He cares A LOT about Bruin Walk reviews. He gives students who deserve Cs and Ds a B grade instead so that they leave nice reviews on here. However, if you are a top student, dont take this class because he doesn't give any As or A+s either

No matter how good your papers are, how much you participate, how much you improve, he will not give you above A-

so save your GPA and pick another professor

Professor Samuels is a very interesting professor with his funny stories. I highly recommend taking this class with him, as the course material discusses what our society has become. However, if you want to become a better writer, then this is not the class to take because Samuels basically emphasizes the use of transitions or avoiding the use of "the" at the start of two consecutive sentences.

There's not much work compared to other English classes and as long as you do everything, you should get at least a B. Final grade: A-

After taking English Comp 3 with Dr. Samuels, I will admit that I enjoyed taking this class. The topic was rather interesting as it related to contemporary society and our generation. However, if you are looking for an english class that greatly improves your writing then this is not the class. My writing did improve (now avoid a lot of common writing mistakes) but it did not improve drastically. I found the class more entertaining than "educational."

Overall, it just depends what type of english class you want, but I definitely recommend Samuels. I received an A-, but I guess it is understandable that I didn't get the A for not participating as much as he wanted.

If you want an easy little work B+ take this class. If youre going for getting a good gpa and not having this hurt your 3.7+ gpa then DONT take this class. Its pretty much set that youll get an A- or a B+ and its like a coin flip since samuels is pretty biased and grades based on what he thinks is correct. Samuels i know you are reading this seriously fix your grading system (He reads bruinwalk).

Very easy class, small assignments with a few short essays. I got an A- along with everyone else I talked to from the class. He is a good teacher and is interesting to listen to, and you learn a few basic things about grammar, but besides that I didn't really learn anything valuable in this class. He has a lot of pop culture references and a lot of class is spent watching movies or talking about current events.

First of all i'd like to mention that Samuels said that he reads bruinwalk which I found pretty funny.
Samuels is a great professor and also a really genuine person.
Grade: A-
Don't know about the A- myth. I wouldn't say I slacked off in this class though. I grew to really like Samuels and wanted him to help my writing. He has an unusual amount of degrees which I think makes his teaching even better. He's really quirky and gives a lot of video examples (he has shown me a newfound appreciation for seinfeld). He actually relates his teaching to things that students will find interesting such as the elements of humor.
Workload wise it's very fair. Theres only one big essay that you get to pick your own topic for and Samuels helps you edit it throughout the quarter. As long as you take his commments into consideration (in one on one meetings) and show that you care about your material, you will get a good grade. Participation also matters, but Samuels makes it really easy to speak up in class because he's so laid back.
As a south campus major I was pretty scared to take a college level writing course, but this class turned out to be my favorite class at UCLA so far. And one of my best grades. So don't worry if you never found yourself to be a strong writer. Samuels takes the time to show that your progress matters, unlike science classes where youre stuffed with 300 other kids in a lecture room and you probably have to use binoculars to see your teacher from how far back you are in the lecture hall.

Aside from the class, he is constantly trying to get students involved in the budget cuts and he actually cares about the welfare of UCLA students. You can even see him talking about UC's on youtube!
Definitely take Samuels if you need writing credit and want a really great professor!

Samuels is pretty awesome! One of the funniest professor I have ever had of my years at UCLA. Although he talks alot about irrelevant things in class, because he is so FUNNY, I can't wait to go to class everytime. However, if you really want to learn, he teaches something but not as much as some of the other professors. But nothing's pretty, so i think he is awesome and i'll totally take him again if he offers other courses.

The class was well structured but some of the topics didn't seem really relevant to the course material. Essays were more bearable because they dealt more with 1st hand experience rather than research. The professor was slightly funny which made class less boring. The class for me was required and English is not my forte but I think I should have received an A- but a B+ was okay.

Really nice guy and entertains the class each and every lecture. If you understand and utilize his recommendations on your essays you should definitely be able to pull off an A-, if not an A. I HIGHLY recommend Dr. Samuels' class considering I was a pretty decent writer and got an A.