Highly recommend taking this class as a GE--if you are willing to put in the work. I don't consider myself the best writer, but I don't think you could go into this class as someone who hates writing. This class definitely wasn't easy, but Mott set it up to work in our favor. First off, love Mott! He has great energy, is hilarious, and was also clear and knowledgeable about everything he did. His office hours were also very helpful; I went in with my essay ideas and he literally told me how I should change it and gave me pieces of evidence he thought would be useful. Attendance at lectures isn't mandatory, but very helpful. The lectures were just time to do group analysis on all the books and I used those to guide my analysis for my essays. It made them A LOT easier. We read 4 books: Pudd'nhead Wilson, Passing, Under the Feet of Jesus, and The Magic Fish. All of them were really interesting to me. I read all of them and did relatively in the class, but I think you could probably get away with only reading 2 or 3 of them since the essays don't cover every single one. I had Michael Meagher as my TA, and he was also really helpful in office hours. Our discussions were mostly relevant to helping us write those essays too.
Breakdown of the class:
Section grade/passage explications 30% - discussion is mandatory but so easy
WAS & Thesis work 20% - in class work, also easy
Close Reading Essay (single novel) 15% - pretty hard, but office hours and group work saved me
Compare & Contrast Essay (2 novels) 15% - even harder, but same as above
Archival project 20% - pretty easy; ~ 3 minute presentation on an object from one of the books we read

TLDR: Great class, lots of social interaction and fairly easy overall

With online school it's tough to be social, but Mott wanted to change that. He did a number of things to facilitate social interaction.
*Cut the lectures short by 15 min to give people time to talk to each other before their next class
*Gave group work assignments every week
*Engaged with a student at the start of every class, asking them about their country/ zoom background/ their day
*Told people to come to office hours if they just wanted to casually talk

I really appreciated all this because Mott and my TA Rebecca are the only instructors I connected with this quarter.

The coursework was different since the quarter was online:
As far as the work of the class goes for every novel you had to write a paragraph or so linking a passage in the novel to a social issue in the world. There would also be weekly group work to combine the ideas each person wrote in the previous assignment into a group hypothesis. These assignments were graded solely on participation so it was never something I stressed about.
There are no tests for the class. Instead your midterm 1 is an essay and midterm 2 is an outline of an essay. Mott pushed the due date for both of these back by 3 days the week it was due and it seemed like he and the TAs were very willing to give extensions.
The final was a presentation diving into one of the objects found in the novel. It was pretty easy and interesting
The only thing I didn't like is that sometimes Mott would lose me during his presentations. He's super fun and interesting up until he puts up a Powerpoint.
Also pray that one of your TAs knows how tech because Mott does not

Like a lot of the other reviews mention- Professor Mott is a great guy... but in my opinion, not the best professor. A lot of the time his instructions were unclear, and there would be times he would contradict himself, or just make his expectations too strict regarding the essays. He also spent a large portion of lectures just talking about his personal life or having a random conversation with someone else in class. On one hand, Mott is a great person. He was honestly the only professor I had who knew me by name and made an effort to get to know me. However, I feel like there is a time and place to do that, and trying to hold a conversation in the middle of class and get to know a student isn't quite ideal because it takes so much work time away from the rest of the class. Let me give a rundown of the class;
You will read around 4 novels throughout the quarter. You spend about two weeks on each novel. For every novel you go through the same process:
Day 1: you choose a "what's at stake" topic and use AI to give you information regarding this topic related to your novel --> then you paste what you found onto a class-shared Google doc
Day 2: You do something similar using a search from Google
Day 3: You post a quote (in the canvas discussion) from the novel you are reading that you believe best represents your WAS (on Monday) then on Tuesday you are split into pairs and told to choose the best passage between you and your partner then come up with a thesis statement that best represents this passage
Day 4: In these assigned pairs, you highlight which thesis statement you believe is the best, and then revise this statement to make it even better
You do that for every novel you read. It can get a bit repetitive and boring, but it is pretty useful when it comes to your essays. This class doesn't have a midterm or final. Instead, you have 2 papers: 1 you write an analysis of one of the books you've read in class and the 2nd is a comparative and contrast essay using two of the novels you've read. Oh, and it should be noted that the class assignments as mentioned above, are worth more of your grade than the essays (so really don't stress much about the papers). Then you do what is called an "archival project" at the end of the quarter, where you have to choose an object that is represented in one of the four novels and discuss its cultural significance. As mentioned earlier, sometimes Mott will be unclear about what he wants, but I would recommend going to OH, especially to your TAs office hours because they are super helpful. It took me a while to start writing my papers, but honestly, they're not that difficult and they're not graded that harshly (at least from what I experienced with my TA: shoutout Jesus Diaz).
Overall, compared to other courses- the workload in this class is a breeze. A lot of it you'll probably find pointless. I can't say I learned much from this class, but it was a pretty enjoyable class. Mott was really funny and the class was never TOO stressful. Would I take the class again? probably not. But it was a pretty easy GE :)

I absolutely adore Professor Mott. He was the calm to my nerves during my first day at UCLA. Throughout the quarter we read stories so fresh and relevant to the foundation of what makes up the identity of an American novel. His books touched on some touchy things like race and LGBT stuff, but he always made class lighthearted while getting the deeper meaning through to the class.

Honestly, I don't care what class he teaches... if Mott taught rocket science, I would be the first person to enroll in his class, just to have the opportunity to learn under him, to be his pupil again.

A word of advice, go to Mott's office hours too. He will make it worth your time. He is funny, informative, and very helpful when it comes to brainstorming for projects/essays.

This has been one of my favorite classes at UCLA so far. The quarter consists of reading 4 novels (you don't have to have a physical copy, I checked one out online through a library). You read a novel for around 2 weeks, and throughout the two weeks you answer a couple of questions with a group of 3-4 people the professor assigns. Discussion sections are mandatory but are often really fun. My TA (M MEAGHER) was amazing. The discussion were engaging and while the book were kind of outdated, I still was able to learn a lot from them. The grade is made up of participation/attendance of discussion, participation of group work, two papers, and a final project. The papers were graded a little harsher than I expected, but overall this class was super fun. Prof Mott always made the classes fun and he genuinely enjoyed what he was talking about. Not so much a lecture, more of a discussion among friends.

My favorite class at UCLA. Mott is highly engaging, really humble, and genuinely goes out of his way to continually shift the class according to feedback from students. A very underrated skill for professors is working well with TAs — Mott and his TAs fluidly worked together to support students and guarantee they learned. The class gives students a lot of freedom, but also substantial guidance.

The grade is mostly based on two 5-6 page essays and one final project. There is a lot of reading (4 novels), but they are legitimately enjoyable novels and you can get away with only reading 2 if you really want. The reading and analysis of this class made me feel smarter by the end of each essay. The final project is super easy and you can basically talk about literally anything you want for four minutes. We had A-level presentations on Superman, Scrabble, garlic, and so on.

All in all, 85 is a pretty low-stress course, with a couple moderate essays, where you learn a lot through the professor, TAs (shoutout Anthony if you're reading this), and even other students (most of them were way smarter than me).

MOTT IS SUCH AN AMAZING PROFESSOR!!!!! This class was so so fun and such a good GE to take as a freshman. He is super intent on creating community, and there was a lot of collaboration. Group work usually annoys me, but this felt really productive and fulfilling. I think the community of this class was part of what made it so good, so I'm not sure how it would transfer to an online format.

You rarely have homework outside of this class except for reading the novels (obviously) and the occasional forum post. We read 4 novels:

1. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
2. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
3. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and
4. Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Viramontes.

My favorite part of this class was when Mott talked about the novels in class. He did it in a way that was so engaging, but also kinda collaborative? Like it didn't feel like he was talking at you, but like he was talking with you. He's just overall a really cool prof and obviously loves what he does.

This class literally made me switch my major from a STEM one to English. If you're someone who enjoys reading, this class is so wonderful. If you don't enjoy reading, I wonder if this class would make you a reader. Take it and find out!

Mott is one of my favorite professor personalities at UCLA by far. He is the only professor I have had in virtual learning who truly fostered a friendly and communicative culture in his lectures, and all he had to do was small talk with us before he started! At times his lectures are rambling, but if you try to listen he has some very interesting thoughts. Sometimes the instructions aren't clear, and some of the TAs grade a bit hard, but Mott makes sure that you will do well, and is prone to extending deadlines. I learned a lot; but, a disclaimer: the class hardly matches the class description. The class description is: "Development, with emphasis on form, of American novel from its beginning to present day. Includes works of such novelists as Hawthorne, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Ellison, and Morrison." We focused on none of these authors, and it was a lot more contemporary and focused on themes that I wasn't expecting.

Professor Mott was an amazing professor. Very caring and easy to talk to. The reviews for Fall 2020 are very accurate. It wasn't difficult, especially with it being online, however it wasn't easy either. I didn't feel like I learned a lot (no notes required) but it definitely expanded my understanding on real-world concepts and systemic flaws in America! The prof and the TAs were very understanding regarding the pandemic and being remote. Definitely recommend but not necessarily an easy GE.

Despite my upward trajectory regarding the 3 essays/writing assignments (first two each worth 15% and final project was 20%), I wasn't able to reach the grade I had hoped for. They curved the essays, which brought my grade down to an A-. I felt pretty bummed about this because my first essay was my lowest grade but then it ended up giving me the most points for the class. Essentially my writing improved, but not within the scope of the entire class :/

Although this class was a good class to satisfy a GE requirement, I don't feel like I learned much or took anything away from this class. Professor Mott was a great guy, always super excited about the material and wanted to know how we were doing outside of school. I would certainly recommend him as a professor, as he was quirky and funny and extremely enthusiastic. However, I'm not sure I'd recommend the class. Do not be fooled by the course description that lists classic American authors like what you may have read in high school--this class involves many lesser-known novels, one of which hadn't even been written long enough to be available in paperback. Almost every lecture involved groupwork and breakout rooms where the group would have to come up with a collective thesis statement or summary paragraph, which got exhausting quickly when the same students kept winding up doing the work. Rebecca was also a good TA and had engaging discussions, but I would often listen to the lectures while I did something else, no real need for notes. Overall, a good class if you really, truly enjoy literature, but if that's not your thing and you just want an easy GE, maybe look elsewhere.