Alright, let me tell you about Professor Kipen for EngComp 3. This dude is something else! He's got this amazing energy and passion that radiates in the classroom. You can tell he genuinely loves the subject and wants the absolute best for his students. Brace yourself, though, because he can be a tough grader.

Professor Kipen's class can be a bit of a challenge. He sets the bar high and expects you to reach it. He pushes you to think critically, analyze deeply, and come up with your own ideas. It's not always easy, but trust me, it's worth it. You'll come out of his class having improved in your writing.

He wants you to become a better writer, a better communicator. So yeah, it might sting a bit when you get your papers back, but it's a learning experience. Plus, when you see that improvement, it's a great feeling.

All in all, Professor Kipen is an awesome instructor. He's charismatic, passionate, and he genuinely cares about his students' success. You'll learn so much from him. Just be ready for some challenges along the way. But trust me; it's totally worth it. Take a class with Professor Kipen, you will not regret it. Plus, he reads all his bruin walk reviews, make of that what you will...

Prof. Kipen was by far one of the most unique and intriguing characters I have ever met. A guy so consumed in his passions that it oozes out of him every minute you are in the same room. While at times, the content of the class was quite dry, it introduced me to a completely different type of writing and to some rather under recognized authors. I'd highly recommend this class if you have a true interest in bettering your writing.

I took Professor Kipen's English5W class last year and I truly think he's changed the way I approach writing forever. Overall his lecture was engaging and fairly easy all because he is so passionate about what he talks about. The entirety of this class is centred around one focal topic that Kipen himself has been studying his entire life. Before this class was not a fan of most writing classes, but Professor Kipen encouraged us to write how we want to write and I really gravitated this his approach. The essays he assigns during the quarter focus on the singular topic of the class but feel generally broad enough to leave you room to write something you're passionate about. However, the final paper was somewhat tedious but overall doable. If you're looking for a teacher who's truly passionate about his class and students, I would highly recommend this class.

Prof. Kipen is very helpful if you ask for it, but otherwise, he can be very confusing. He is a pretty average grader... I wrote a pretty mediocre paper and got a B. He has you read some boring passages from the WPA guide to California that he tells you about in the first lecture, but if you skim, you get the gist of whats going on. Professor Kipen can also be a little disorganized and forgetful, so if you schedule a time to get help from him, remind him before the appointment. Overall a nice guy, lectures a little disorganized but not a bad teacher at all. Would recommend the class if you're a creative writer and you don't need much assistance.

One thing to know is that every class he assigns small prompts that you have 5-10 minutes to write and e-mail to him. Then he reads them out loud and criticizes them in front of everyone (he also asks the students to criticize). Initially I dreaded going to class because of that but at the end of the quarter I felt comfortable with other people judging my work.

No tests at all. He's a pretty new teacher and pretty nice. He has a very exaggerated bubbly personality. His class lectures are engaging. He gives us 10 minutes to type up responses to random prompts he gives us and email it to him. He then opens them up in class, and we all critique them together. He also assigns readings from this WPA Guide he's the editor of or something. Most of his readings are boring, but he likes them a lot. They usually aren't very long. We only talk about it a little in class. He asks what line pops out at you and why. Sometimes I didn't read and hoped he didn't call on me or I would look for a quote real quick. He gave us 3 essays to do. In my opinion he doesn't grade easy. I got only B's. He doesn't really prepare us for writing. He just makes us write random prompts. His classes are chill, but the essays, you're pretty much on your own unless you go to office hours or something, which I didn't do.

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.