Lectures are not mandatory nor are they really helpful. It's all about the sections – that's where you will be asked to heavily participate. The discussions are really interesting and the workload is super minimal.

100% recommend this class for any student--definitely my favorite class I've taken at UCLA so far. Manville is super helpful and teaches you skills like how to be persuasive, make effective arguments, avoid logical fallacies, and understand differing perspectives. The big assignment was picking a topic and arguing it as hard as we could from both sides through op-eds, then culminating in a policy memo where you picked a side. This project allowed me to explore a different position from a topic I feel strongly about.

I think my TA graded sort of harshly but I did well in the class overall. He doesn't give A+'s.