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.

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.

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.

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.

WAITLIST DOESN'T GET ENROLLED. Made an account just to help some homies. If you wanna confirm, call the World Arts Department. Here's the website (phone number found here): https://www.wacd.ucla.edu/

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.

I have so much to say about this class that I’ll break it down into sections for your ease. But first things first, this class isn’t really about aliens, psychics, and ghosts. Do not go in thinking that you’re going to come out a believer. You may, and we definitely covered content about different forms of evidence that can be considered, but he really uses Aliens, Psychics, and Ghosts as a medium to talk about culture and the world we live in. It's a method to another ends. We use these supernatural sources to talk about human rights, colonization, evidence, testimony, sexual assault, and so many other topics. You’ll be forced to question everything that you know, and wonder about the positivist education you’re receiving. You’ll probably have some bad existential moments where you feel sad about your place in the universe, and question why you do the things that you do, but this self-reflection is really important, and it makes this a truly worthwhile class. I won’t spoil too much, just know that you’ll leave with a new way of looking at and experiencing the world.
Professor: David Shorter is amazing. THE BEST lecturer that I have ever had. However, I’ll cover the lecture section later. I will say that he is a very eccentric personality. You will hate him at times, and you will love him at times. Sure he’s a great lecturer and is extremely engaging, but you will also hate all of his stupid writing rules. Some may say that he’s condescending, but I think that he’s hilarious. But the pros of this class outweigh the few negatives like the annoying grading rules.
Assignments/Grading: This class is graded on a straight scale. However, if you don’t get an A in this class, then it’s your own fault. You probably didn’t put in enough work. To get an A, you need above 91 points. There are 100 points available for the quarter. Fifteen points is from attendance, which is mandatory, although you can still miss a couple lectures and still receive full credit for that category. However, there’s also an extraordinary amount of extra credit. Literally over 20 points extra credit. If you put in the work, there’s no reason why you should not get an A. Of course, you do get points deducted like crazy. Watch out for the very first short analysis assignment. The average was somewhere around a 3/15, which will make people panic, but don’t worry, you can make it up with the extra credit. That first assignment is kind of a scare tactic to make you write better. He has a whole checklist of things to do and not to do, and if you follow them, then you do not lose point and you become better at writing. For example, no contractions. I literally was going to say “don’t” a line before, but Shorter’s training made me fix the contraction. There are lots of other points to watch out for such as use of “this is”, “there are”, run-ons, passive voice, etc. His checklist ensures clarity in your writing.
Workload: For a writing two class, the workload is very easy. You have one short analysis paper (3-5 pages), and then a final assignment that you build to. In this final assignment, you have an annotated bibliography (3-5 pages), you have an outline, you have a rough draft, a peer editor report, and then the final essay. They all revolve around the same topic, so it is really not that bad. The final paper is only 12 pages long which is definitely manageable and reasonable. The topics you get to talk about and do research on are extremely interesting, so I think that the assignments are very reasonable for a writing two class.
Lectures: This is why you take the class. THE BEST LECTURES I HAVE EVER HAD. First, this material is obviously a bit more interesting than most classes. All of the lectures go over class readings, and David gives so many good sources. We read Communion and the Super Natural by Whitley Strieber, and then Reinventing Medicine by Larry Dossey, plus random articles and sources that he pulls. I will say that this is a lot of reading, but you don’t have to do the reading. However, the class is so much more enriching if you actually do the readings. So many days I’d be overwhelmed with work to do, but I would still make sure to get my readings done because this was really a pleasure class that I wanted to get the most out of. You will first start out watching a bunch of videos, and the videos are cool and all, but the lectures are so much better. We literally just sit in a room for two hours and just talk. I literally have never leaned forward and listened so attentively in a lecture trying to write down everything that David said because it’s just so mind blowing! I’m sure you want to hear some examples, but it’s better if you just take the class and hear it from David. He’s a fantastic moderator, but he also knows how to play the audience. His best work is when he uses silence. He takes these long pauses to just let something he just said sink in. He is also quick on his feet and answer with a rebuttal in a dramatic yet convincing fashion. I don’t know if he has taken acting lessons before, but he knows how to work an audience. I never leave lecture not thinking “Wow!” about something I heard in lecture. Plus, we meditate too, which I really appreciated this quarter. He also has a killer taste in music. He’s shared his playlist for the quarter with us, and it is absolute fire. Each lecture is truly an experience, and I’m sad that it was only twice a week.
Discussion: You have to meet twice a week which kind of sucks. One class is dedicated to writing, while the other class is dedicated to class content. I had a fantastic TA, and a big part of your experience with the class is who is in your discussion sections. My TA fostered some really great conversations and provided lots of really interesting supplementary readings and sources, so I had a great experience. Plus, my discussion section had many people who had really insightful views that made discussion always worthwhile to go to.
This class is popular and legendary for a reason. If somehow you can get into the class, take it. You will not regret it. Easy writing two? Fantastic! Interesting material and engaging lectures? Perfect. The expansion in how you think and see the world? Priceless. This is a game changer. You’re never going to talk about that random English class you took in college, but you’ll definitely talk about this class. It’s a wild journey, and it’s by far the best class that I have taken at UCLA so far.

This was one of my favorite and most memorable classes at UCLA. I initially signed up because I needed a writing class, and had a general interest in science-fiction. However, I was really impressed by what I got out of this course. It's not just about writing- in fact, I would argue it's actually MOSTLY about learning to think in new ways and challenging the process of how we perceive information. I would definitely recommend the class and the professor. David Shorter is an engaging speaker and thinker.