. I had dreaded 10A with Shuger (OMG worst professor ever!) so I was kind of scared of the 10 series already. But taking 10B with Batten, totally restored my love for English. He is such a good lecturer although I have to admit, his jokes are rather crude. I wish I could have taken him during the school year because English 10B during summer is pretty rushed and we don't get to read as much material. His midterms and finals are pretty easy if you do all the readings and take good notes. You seriously just need to know what he said about all the readings and you'll ace his tests.
I strongly recommend taking him for English 10B. He's awesome! One of my favorite English professors, along with Bristow.

I really enjoyed Professor Batten's class. His jokes are a bit on the dirty side, but I still got a kick out of it. I love Romanticism, and Batten did a good job.

Professor Batten is one of the best professor's I've had thus far at UCLA. I took his 10C class during the past Summer Session C. Because it's a shorter session, some students may have felt rushed through the material. However, Batten was an extremely engaging lecturer and made the readings and class enjoyable. For someone who doesn't read much of our reading material other than what we go over in class (I know, worst English major ever), I was able to get by with a B. Batten does his best to assign readings that are doable and does an excellent job explaining each work in his own comedic light. As for those saying that he's full of himself, I've come across many fellow English majors who feel like they know everything. You don't. The only reason I can see someone thinking that Batten is full of himself is if that person himself lacks the humility and respect needed to learn. I highly recommend Batten. Best time I ever had.

I concur with the 10C comment about Batten being full of himself. Yes he'll provoke a sinful smile or chuckle about the material every so often, but that seems to be his primary goal. When it comes to breaking down the deeply complicated lingo and philosophically heavy material, his sataric tone and self invoked chuckles are pointless if not annoying as hell. This wannabe comedian cracks more jokes about what to or not to disregard in Norton's "poor" Anthology and the text's Rated-R implications than he does the major themes and concepts he'll hold you to on essays and tests themselves. If you're one to fall lost in his attempted Jay Leno persona, then you're screwed because he's also one reluctant to reiterate the course's major concepts; Batten is insistant the full cognative burden be carried by you.

Okay...He's full of himself. Sure, he's funny. Not the best educator. He's a bit of a Luddite. I think I would have preferred to have audited his class rather than to take his class for a grade. Yeah, he's that Robin Williams type teacher from Dead Poets Society, who tries too hard to be funny.