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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.