This class teaches you how to write effectively. Even if you're just a decent writer, as long as you follow his guidelines by writing with a strong analytical viewpoint and proofreading your essays like he tells you to in class, you should be able to get full credit on the essays. Getting full points is not some sort of elusive dream. You just need to take the time to develop a strong thesis that has 2-3 main supporting arguments, use command+F to find all the off-limit words or phrases and remove them, and read over your essay more than once to make sure there are no grammatical mistakes. Professor Shorter and the TAs even give you guidelines and explicit instructions on how to write from a strong analytical viewpoint while avoiding obvious mistakes. This means that actually doing the readings makes things a lot easier, because you have a better idea of how to construct your arguments to fit the format. Also, you don't have to go to your TA for the grammar of your paper as long as you follow the guidelines, but you can run your ideas by them to see what they think about the strength of your thesis. If you care about learning how to write effectively while discussing an interesting subject matter, then you should take this class. In the end, I guess it all comes to time management and whether you're willing to invest the time needed to get the grade you want. If you want an A, Professor Shorter presents a very clear idea of the path to achieve this.

Here's a breakdown of the class.

Books we read this quarter:
Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience by Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden
Communion: A True Story by Whitley Strieber
The Super Natural by Whitley Strieber and Jeffrey Kripal
These texts are subject to change, especially Captured, if you're planning on buying these books before the start of the quarter. All 3 can also be found online.

Essays:
1 short analysis (4 pages) of a video from a list provided by Professor Shorter (video lengths range from 10 minutes to over an hour). 15 points.
1 author analysis (5 pages) of Captured! 20 points.
1 author analysis (5 pages) of Communion 20 points.
1 final paper introduction (1 page). This was graded separately from the final paper, but represents an outline of your intended final paper. 5 points.
1 final paper with a variety of options to choose from for the subject matter (7-9 pages) (most people chose to write an author analysis of The Super Natural). 25 points.

Other Readings:
We were assigned a number of other readings that mostly included excerpts from books. I wish we had read Larry Dossey's Reinventing Medicine in its entirety because the chapters we did get to read were very interesting.

Class time:
The beginning of the quarter involved many videos, but as the class progressed, Professor Shorter shifted the focus to a more discussion-based class experience. This meant more back-and-forth between Shorter and the students, and between the students themselves. Shorter was very good with facilitating these captivating discussions.

Discussion:
Two 50-minute discussions per week, one based on writing, and the other based on class content. This is subject to change, potentially to one 2-hour discussion per week. TAs were very good with promoting meaningful discussions.
Combined attendance for lecture and discussion: 15 points (you can miss a total of 4 combined lectures and/or discussions and still get full credit).

Overall:
I would recommend this class to any student looking for a very interesting GE who is willing to put in the time to achieve a good grade. For reference, I'm a south campus major and this class was 5 of my 21 units for the fall quarter. Hope this review helps future students.

First off, what an amazing, considerate professor. At the beginning of the last lecture, he shook hands with everyone who was present. He demonstrates amazing character and care for not only our academics but our wellbeings as well (definitely appreciated the meditation sessions at the beginning of class).

Now, here is an honest review from a STEM premed major (as the majority of the class was I believe) who cares about his grades, although not to the point where I would ask the professor for more credit to boost my grade as it would be disrespectful to do so.

1. If you are genuinely interested in aliens, psychics, ghosts, or just about any paranormal phenomena (meaning that you are not in the class just for your GPA), take this class.
2. If you want to take this class for an "easy A," definitely reconsider. Even though the grading scheme had changed, I knew where my writing level stands, so I figured that I would be okay. I recommend taking a few Writing IIs before taking this class, just so you have some experience following what a college professor/TA wants from you.
3. These new reviews for Fall 2018 are generally accurate. He does not give a crapload of extra credit like before. Then again, if you follow the directions on assignments and take into account feedback from your TAs, you should be fully capable to do well. He still offers a good amount of extra credit (I ended up with about 5-6 points at the end, which tally up to 5-6% points to your final grade since 1 point= 1%). I did not even do every extra credit opportunity, so you may even get more than that. For advice with the extra credit, I would treat them as making up for mistakes you make on assignments, not to give you less work to do at the end of the quarter. General advice for writing classes: really figure out what your TA wants, what mistakes you make in writing, and fixing those mistakes for the next assignments. Past reviews have stated that they did not even need to do the final paper to get an A. This scheme is just not the case anymore.
4. If you like talking in lecture and discussing, this is the class for you. Professor Shorter loves contributions from students, and he remembers those who participate a lot, so definitely worth your time if you want to get to know this stallion of a man better.
5. Professor Shorter himself is thought-provoking, and really rounded out my learning experience here at UCLA. I never realized how prevalent aliens or ghosts are until I took this class. His stories/experiences/lectures are fun to listen, and they really made this class enjoyable for me.
6. This class requires a decent amount of work. I say out of all my work allocated to this quarter, I probably spent about 40% of it to WAC 51W. The assignments include a considerable amount of writing and reading, although Professor Shorter is open to feedback and will consider pushing back dates when appropriate. If you like to read about such phenomena, take this class. The readings are interesting, and Professor Shorter's insights have definitely made this class more fun and mind-blowing.
7. Your grade mainly depends on the TAs. Luckily, I think this quarter had amazing TAs, though I personally am partial to my awesome TA (shoutout to Ariel).

Overall, WAC 51W is a unique class that you will not find anywhere else. Take advantage of being a UCLA student, and take this class with Professor Shorter. You won't, or should I say "will not," regret choosing this class to fulfill your Writing II credit. Approach this class with the mentality that everything you want you have to earn.

Prof Shorter is a prime example of what a university-level professor should be like. Class/Lecture wasn't class where students are forced to sit down, jot notes, memorize facts, and regurgitate them on exam dates. We got to sit, think, discuss, and read. The conversations were engaging and Prof. Shorter is such a great speaker that I rarely dozed off in class.
Everyone says "oh wow a class about aliens what a joke so easy"...except this class isn't about learning about aliens and ghosts. It's about creating your own POV on paranormal activities, critiquing pieces of "evidence" and coming to your own conclusions of why or why not some one might believe in these paranormal activities. It's a class about how to think, analyze, and read material...we just happen to use aliens, ghosts, and psychics as examples.
As for the assignments, just follow the rules (like you should do for any class) and do ALL THE E.C he literally gives you 15-20 points of extra credit which bump your grade up by 2 letter grades (the class is out of 100 pts only). They were very straightforward assignments and all the TAs are extremely nice and awesome. I basically had over a 100 pts before the final paper so I didn't put much effort into the final but because of my E.C I wasn't worried and I still ended up with an A+.

This class was awesome and it's a GE + Writing II! Prof. Shorter puts on this huge front in the beginning and even admits that he wants to be a bit of an asshole at the start to get people to drop so people on the waitlist can come in. After about week 1, he's awesome and engaging and I really appreciated all the lectures, and guests be brought in to expand our view on seemingly illogical and unscientific topics that academic institutions such as UCLA tend to disregard.

Dr. Shorter is the reason I pay so much money to attend a college like UCLA. This was the first class where I actually felt like I learned something valuable. The review below describing the grading scheme is 100% accurate.
This class is not as easy as mentioned in earlier reviews, but it is definitely not an unfair class. Your whole grade revolves around 4 writing assignments and that grade is very dependent upon your TA, although all the TA's this quarter were phenomenal (shout out to Jackie Davis).
Lectures were discussion heavy and really made you think.
IF YOU ARE READING THIS BECAUSE YOU WANTED TO TAKE THIS CLASS BUT GOT SCARED DUE TO OTHER REVIEWS- DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM.
No, there is not an extra 30 points of extra credit but this quarter alone he gave out like 12 points ec.
TAKE THIS CLASS.
I am a STEM major and this has been my favorite class thus far.

Do NOT take this class if you are basing it off of previous reviews because it has been completely changed this year. The professor grades extremely harshly on rules that aren't applicable outside of the classroom. A day or two before each essay, he'll randomly make up new rules or new structures that you have to apply to your essay. Missing any small mistakes or grammatical answers can result in you getting C's on your essays simply because each small mistake will be worth an entire point (each essay is around 15-25 points so the points add up). The lectures were more of discussions and were only interesting the first 2 weeks when he was actually teaching. If you are looking for an easy A or an interesting class, I suggest taking any other course.

This class was one of the best classes i have taken here at UCLA. Prof. Shorter is super engaging and funny. After some classes, I was literally at the edge of my seat, because the lecture was super interesting and eye-opening. You do not have to come out of the class believing in aliens, but I think one will gain deeper, valuable insight and understanding on existence, life, and what is considered "truth." But tbh, this class got me believing that aliens are real lol.

Prof. Shorter has high standards, though. Do not think that this will be an easy writing 2 course. You literally have to comb through your essays, looking at each and every line for possible mistakes and places where you can lose points. Plan on finish writing your essays a couple of days before the deadline. Then, proofread on your computer with Shorter's writing rules open. Ask your TA for help (shoutout to Christina for being the greatest TA!). Have a classmate peer edit your paper. Print out a hardcopy of your paper and further edit it. Then, literally read it out loud in your room and see if you can catch any mistakes. You can then copy and paste it into a text-to-speech program on the internet and have your computer read it to you. (Or if you have friends, you can ask them to read it out loud for you.) Despite the high writing standards, after taking this class, I feel like I became a much better writer and I feel confident in my writing skills going forward.

If you want to actually learn something valuable in your time at college, take WL ARTS 51W. Highly recommend!
If you want an easy A writing 2 course, this ain't it.

Professor Shorter is tough and has high expectations for his students, but he cares deeply about this course, his students, and being a great professor. He is very smart, and therefore has strong opinions, but he is also very willing to listen and change his epistemology if need be. You need to read and write a lot in this class, but it is worth it. Shorter also offers lots of extra credit opportunities. You will learn so much in this class. Highly recommend.

Great class! Professor Shorter is engaging and I promise you there is never a dull moment.
Selling all the books for this class
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I am a south campus major who does not have much writing experience or even consider myself as a below-average writer, but I thoroughly enjoyed this class. This class is definitely not as easy as before when the students had a lot of extra credit opportunities. I was afraid of entering this class because of the previous reviews, but I don't think you have to be too scared.
Grades are out of 100 points so if you get a total of 96 points, you get an A. Each point is worth one percent of your grade, so each point you lose on a paper is one percent gone. The grading scheme seems scary at first, but Professor Shorter provides extra credit points through pop quizzes (usually 2 points per quiz) and Capstone Workshops (~5 points). The pop quizzes are based on the readings and are quite tricky, but they can only add to your grade so don't worry. Think of the extra credit points as making up for mistakes you made on your papers. I did not get a lot of extra credit points in the class (~5) but I still got an A (I mostly got 0/ 0.5 points on the pop quizzes). Here is the grade breakdown:
Attendance (you can miss up to three days for full credit) - 15 points
Short Analysis (3 pages) - 15 points
Author Analysis I (5 pages) - 20 points
Author Analysis II (5 pages) - 20 points
Final Paper Introduction - 5 points
Final Research Projects (7 pages) - 25 points
Total: 100 points
Like others have said before, this is not an easy Writing II class. Papers are due every two weeks, so the class is very fast-paced. A large amount of reading is also assigned every week. Professor Shorter has high expectations and very strict guidelines for what he wants in a paper. However, he details them very clearly in his writing guide and college rule sheet. As long as you follow his rules, you should get a decent grade on his papers. His rules seem very tedious at first such as not using “it is” or any of its conjugated forms. You have to comb through your writing very carefully to find every single mistake. Another thing to add is that the final paper is graded even stricter than before. A mistake worth 0.5 points would be worth 1.5 on the final paper, so do not slack off. I recommend you to go to your TA's office hours to go through your papers and asks for their opinions. Your grade mostly depends on your TA, but they do grade it by the guidelines Professor Shorter provides. While I tell you this, I did not go to any of my TA's office hours but I still did fine on my papers ranging from one to two points being taken off per paper. However, I would have done a lot better and I would have been a lot less anxious if I asked my TA for help. All of the TAs are great at their job and genuinely cares about the success of the students.
As for the content of the class, it is very interesting and mind-opening. I have never been this interested or personally invested in a class at UCLA. Professor Shorter makes every single lecture entertaining; he jokes around and provides many personal anecdotes. The lectures feel like a discussion between him and the students. He told us many personal stories that allowed students to connect with him. He even organized a field trip where students could go "ghost-visiting" with him. At the end of the quarter, he shook every student's hand and this action greatly demonstrates his overall character. This class is much more about aliens, psychics, and ghosts even though we did learn a lot about these topics. This class is about learning about what we should consider as the truth and how to look at the given evidence. Professor Shorter has changed the perspective in which I view the world.
I highly recommend this class if you want to be in an extremely interesting class where you can build a personal connection with the professor. As a South Campus major, this class was very different from the classes I am accustomed to and it was quite hard for me. I am not used to writing so much, but his guidelines become easier to follow the more you write. The changes he asks you to make become natural for you as you write. His guidelines teach you how to become a better writer for the outside world. However, this class is not easy. I spent more time focusing on this class (~50%) than I did for my other two classes (including STEM). I would recommend you to take this class when you have an easier quarter because it is quite time-consuming if you are not used to writing. I promise you would have a lot to take away from the class as long as you keep an open mind.

Professor: Shorter really is an interesting person. Although he can seem one sided at times, Shorter genuinely cares about his students and makes himself relatively available, whether he responds to your email as thoroughly as possible or actually engages with you in his office hours. Though Shorter does remember faces and names so if you are dozing off in his class, which he understands from time to time or your that kid that sits in the back with nothing to contribute, Shorter will focus less time on you when you seek his help (which is understandable, he would rather go the extra mile for someone who actually is doing the work).

Work: Shorter assigns reasonable to large amounts of readings. Honestly, you are going to love some, you are going to be "eh" about some and then there are going yo be ones you just want to get over! Again, Shorter does understand this but he wants you to at least try and think what the assigned readings are trying to make you think about.

Lectures: About two hours long. Very interesting if you finished your readings. Try to take a nap or eat something before you go because the lectures tend to make you feel tired because Shorter dives deep into the material and will continue on with his agenda, respectfully, and keeping up with the Lecture can be exhausting. Note: There are no lecture slides posted online.

TA's: For Winter 2012 my TA was Peter Haffner and he was a really chill dude who has worked with Shorter before and knows that this class can come as a shock to some students and will work with you in class and out to help you get the grade you want.

Exams and essays: In-class midterm and final. Not simple regurgitating exams. Shorter advises you to use key terms that he has EMPHASIZED extensively throughout lectures. These exams have no surprises and Shorter and the TA's are not sneaky about grading. With that said, GRAMMAR GRAMMAR GRAMMAR!!!!!!!!! I cannot emphasize how much this can either boost your grade or bring down all your hard work.

Great class! Would highly recommend this class to all my friends.