Professor
David Shorter
2 of 4
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2023 - I enjoyed this class, though people who meet him either love or hate his teaching style. He's a friendly and helpful professor if you attend his office hours. His teaching style prepares you for academic writing and makes every other paper after his class seem easy work. He makes all the class materials free and accessible to students, which is very nice.
Spring 2023 - I enjoyed this class, though people who meet him either love or hate his teaching style. He's a friendly and helpful professor if you attend his office hours. His teaching style prepares you for academic writing and makes every other paper after his class seem easy work. He makes all the class materials free and accessible to students, which is very nice.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - As an engineering major who took this class for fun alongside another writing 2 class, I can without a doubt say that this was the best course I have taken at UCLA. The class teaches you how to think and to question all the preconceived notions that you hold about topics like aliens. Shorter really makes you think outside your own worldview and really challenges you to question your own worldview. The class isn't even really about aliens, psychics, and ghosts per say. I would characterize the class as a referendum on how we acquire knowledge and choose what we believe and do not believe through the lens of alien encounters. Overall, I would recommend this class to anyone that can enroll because it will change your worldview for the better. Also come into the class with an open mind because your experience will be 100x better than those who are stubborn and not willing to question their worldview. Discussion sections were the most enriching discussions I have ever been a part of, which was amplified because of people's willingness to share and actually do the readings. Also TA Jackie Davis did not bring her own viewpoints into the section, which definitely allowed for free flowing and exciting discussions about lecture and the reading. I feel like the people who hated the class were not willing to even consider other viewpoints (literally the whole point of the class) and did not seek help from the TA during office hours for writing advice. I went into TA office hours and we went over my argument structure and which evidence I would use to prove each point. My TA (Jackie Davis) would discuss with you exactly which ideas are fleshed out and which ones could be more compelling. After this, just follow every small detail that Professor Shorter lays out to receive an A.
Fall 2018 - As an engineering major who took this class for fun alongside another writing 2 class, I can without a doubt say that this was the best course I have taken at UCLA. The class teaches you how to think and to question all the preconceived notions that you hold about topics like aliens. Shorter really makes you think outside your own worldview and really challenges you to question your own worldview. The class isn't even really about aliens, psychics, and ghosts per say. I would characterize the class as a referendum on how we acquire knowledge and choose what we believe and do not believe through the lens of alien encounters. Overall, I would recommend this class to anyone that can enroll because it will change your worldview for the better. Also come into the class with an open mind because your experience will be 100x better than those who are stubborn and not willing to question their worldview. Discussion sections were the most enriching discussions I have ever been a part of, which was amplified because of people's willingness to share and actually do the readings. Also TA Jackie Davis did not bring her own viewpoints into the section, which definitely allowed for free flowing and exciting discussions about lecture and the reading. I feel like the people who hated the class were not willing to even consider other viewpoints (literally the whole point of the class) and did not seek help from the TA during office hours for writing advice. I went into TA office hours and we went over my argument structure and which evidence I would use to prove each point. My TA (Jackie Davis) would discuss with you exactly which ideas are fleshed out and which ones could be more compelling. After this, just follow every small detail that Professor Shorter lays out to receive an A.
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Most Helpful Review
I took Aliens Psychics and Ghosts with Shorter and it was one of the coolest classes I've ever taken at UCLA. His lectures are interesting and the subject material (as you can imagine) is interesting/freaky/thought provoking. Shorter is a very engaging character who will keep you awake the entire time (guaranteed). Lectures are a combo of discussion of the reading, lecturing, and video/audio clips. There was a lot of reading that you'll have to do to take a lot out of this class, but it is worthwhile. It makes you want to keep reading. There were some short reading pop quizzes. The class focused upon a final research paper that counts for both a midterm and a final. He is a major stickler for writing, but I assure that you will end up writing one of the best research papers of your UCLA career. Anyhow, if you want to challenge yourself to learn about something you probably haven't thought about much, definitely take Shorter's class.
I took Aliens Psychics and Ghosts with Shorter and it was one of the coolest classes I've ever taken at UCLA. His lectures are interesting and the subject material (as you can imagine) is interesting/freaky/thought provoking. Shorter is a very engaging character who will keep you awake the entire time (guaranteed). Lectures are a combo of discussion of the reading, lecturing, and video/audio clips. There was a lot of reading that you'll have to do to take a lot out of this class, but it is worthwhile. It makes you want to keep reading. There were some short reading pop quizzes. The class focused upon a final research paper that counts for both a midterm and a final. He is a major stickler for writing, but I assure that you will end up writing one of the best research papers of your UCLA career. Anyhow, if you want to challenge yourself to learn about something you probably haven't thought about much, definitely take Shorter's class.
Most Helpful Review
I took his Aliens, Psychics and Ghosts class---Haha, I know, this can be difficult to think they'd offer a class like this at UCLA but they do. You know what, Shorter puts up a huge front in the beginning, but he's really not that bad. Yes, he has his methods of lecture that come off somewhat condescending, but his lectures force you to pay attention. He's actually just severely sarcastic, and that can come off as really funny. The readings were, different. I suppose as long as you have an open mind coming into this class, it's not so bad. I had to fight with a lot of the beliefs, because I'm sure individuals like myself, found it hard to take some of the topics very seriously because of lack of tangible proof. You really had to do the readings and attend lecture because he did pop quizzes and took attendance (sign-in sheet). Some people aren't fond of his grading or assignments because he has his way of writing the perfect paper (which is pretty much your entire grade on one paper)--but what teacher doesn't have their way of perfect writing? Just be like me, and keep on his ass about it. The more persistent you are, the more he'll respect you and help you. He's is approachable too, just go in and talk to him. Plus, after you hand in your final (the research paper), he gives you a cookie. I guess this is his peace offering to bitter or offended students, haha.
I took his Aliens, Psychics and Ghosts class---Haha, I know, this can be difficult to think they'd offer a class like this at UCLA but they do. You know what, Shorter puts up a huge front in the beginning, but he's really not that bad. Yes, he has his methods of lecture that come off somewhat condescending, but his lectures force you to pay attention. He's actually just severely sarcastic, and that can come off as really funny. The readings were, different. I suppose as long as you have an open mind coming into this class, it's not so bad. I had to fight with a lot of the beliefs, because I'm sure individuals like myself, found it hard to take some of the topics very seriously because of lack of tangible proof. You really had to do the readings and attend lecture because he did pop quizzes and took attendance (sign-in sheet). Some people aren't fond of his grading or assignments because he has his way of writing the perfect paper (which is pretty much your entire grade on one paper)--but what teacher doesn't have their way of perfect writing? Just be like me, and keep on his ass about it. The more persistent you are, the more he'll respect you and help you. He's is approachable too, just go in and talk to him. Plus, after you hand in your final (the research paper), he gives you a cookie. I guess this is his peace offering to bitter or offended students, haha.
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2 of 4
