She is the sweetest professor. She is SO helpful when you go to office hours. She does want to see improvement though. Her essay prompts are really intriguing, but I really disliked her group essay assignments.

Dr. Gerrard was the only professor to give me a grade less than an A at UCLA, and for a good reason. The standards she holds her students to are like no other professor, and you really have to demonstrate a strong improvement if you want to get an A. In that regard, I would only recommend this class if an A-/B+ type grade isn't too detrimental to your GPA. Besides being a harsh grader, Dr. Gerrard is honestly one of the best professors I've had at UCLA. Her topics are interesting and engaging, and she is very approachable.

The workload is fairly intense, but not impossible. There are 3 papers (paper 2 and 3 are written in pairs) each weighing 25% each. The final 25% of the final grade comes from what she calls the "work grade" which includes short 4-5 page assignments and attendance. There is a bunch of reading (not that much ~ 50 pages) to do before each paper. Do NOT take this class if you do not like working in groups!!!

I am selling the course reader and the Seeking Common Cause book for a very cheap (and negotiable price). Email me at ************* !

Professor Gerrard was my favorite professor last quarter. She is very welcoming of people's opinions on the topics discussed in class, and is very approachable. She is always willing to meet up with students to work on their essays with them. In one occasion, she extended the deadline for the essay for me for 4 days because she was not able to meet me on Friday or Monday for office hours.

There are 3 essays -- the first one is individual and the other two are with a partner. Essay 1 is on how gender is depicted in magazines, essay 2 is on work, and essay 3 is on life in Cyberspace. There are 3 drafts of each essay -- the first is peer reviewed, the second is the instructor draft, and the third is the final. Her comments in the instructor draft are very helpful. If you do what she wants and go to her office hours, your grade can improve dramatically.

There are also other small writing assignments that help prepare for the essays. For these assignments, you must read around 30 pages. The articles are very interesting. There are questions you must answer in 1/2 a page or 3/4 of a page. The questions are very straightforward, and if you answer all parts you can get an A or A+. Don't leave these assignments for the night before because the reading can be time-consuming.

The course reader is needed everyday, so you must buy it. There is also a book you need, but the readings from the book are also in the course reader. She recommends still buying the book because you will need to analyze pictures that are in color.

I am selling the Seeking Common Cause Book. I don't have a set price, but we can negotiate that. If interested, my email is *************

Professor Gerrard is a really sweet lady. She speaks in a soft voice so it was hard for me to hear her sometimes, even when I sat close to the front. She has a very particular writing style. She's pretty lenient about people missing class however I recommend you don't because she usually goes over handouts and exercises that will help you with writing your paper.

In the class, there was a total of 3 papers. Each paper had a prep assignment that involved readings from the coursebook and questions to answer, pretty straightforward questions. The first paper was about advertising in women's or men's magazines from two different decades. That paper is by yourself. The second paper is written with a partner, you can request somebody in the class and she will definitely put you guys together, but if not, you'll get somebody random. The second paper was about people being unhappy in their jobs, that's the most basic way I can describe it. The third paper was also a partner paper and it was about Second Life and the way people communicate online versus the real world.

There is a mandatory course reader for the class that is sold at the UCLA store. You do use it the entire quarter a lot so you should buy it.

Overall, her class wasn't difficult at all and she was always willing to tell you what you needed to write to get a good grade. I would take her class again.

A lot of reading. She's very special about the type of writing she wants in your essays. Very helpful and you can ask for help during her office hours.
selling highlighted course reader for 12$ email me at ************* if interested

Professor Gerrard is a very nice person. She is always available after class, during office hours and over email. The topics/readings are really interesting; I enjoyed reading each one of them. I worked really hard for the papers and analysis and ended up with a A-. I'm very satisfied with my grade and I feel like my writing is much more effective than before. Just focus on conciseness, add tons of examples to your paper, and go to office hours, you'll be fine!

TAKE HER CLASS!!! You'll never regret it!

She is a very interesting character. She cares about working with you, but she is very hard with grading. I felt I deserved an A in her class and ended up with a B+. I felt part of that was due to the fact that I got unlucky with my partners because neither wanted to put that much effort into the paper to improve their grades.
If you don't like working with others on papers, I would not recommend taking her class. Other than that, the readings were interesting and it wasn't very heavy on my class load. Easy to get an A on the work grade portion.
I am selling the course reader for her class if anyone is interested. I believe it's $35 in the UCLA store and considering I took no notes in it and it is in almost perfect condition, I'm willing to sell it for $25. Text me if interested **********.

Gerrard is friendly, sweet, humorous and really cute. She is a strict grader, but her teaching did improve my writing and made EC class painless. She always makes detailed comments on your draft, all you have to do is revise it by following her ideas: add as many details as you can, and make your analysis concise and clear. Two of the three papers are co-authors ones, so it's important for you to find a smart and responsible partner. I went to her office hours and writing center for each paper, got A-, B+ and A for each, and A- as the final grade. Make efforts, she will see it, and you will be good.

Professor Gerrard is a very effective writing teacher. You have to do some work for this class in the form of reading articles and writing three essays. She is a strict grader, but she is always available for office hours and if you put in the effort you will get a good grade. Besides the grading, she will make you a much more effective writer.

There is barely any homework besides writing essays. She will give you about a week between drafts for the three essays, each essay has three drafts. You will have three prep assignments, one for each essay. These prep assignments require reading 5-10 articles and writing responses. They are designed to help you with your essay and they do accomplish that.

TL;DR: no-nonsense assignments, always available, helpful, makes you a good writer, have to work for the grade

Best Professor I've had by far. I am selling all the materials for her course. Seeking Common Cause and the Course Reader Solutions. Email: *************