Kipen was nice but grades essays kind of harsh. Make sure to listen to what type of writing style he wants to see, because he will tell you in class. If you write in the way he likes you’ll be fine!!!

This class was just horrible. This class was so disorganized as well as making it very boring to go through. His grading was harsh and also gave very vague feedback. I had read the previous reviews for this class and they didn't make the class out to be so bad, but once you're in it, it's definitely not at all what the reviews make it out to be. I just finished this class last spring of 2022 and I recommend trying to avoid this professor at all costs if you can. I used to love writing essays but taking this class made me feel small and tanked my confidence in writing. My friends took the same class with different professors and got easy A's. Also, if you don't participate very often, he WILL call on you and participation is a huge part of your grade and impacts your grade a lot as well as the essays.

Professor Kipen is a very interesting guy. He is a pretty funny character, and has a lot of passion for writing and his students. His class will definitely make you a more confident writer and will have you thinking critically on a higher level. The amount of creativity that his class has to offer is incredible. My fall quarter was shaped around his own book, Dear California, and was a very easy read. Each class session, you are expected to email a quote from his book and write a couple sentences about a rhetorical question he asks you. Pretty easy participation points on your part, but be creative and go beyond your comfort zone because he will share your response in front of the whole classroom. For the papers, he grades hardly. He doesn’t give out any easy A’s at all, so you have to work very hard to get to that point. He starts many of you and your classmates below an A- or B+ on your first paper, and you are to use his feedback to build up to an A. All you have to do is write 3 essays: a diary, a argumentative essay, and a research paper about two authors. I really loved writing in this class more than ever before because his paper prompts are very creative and he gives you no rubric, allowing you to write in your own creative way. Lastly, professor Kipen is a very helpful and open guy, as he is willing to helping you improve as a writer inside and outside of the classroom. But, be ready to get lost a couple of times because his clarity isn’t the best when he gives feedback or direction; it kind of is a bizarre combination of a theme statement and a comment. That’s my honest review :)

Professor Kipen's class is great if English is not your forte - he really pushes you to go above and beyond in your writings, even in our biweekly in-class mini prompts. The class begins with talking about the reading assignment and ends with a writing prompt, but the majority of class time is listening to Professor Kipen talk. His grading is fair, gives great advice on how to improve for the next paper and is honest about any feedbacks.