Professor Kipen was a really nice guy but the writing prompts that he assigned were always confusing and complicated. He doesn't want your typical 3 argument essay. Instead he wants creativity, which can be good if you're looking to branch out in your writing or it can be difficult if you're only used to writing argumentative essays with a thesis. His lectures were often long and tedious but he gave out lots of useful information to improve your writing. Overall, I learned a lot and I became a better writer because of him but I wouldn't ever take his class again.

Professor Kipen really cares about his students. He is really engaging and his class is fun especially because of the daily writing assignments. You are to write 3-5 sentences regarding the topics that he will give you and after given a few minutes to write it, you will turn it in and everyone's work will be projected and the everyone will share what they wrote. At first, it might be a little iffy, especially if you are a shy person, but in 10 weeks, not only will you get used to talking in class but also you will adapt well in the timely pressured writing assignments. There are no midterms nor final but there are three papers throughout the whole quarter. Reading assignments are boring but they are rich with information which Professor Kipen is really passionate about. Goodluck!

Take Prof Kipen’s class if you’re looking to work on creative writing. Even if you’re not, take his class to learn how to be a more engaging writer.

The syllabus includes a list of short pieces that serves as a good introduction to essential writers in American literature (Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Raymond Chandler, etc.). That said, we didn’t read any novels or academic works, although it would have been helpful if we did lessons on academic and argumentative writing too.

Prof Kipen gives you a lot of freedom on how you want to write your papers, as long as it relates to the prompt. He certainly expects a writing style original to you, so don’t keep the rules your high school taught you if you hate them. The three papers are assigned in the first week, so you can start writing them anytime. He had us submit our final papers 2 weeks before finals week, which was helpful because I could focus on finals afterwards.

The three papers we were assigned: a 4 page paper of diary entries, 5 page paper on contents you would put in a time capsule, and 6 page paper on an author in the syllabus.

Like everyone else mentioned, some classes we did 5 min writing exercises and he commented on as many people’s works as possible. Might be scary, but honestly, everyone knows they only had 5 mins and no one writes like a Pulitzer winner. Take this as an opportunity to exercise your writing skills and receive meaningful comments.

If you think he can’t give everyone equal attention during class - Prof Kipen really does take the effort to give everyone a constructive comment. His consult-style paper grading gives you the opportunity to ask as many questions as you want. He’s also not too harsh a grader. If you try applying the skills he discussed in class, he’ll see that you’ve tried to improve.

I can say for certain Prof Kipen’s class improved my writing - and I consider myself having a satisactiry mastery of clear English writing before taking his class. He encourages you to go beyond formulaic writing and incorporate engaging styles in your work, which is certainly an important skill to have.

For my class, we wrote 3 essays (the first two were five pages, the third was ten). The first was a set of diary entries and revisions, the second was a review of a book (of mostly your choice), and the third was about a writer on the syllabus that was kinda half biography and half reviewing her work.
Overall, Kipen's class gave me interesting insight on some writers of the past, but the assignments were kind of vague. You have to go and ask him what he actually wants from you because the prompts he writes out are a sentence long. He's really helpful if you ask him for advice and I honestly think that I learned a lot about how to make my writing better. I consider myself to be a pretty good writer, but he showed me a lot of do's and don'ts that I found actually helped me.
You talk about a shortish reading for the first half of class and then he'll give you a prompt to write about for a few minutes and then turn in. He essentially makes you all read your own out loud and he'll critique it. He makes an effort to have everyone participate, too, so just do the reading and have something to say about it.

Professor Kipen is a very passionate and inspiring professor. He assigned 3 essays through the quarter. They were pretty simple, casual. One was a journal, one was a guidebook for your hometown, and the last was an argument to add an author that wasn't already on the syllabus. We had weekly readings and in class writings. Participation is key, but it can be a simple comment or thought. Two of the three papers are graded in front of you. If you are confused, Kipen is ready to help. He is not the most timely but he understands and adjusts the class to it. I loved him as a professor because he was always supportive.

If you specifically want an A+ or an A, or even an A- this may not be the class for you. Dr. Kipen is a very intriguing, but picky professor. In a class period, the time would include Professor Kipen talking about the author from an assigned passage of reading that he would send as image attachments through email. After we went over some of our favorite/most notable quotes, we would then be given an in-class writing exercise. This consists of typing in a brief paragraph in response to an even briefer prompt and then sent through his email to be read aloud in class. Professor Kipen tries his best to get to every student, but sometimes he will miss a few. There are Three assignments that complete a majority of the grading. The first is 4-pages of journal entries. The second is a 5-page essay about our hometowns and the last one varies as based off of other reviews, but it will be a 6-page essay. Our prompt for the last 6-page essay this quarter was to write about an author and our argument for the author to be added onto the syllabus. The prompt Professor Kipen gives us is not very clear, which makes room for creative freedom, but also leads to a lot of confusion amongst students. The book for this class is NOT required because he sends images of the short passages we must read. This class taught by this specific professor is best for someone who is comfortable without clear prompts and can manage the time it takes to write essays. Overall, this class was stressful for me because I wanted my writing to please the professor and his taste, but the content was interesting and there was never a dull day in class.

I took this class thinking I will improve in my writing, but I am still at the same level I entered with. I wish I was informed of this previously and changed english classes. As a writing major I wanted to be able to seek help, and I did not get any. I don't recommend taking this class unless your writing is as good as the Los Angeles Times writing. Not to mention, he is a Los Angeles Times writer so he wont have time for you and will grade really harshly based on his opinions.

I dont understand why Kipen's rating is so low on bruinwalk. He assigned only 3 or 4 papers throughout the quarter without any finals. He is nice, funny, and very helpful with questions you may have for him.

Great professor, take him if you can. Only 3 essays through the whole quarter: the first one is 4 pages, second is 5 pages and the last is 6 pages. The first two papers are graded in a 'conference' which is basically where you sit with him as he goes through it giving you real-time feedback which I found to be really helpful. Additionally in each class you write a paragraph and read it out. Overall, not much work at all, and can help balance a hard quarter. 10/10 would recommend you take him if you can, he's also a really nice guy!

I feel like this class was not beneficial in my learning and at the end hurt my gpa. I tried learning and doing my best to succeed, but he did not care. He indirectly called me a bad writer and did not want to help me improve my writing. This class was only two hours long, but felt like forever since he doesn't stop talking. He goes off on random tangents and does not actually teach you anything you need to know. His writing prompts are always confusing and make no sense. I think he is a nice guy, but did not have time to nurture each students desires and needs when it comes to writing.