The Insider's Guide to Some of the Best Classes on Campus

Course: COLLEGE WRITING PROGRAM 151

Course Title: Intro to Principles of Professional Communication

Instructor: COLE, C

Course Description: "Introduction to Principles of Professional Communication" is probably the most useful class on campus. While the title may sound daunting, Professor Caroline Cole makes learning workplace formalities a practical and enjoyable pursuit. Think of CW 151 as killing two birds with one stone-hell, three birds. Not only do you knock out three units with this class, but you also acquire valuable written communication conventions. In CW 151, you don't learn theory or read material that you'll soon forget. Instead, you acquire skills for your career.

By learning proper memo formatting and persuasive letter techniques, you gain an advantage in the job market. Plus, you get to apply your newfound expertise by revising a local organization's communications-work that looks great on your resume, which you perfect through the semester. Professor Cole is extremely passionate about what she teaches, so she seems to make class time fly by. She will also give the grade you deserve; as a hard-working Cal student, you needn't fear a bad grade.

There's a catch though: To take CW 151, you need to have satisfied R1A/R1B and have attained junior standing. However, if you are entering Cal at the sophomore level, you can enroll next fall.

CW 151 is the best course that I have taken at Cal because it is highly applicable to my future. If you want to take an unforgettable class and reduce your chances of unemployment after graduation, take "Introduction to Principles of Professional Communication."

-Nick Fradkin

Course: ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES 171

Course Title: Asian Americans in Film and Video

Instructor: KIM, E H

Course Description: Kung fu masters and dragon ladies are here. So are Harold and Kumar and Long Duk Dong, the foreign exchange student from "Sixteen Candles." Asian Americans have been staking out a place for themselves in the United States since the mid-19th century but rarely has Hollywood portrayed their stories and identities with the nuance they deserve. "Asian Americans in Film and Video," taught this fall by ethnic studies professor Elaine Kim, aims to spotlight the ethnic groups that have both struggled for recognition on the silver screen and forged their own cinematic truths.

Anti-Japanese propaganda films burn through the screen like they did during World War II, while "The Motel" illustrates the pains of coming of age in the middle of nowhere. Among my favorites was "Who Killed Vincent Chin?", a 1987 documentary about the most unjust murder you've likely never heard of. It left the class in tears. But Kim wants her students to get involved, not just observe from a distance, so they have the opportunity to team up and produce a short film as their final project.

Classes dedicated to Asian American cinema are rare in general and especially meaningful at UC Berkeley, whose ethnic studies department was among the first to take shape in the nation. By shining light on the images of the past, this course sets the stage for the voices of the future.

-Stephanie M. Lee

Course: HISTORY 171C

Course Title: The Soviet Union, 1917 to the Present

Instructor: SLEZKINE, Y

Course Description: An entertaining professor, fascinating subject matter and upper division credit all in one class? (No, the university didn't rename Filippenko's class Astro C10.)

I'm talking about the history of the Soviet Union, taught by Yuri Slezkine. You'll explore the USSR's tumultuous political, economic and social histories, along with the individuals who shaped the empire-from its violent birth to the eventual collapse. If the subject matter sounds appealing, then the course structure will too. If by spring semester you're sick of useless sections that you never go to-but still have to sign up for in order to get into the course-History 171C is for you. Instead of section, there's just a midterm and final, which require some studying, but are very fair. The terms you need to know are already laid out on a course Web site (no bSpace!) at the start.

The course reader may seem daunting at first but you can be very selective about it because the professor mentions what to to look out for. The textbook is straightforward and the other readings (a collection autobiographical accounts and two short satirical novels) are very interesting.

The best part of course is the lecture itself. Slezkine may seem a little timid but is incredibly insightful about the subject matter and very witty. He always includes humorous personal accounts, slide shows of art and photos, jokes and music in his presentation of the material. There's more to Soviet Russia than Yakov Smirnoff jokes, comrades. Take this class and find out.

-Ed Yevelev

Course: LINGUISTICS 55AC

Course Title: The American Languages

Instructor: WILKERSON, G R

Course Description: By the end of CalSO, everyone has heard of the immortal triumvirate of Alex Filippenko's Astro C10, Richard Muller's "Physics for Future Presidents" and David Presti's "Drugs and the Brain." If you haven't, these are the three classes that, regardless of your major, you have to take before you graduate. They're excellent (I've taken PffP, and a similar course taught by Presti), and the professors are rock stars among the faculty. Today, however, I would like to add a fourth class to this canon: Linguistics 55AC, or "The American Languages."

In addition to fulfilling your AC requirement, this course will transform the way you experience speaking in society. From the history of English and "The Great Vowel Shift" (there was only one) to theories of why Germans are better philosophers to academic discussions on Klingon, this course runs the gamut of speech systems.

A particularly fascinating unit concerns Ebonics, or African American English, and the historic program to integrate it in Oakland schools' curriculum. Here, Ebonics is treated not as slang, but as a dialect of English. It begins with grammar and history (both of which are quite complicated), and finishes with the idea that by reducing a dialect to slang, you inherently damn a culture as inferior. You'll have no idea how deep language goes until you've taken this course. It's not particularly difficult (I finished with a 99.7 percent in the course), but incredibly interesting. It's everything you never knew you should know about.

-Daniel Kronovet

Course: HISTORY 134A

Course Title: The Age of the City

Instructor: HENKIN, D

Course Description: The story of the American city is as volatile and vivid as the metropolis itself. The plot hustles through New York City, whose streets bred daily newspapers and political corruption; Chicago, who rose from the ashes after the great fire of 1871; and Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., among others.

The cast of characters includes neon signage, jazz clubs, automobiles, movie theaters, department stores and even baseball. Who knew, for instance, that the Dodgers-then from Brooklyn-were named for the fans who had to dodge trolleys to make it to the stadium?

Taught by the dynamic David Henkin, "The Age of the City" pairs clear Powerpoint presentations with lively in-class discussions. There's no textbook per se in this popular lecture course, but rather a series of novels, memoirs and other first-hand accounts spanning 1825 to 1933. Essays focus on how those works reflect the rapidly evolving world in which they were penned, while exams place names, dates and events in their historical context. If taken through the American Studies department, the course also lets students mull over the material in weekly discussions.

"The Age of the City" isn't offered often, so when it is, seriously consider enrolling. You'll never look at Manhattan the same way again.

-Stephanie M. Lee

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