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.

Grades are made up of:
Participation - 20%
Paper 1 (2 pages)- 5%
Paper 2 (3-4 pages)- 10%
Mid-term exam (timed essay)- 15%
Paper 3 (rewrite of the midterm, 5 pages)- 20%
Paper 4 (6-7 pages)- 30%

The earlier assignments in the class are given very little weight in the overall grade, so it does allow you to progress throughout the quarter.

I really enjoyed the class and the readings. We got to read Voltaire, Goethe, Baudelaire, Dickinson, Dostoevsky, Ibsen, Kafka, Beckett, Walker and Krys Lee, which I feel like is an interesting selection. There are a lot of books that I normally would not have read, but having to read them for the class has allowed me to discover the fun in them. Professor Komar is very helpful, and her lectures are interesting if you have done the readings.

However, discussion does make or break the class a lot. My TA Jeremy Zimett was super funny and helpful, gave very clear instructions as to how to write the essay. I will also strongly advice going to your TA's office hours to discuss your essays as much as possible, as they would be the ones grading it.

Your grade in this class weighs super heavily on your TA. My TA didn’t grade participation in lecture but I know that others did. He also said that this was by far the hardest writing 2 offered at UCLA and judging by what I heard from friends, it definitely was. So much more reading than others and papers are graded as though you should have extensive experience with comparative analysis. I have always considered myself a strong writer but got consistent Bs on the papers. I would recommend meeting with your TA to write exactly as they would like, and letting go of any writing tactics you had adapted in hs.

Honestly, I did not understand how to write for this class and that made it somewhat of a pain. It was definitely an intense learning curve. There were a loooot of readings which can be hard to keep up on, but the books are good and not difficult to understand. Komar is a pretty good lecturer and does well to actually elaborate on themes and ideas from the assigned readings. Sections are unnecessarily long, but whatever. The class was fine overall, but not up my alley.

Komar is really engaging and easy to talk to. The workload in this class is really a lot though. Every week, you have to read a book and then almost every other week, you have to write an essay about the readings. If you don't know a lot about analyzing literature, I would recommend going to office hours. The midterm is an in-class essay and then a rewrite of the essay. The final is another essay. This class is very writing intensive so give yourself enough time for the assignments and you should be fine.

Go to lectures because she gives a lot of helpful analysis for your essays. Not all of the reading is 100% necessary, you could do without reading 1 or 2 of the books and still do good, but the class does have a heavy emphasis on reading and analysis.