If you're a pre-med like me and care about you're GPA, do not take this professor for Writing II. I worked my ass off this quarter, but I just got a B. I was thinking I was in the A- to A range though. The grading is collective work between the professor and TA's, so I doubt there would be an easy/lenient TA. Otherwise, if you don't mind getting a B, go ahead and take her because the workload is normal and she is nice as well as the TA's. But damn... I'm pissed

This class is a TON of reading, but lecture isn't mandatory. Listen to the audiobooks to prepare for tests. Interesting, but challenging.

This class was absolutely wonderful as a STEM major that loves to read. The course consisted of a reading (50-100 pages) every week, 4 papers that increased in length as the quarter went on, and an in-class essay for the midterm. The readings weren't enforced, but you will discuss them in section and write about them for the papers, so I think it's best to have an idea of each book's plot. I personally enjoyed the readings and got a lot out of them, but you can also probably scrape by just reading the spark notes. All of the essays were graded by the TAs before the strike, and the professor was very accommodating by making the final essay no-hurt due to the strike. Get Jake Wilder-Smith as your TA if possible; he was brilliant and left the most detailed, constructive feedback I've EVER received on my essays. Professor Komar was a wonderful lecturer, and so passionate about the material it was contagious.

TLDR; take this class if you don't mind reading and writing, and you will get a lot out of it.

DONT TAKE FOR YOUR WRITING 2 IF YOURE TRYING TO GET AN A!!!!!
As a straight A STEM student, this was my first B at UCLA (and I worked my ass off for this class). I went to every lecture, every discussion, almost every office hour, and I would write my papers far in advance and talk to the professor about it. The workload was mediocre but I often felt lost on essays, couldn’t understand the readings, and prompts were very abstract. You have readings at all times and all of them classics making it super hard to even understand what was going on. I will say Professor Komar was engaging and sweet, but I cannot say that the grading made sense or the essays were clearly outlined. Professor and TAs always said “prompts are just to inspire your writing, don’t answer all the questions,” but then looked for pretty specific answers that students had to reach for. I loved Professor Komar as a teacher and as a person, however, as someone who cares about their grades, I do not recommend this class.

This class was challenging, but don't let that stop you from taking it. It is a lot of reading, but none of the books are over 150 pages, and many of them were good reads. The professor gives extremely helpful feedback, and office hours actually helped me improve as a writer signifcantly. The professor makes the literature interesting. I suggest staying ahead in the reading, going to office hours to help form a thesis before writing, and take good notes in dicussion to help with essays. I learned and improved so much in this class!!! You will also get bragging rights about reading classical literature.

this class screams semester system, 10 weeks does a disservice to it

STEM major here. Took this class, got an A- , but honestly could have gotten an A if I proofread my essays. I highly recommend this class and Professor Komar :) My TA was Sophia. We weren't required to go to the Zoom Lectures, but did have in person discussions with mandatory attendance (worth 20% of grade).

In discussion, a person had to give a short presentation on a translator of the works we read that week and then we discussed themes, plot, the characters, and similarities to the other works we read.

The other grades for the class was a total of 5 essays. The midterm was a timed write, and the next essay due after that was a rewrite of the midterm paper. Paper 1 has 2 pg limit and worth 5% of grade, and then the pg requirement got longer and were weighted more as the quarter went on with the final being 8 pgs and worth 30% of grade. This helps you get a feel for how the TA wants you to write.

I thoroughly enjoyed every single book we had to read. They were all funny, thought provoking, and easy reads. Professor Komar is amazing as she helped us discover the texts in lecture while also providing her own insights. She also has a great sense of humor. I couldn't make it to my TA's office hours, but Sophia worked with me to find other times to meet. She led really interactive discussions and I made a few friends there. Your TA is the one who grades your papers so its more important to talk to them than it is the professor. Overall, This class isn't too hard and a doable A as long as you give yourself time to write your essays.

This class moves quickly and has a pretty heavy workload (reading 1 book/week), but none of them are too long, I found that I could power through the texts in half a day if I needed to. Lectures are sections where she answers questions and just discusses the texts, and they were helpful, but not necessary. Discussion is mandatory, and you discuss the texts in a smaller environment there. Grading is all based on your TA, so I would recommend going to their OH for feedback and advice. Grades are based off of 4 papers, 1 timed essay midterm, and discussion section participation. My biggest gripe about this class is that they purposefully grade harshly for the first half of the class, but then ease up as the quarter goes on, so your latter papers (which are both longer and worth more of your grade) aren't graded as harshly. I personally didn't feel like the quality of my writing really changed that much throughout the quarter, so that was frustrating to deal with, but overall this class was fine, just a lot of reading.

Professor Komar is super nice. She knows the books she's talking about very well. I also enjoyed going to her office hours. But this course is very demanding. We at minimum finish one book each week and there are four essays to turn in in total. The essays really took time. If you're not good at analyzing literature you will struggle with the course. But if you did get, for example 4 or 5 in AP Lit in high school you shall be fine. For me, I spent a lot of time on my essays and got an A. My TA Jake is super helpful and organized, and he pays attention to whatever you say during discussion, so I enjoyed sessions with him, have him if you can. Overall, I liked the book selections and I learned a lot in this class. Would take it again.

South campus major here. Although I got an A-, this was by no means an easy GE/writing II class and I don't consider myself to be a great writer. The highest grade I got was an A- on my final paper. All my other papers were B's. The essays become progressively longer as the quarter goes by.

Here is a grade breakdown:
Participation (20%)
1st paper (5%): 2 pages
2nd paper (10%): 3-4 pages
3rd paper (20%): 4-5 pages
Final paper (30%): 6-7 pages
Midterm paper (15%): This was originally supposed to be a timed in-class 50 min essay. However, the fires happened during that week so Professor Kumar changed it to a "timed" take-home essay in which the prompt is posted online, and we were strongly encouraged to type as much as we can in just one hour and submitted on CCLE at the end of the weekend.

NOTE: Your grade in the class is largely dependent on your TA, who is the one that actually grades your essays. DO GO TO THEIR OFFICE HOURS to get essay feedback and to clear up any ambiguities or vague parts of your essay. Understandably, college can get incredibly hectic during some weeks and if you really have to, you could get away with not reading 1-3 books and using various online resources to make up for it .

However, depending on how strong of a writer you are, it can come back to bite you the most when it comes to essays, some of which will ask you to compare and contrast two books. Unlike high school where you could just finesse English classes with things like SparkNotes, reading the book in its entirety makes a tremendous difference in your writing process and you'll spend less time agonizing over your analysis comments.

Overall, if you're willing to put in the work each week, then this class shouldn't be too bad. Do not take this class if you are worried about your GPA or thinking that it'll be an easy GE just because of the grading distribution.