This class is not easy, Randy expects a lot from you but honestly it was my favorite class first quarter freshman year. He makes sure to make the class relevant, like instead of analyzing old books or whatever we wrote one essay on a black mirror episode and one on an environmental documentary. It was a lot of work but I didn't feel like it was a waste of time and I honestly enjoyed it. He really cares about his students and will give you pretty much as much time/help as you want, which is pretty uncommon among UCLA professors. I would recommend this class

Originally, as an international student, I am extremely afraid of writing. However, after this class, I love writing so much! He makes the class very interesting by introducing you interesting questions. There are three required essays, which are Black Mirror episode analysis, documentary analysis and Grammar B, which I like the most. He wrote his own book Own Your Perspectives and taught us how to incorporate our own perspectives into writing. And Grammar B is a truly free space for you to express your creativity. He always encourages students to write and to think. He likes to share his own lifestyle in class, which makes this class more interactive, and those life stories are also funny. The workload is doable. It is not that easy because you still need to revise again and again to improve your score. But he provides the one-on-one session as well as class publication in order to let you revise your essay from multiple angles. Go to the office hour earlier and begin revising earlier! He really opens up my mind and I would like to think more about the world around me!

This teacher really made an effort to form relationships with students and he was very welcoming if we needed help on our essays. I thought that I learned a lot from this class and improved in my writing because of the teacher. the workload was manageable with only 2 essays and 1 essay that is credit or no credit. He always told us our temporary grade on the essay and what we could improve on. The topics were also very interesting because one essay was on climate change documentary and the other was on something in our personal environment. I am a premed major so was a bit afraid of taking a writing class but the class was super interesting, manageable, and if I had to take a writing class I would take this class again.

Not going to lie, real great dude and professor. If you're decent at English, you should be totally fine in his class. Participation is a big deal though! Also, he gives many more opportunities to meet with him about your writing than other professors would. Strongly recommend!

Excellent professor who makes writing fun

I liked Professor Fallows a lot! He cracks a lot of jokes in class, and since class sizes are small participation really matters. Grades are based on three super straightforward three page essays you write throughout the quarter. Then, for your final essay, you choose two of those essays and expand them to six page essays. He takes time to meet with everybody throughout class and you get a lot of freedom when you write! Like, he let me curse and make bad jokes in my essay. Absolutely try to get Fallows, he actually made me enjoy writing! (And then I took a writing 2 class and got my confidence crushed right afterwards...)

SUCH A GOOD CLASS! randy is so cool and gives genuinely good feedback on writing. he will let you rewrite your papers as many times as you want as long as you make meaningful changes in order to get the grade you desire. his class really was not hard at all as long as you put in some amount of effort into your writing. he is super understanding and accommodating. the grade is based on two papers, one which is on a documentary and one that is a more informal creative writing piece. there is a final reflection and participation, so there really isn't a ton of work in the class. overall super chill and would so take again!

Randy is really a nice and funny guy who knows what he's talking about and really wants you to find your own way to write. I wouldn't hesitate to take him again although I didn't get the grade that I expected. That brings me to the point of his grading. It feels a bit strange to not have a good idea of what your grade is going to be so keep that in mind if you're going to take this class. Other than that, I cannot think of another flaw with this man's teaching and his class in general. I absolutely recommended you take his class.

loved engcomp3 with randy! he's super funny and even as a stem major i was always excited to come to class. for fall 2021 we wrote 2 essays, which was 80% of your grade, and participation which counted for 20%. one essay was based on a documentary about an environmental issue(you choose), and the other was very freeform. other work in the class included annotating the ~$20 textbook he wrote w/ his wife, which was work that was not graded but super helpful when it came to writing the actual essays. if you want a good grade, randy will tell you exactly what he wants and gives lots of tips and suggestions on how to improve your essays. he holds one on one meetings for both essays and is also available during office hours for more feedback. you have the entire quarter to work on the essays and they are due at the end of week 10. only thing is i wish he gave us a grade breakdown instead of just a single letter grade in myucla. would have loved to know what i got on each essay. overall, randy is a great professor who actually taught me something about writing and i would 1000% take a class with him again.

Love Randy!! To preface: there's only two six pages essays due the entire quarter. Seems easy, but to polish and make them truly good essays takes creativity, work, research, collaboration, and help from Randy himself. Luckily, he's a fantastic writer, and he gives plenty of times and opportunities to help you get there. More than just grammar or writing structure, this class really teaches you the fundamentals of how to be an effective writer for life, so much more than any high school class has for me. Would definitely recommend if you want to improve your writing skills, and are willing to put in a little bit of effort to get there.