Selling Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology by David L. Ulin for $16.

For more information, text **********

I really appreciated Nathan's commitment. He is constantly available and the small class size is fantastic. Professor Deuel went on to write a letter of recommendation for me which he had no need to do, so I greatly appreciate it. He is clear, well-spoken, and a great instructor. He is also incredibly helpful and gives meaningful feedback. I would recommend him to absolutely anyone who needs to fulfill the writing requirement. Additionally, the material he uses is engaging and interesting. While there is a relatively hefty amount of work to do for the course, it all is relevant and helps you to learn and engage with the topics of the class.

Nathan is a great guy and I highly recommend him for English Comp 3.

If Professor Deuel is available, take it with him. The class setting is so intimate and professor is so generous in grading. There is a fair amount of writing but trust me, you actually learn in the class. 11/10 professor.

If you’re like me and English is not your strong suit, I highly recommend Professor Deuel’s class! His class focused primarily on creative writing and helped me to break out of the mould of writing regimented high-school style essays. Be ready to put in a lot of work for the class, however. Basically, every assignment in the class revolves around writing, but by the end of the class your writing skills will certainly improve. Furthermore, effort is what really counts in the class, so BS-ing your assignments will not fly.

Readings: Every week he assigns a few short stories/essays from the Writing Los Angeles anthology book. They were only about 5-6 pages in length apiece. Personally, I found them hit or miss – sometimes the readings would be very interesting and other times they’d be quite bland. He wants you to also write a reading journal (about a page in length, single-spaced) documenting your thoughts after reading the piece. He reads them but not in detail, so I just wrote in a stream-of-consciousness style, recording my opinions to use in the class discussion.

Mini Essays: On Thursdays he’ll assign a mini-essay which would be due the following morning. You’ll basically have the afternoon and evening of a single day to hash out a personal essay (also one-page single-spaced). Most weeks the prompt was interesting. On Friday, he would select five student essays for peer review. We would read them over the weekend and write a paragraph response to each one, detailing our thoughts on word choice, writing styles, etc.

Midterm Essay: The first midterm essay was tough – it was the most “academic” of all the essays if you consider it in the context of a high school paper. You had to write about one of the readings from the first four weeks in three pages or less, double-spaced. He graded pretty harshly; I got a C on it, which was disappointing because I actually thought my essay was pretty good. He gives you detailed feedback on where you went wrong and how you can improve on the next essay though. You can take this information and rewrite your midterm essays if you want, and you have up until the last day of class to resubmit. The second midterm essay was easier because it was more open-ended and I knew what he was looking for – this one was five pages and you have to find a recent news article that pertains to the class reading that you selected to write about.

Final Essay: 10-12 pages, which seems like a lot, but if you start drafting a few weeks before the deadline (around week 7-8) you shouldn’t have any issues finishing. This was the most open-ended of all the essays, so you could literally write about whatever you want as long as it had something to do with one of the readings. I should mention that while he does assign grades to your papers, there are no “points” in the class, so your final grade could be higher than you expected.

This class was a hefty whirlwind while I took it, because it had so many demands each week (as the other reviewers have mentioned). I didn't like it while I took the class, but these weekly practices train you to think about writing creatively with a prompt. I also did not like the fact that the texts we read were very boring, in my opinion. You can find the textbook online or scan it from the UCLA library.

My favorite part about this class is Prof Deuel. He is a funny guy, and he is a person who cares very much about how his students are doing. Since this is a small class, you will get to know him (and your other classmates) very well, as you will be reading each other's writing weekly (which is also my favorite part of the class). He does have somewhat of a penchant for trauma-related stories, but I think he is a fair judge of writing and also encourages his students to explore their own writing voice, which I had a hard time finding while being in the class. He really is an encouraging professor with great writing advice and anecdotes. He truly pushes you to be a better writer through this 10-week writing bootcamp, for both the good parts and bad parts. This is definitely a class that you'll remember when you leave UCLA, and I recommend you take it (but be prepared to work hard...)

As a person, Professor Deuel is absolutely amazing!! At the beginning, I thought he was sort of pretentious, but it was clear soon enough that he is just a nice, funny guy who really cares about the success of his students.

Academically, there is a LOT of work for this class. If you are looking for a light class to fulfill this graduation requirement, I recommend picking someone else. I will say, though, that even though there is a ton of work, it is not hard to get a good grade in this class. Just participate, do your work with effort on time, and you should be solid. Even if you do not do as well on the big graded papers, you have opportunities to revise them. Also, I believe that the work I did in this class truly did make me a better writer. Deuel, unlike my previous english teachers, cares about his students finding their true writing voice rather than forcing them to adhere to a certain structure.

One last thing I will note is that each we week we have a mini essay due with prompts that can get quite personal. For example, one week we had to write about what we are ashamed of. What's worse is that all of your classmates will read and leave comments on these essays... and you may even be selected to read it aloud during class. As a less emotionally open person, I found this activity extremely uncomfortable at first. By the end of the class, i grew to be more confident in expressing myself, but there certainly was a learning curve.

This was by far my favorite class I have ever taken at UCLA, thanks to its engaging curriculum and supportive class environment.

I signed up for a medical narratives class through the Professional Writing minor, even though I am not pre-med. During the first week, I wasn't sure if the class was for me, a humanities major, but I am so grateful I decided to stay in 131C. We were afforded a considerable amount of choice for writing projects, which allowed me to explore areas of my life through writing. Every person, pre-med or not, has a connection to medical topics and will benefit from taking this class. I now have a greater appreciation and understanding of narrative writing tactics.

Through developing my writer's voice with the help of Professor Deuel and my classmates, I have never felt more confident or proud of my writing. We engaged in seminar-style discussions during each class session, where we were encouraged to share our ideas on each other's writing and published authors' works. The course readings were skillfully chosen and easily accessible through a course reader. I would go so far as to say this class reignited my love of reading narrative pieces.

This class requires active participation from students through weekly assignments and discussions, ensuring that each student in the room is dedicated to contributing to the entire class’s learning experience. I thoroughly enjoyed each assignment, so I never felt overwhelmed or overburdened with assignments. Every person in this class was so talented and exceptional, I felt very lucky to be able to solicit their feedback and read their work.

Professor Deuel is extremely passionate about supporting his students. He quickly responds to email inquiries, provides constructive feedback, makes himself available for office hours, and truly cares about his students’ learning. Many students in my class were in the final quarter of senior year, but I took this class as a junior. That being said, I would take this class again in a heartbeat next year. However, I think as many students as possible should have the opportunity to take 131C with Professor Deuel so I wouldn’t want to take a seat away from someone else.

This class truly helps with writing, and by the end of it, essays come easier to you. The professor points out what helps, he also allows you to read other people's work and have weekly workshops (where people point out what technique was good in students' essays). Be prepared to share your work.

It is very rigorous (3 mini-essays, 1 page, single-spaced per week; 2 mid-terms, 3-page and 5-pages; 1 final, 10-12 pages).

You can borrow the textbook from Powell and take a pictures of all the works included in the syllabus. No need to purchase it.

This was one of my favorite classes at UCLA. Prof. Deuel cares about his students so much and is very helpful. I liked how the class was smaller, and it was very engaging. I feel like I learned a lot from this course. If it is any indicator of how much I enjoyed it, I plan on taking one of his classes again in spring.