At the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Define, recognize, and utilize forms of critical reasoning, including deductive and inductive reasoning, in a variety of rhetorical contexts.
2. Reflect critically on one's own thought processes to identify and avoid cognitive biases and common fallacies of language and thought.
3. Employ critical reading and research strategies to locate and evaluate complex texts, primarily non-fiction, representative of diverse experiences, perspectives, and forms of authority.
4. Evaluate and document evidence to construct arguments in a variety of rhetorical situations, distinguishing knowledge from belief and fact from judgment.
5. Draft written arguments to respond appropriately to texts, with attention to intended audience, purpose, and social context, and revise for clarity, cogency, persuasiveness, and soundness.

Reading:

1. Critically read, analyze, compare, and evaluate multicultural argumentative prose from across the curriculum.
2. Conduct rhetorical analysis of texts and identify a text's premises and assumptions in various social, historical, cultural, psychological, or aesthetic contexts.

Writing:

1. Demonstrate mastery in writing text-based arguments, including interpretation, evaluation, and analysis, and support them with a variety of appropriate textual evidence and examples.
2. Use and analyze basic modes of argument, such as inductive and deductive reasoning techniques, recognizing fallacies, analysis, interpretation, and synthesis.
3. Find, analyze, interpret, and evaluate research materials, incorporating them to support claims using appropriate documentation format without plagiarism.
4. Use style, diction, and tone appropriate to the academic community and the purpose of the specific writing task.
5. Apply theoretical models (such as sociological or historical theories) to a text.

Critical Thinking:

1. Identify logic of argument (premises and conclusions).
2. Demonstrate understanding of formal and informal fallacies in language and thought.
3. Employ meta-analysis to analyze and critique primary sources and their interpretations.

Develop writing and reading skills for logical reasoning and argumentation using primarily non-fiction texts. Minimum 5,000 words of writing which may include a combination of drafts, written peer response, and other forms of writing that inform students' inquiry-driven research and writing process. Students should revise and receive feedback from their instructor on at least one extended argument.

Reading:

1. Read and analyze at least three book-length, college-level texts in separate or anthology form
   1. Comprehend and evaluate a text's main themes
   2. Draw reasoned inferences based on close reading of a text
2. Conduct rhetorical analysis of texts
   1. Analyze varieties in voice, rhetorical style and purpose in non-fiction genres
   2. Identify and analyze rhetorical devices in connection with a text's main themes
   3. Establish cultural and historical contexts for a text and determine how those contexts shape that writing

Writing:

1. Demonstrate mastery in writing text-based arguments, including interpretation, evaluation, and analysis, and support them with a variety of appropriate textual evidence and examples
   1. Based on writing a total of at least 8,000 words: Text-based compositions the shortest of which will be 1000 words, requiring analysis and meta-analysis of complex issues, textual ambiguity, and multiple perspectives
   2. Practice writing both as a process of discovery and synthesis
   3. Draw connections that synthesize:
      1. Two or more texts
      2. The text(s) and the student's individual experiences and ideas
      3. The text and published critical responses to the text
2. Use and analyze basic modes of argument, such as inductive and deductive reasoning techniques, recognizing fallacies, analysis, interpretation, and synthesis
3. Find, analyze, interpret, and evaluate research materials, incorporating them to support claims using appropriate documentation format without plagiarism
4. Use style, diction, and tone appropriate to the academic community and the purpose of the specific writing task
   1. Develop advanced grammar, punctuation, and syntax, including editing for improved sentence variety and flow
   2. Identify and employ the conventions and strategies appropriate to writing within various disciplines
5. Apply theoretical models (such as sociological or historical theories) to a text

Critical Thinking:

1. Identify logic of argument (premises and conclusions)
   1. Distinguish denotation from connotation, the abstract from the concrete, and the literal from the inferential (including analogy, extended metaphor, and symbol)
   2. Draw and assess inferences and recognize distinctions among assumptions, inferences, facts, and opinions
2. Demonstrate understanding of formal and informal fallacies in language and thought
   1. Identify logic (premises/conclusions) and logical fallacies, such as syllogistic reasoning, abstractions, undefined terms, name-calling, false analogy, ad hominem, and ad populum arguments
   2. Recognize and evaluate assumptions underlying an argument
3. Application of rhetorical theories and critical schools (gender studies, queer theory, psychoanalytic criticism, critical race theory, etc.)

Not applicable.

Methods of evaluation used to observe or measure students' achievement of course outcomes are at the discretion of local faculty but must include at least one extended argument through draft and revision. Additional assessments could include, but are not limited to, peer evaluations, discussions, metacognitive reflections, presentations, quizzes, exams, projects, etc.
Write a total of at least 8,000 words: a minimum of three untimed, formal essays (in-class or online) and two timed, informal essay exams (in-class or online)
Additional assignments may include:
1. Class discussion in small and large group formats
2. Oral presentations
3. Quizzes and tests
4. Journals and portfolios
5. Social justice/service learning projects
6. Production of the students' own creative work

The instructor may deliver course material via lectures, discussions, and structured small-group exercises
When taught as a fully online course, the faculty shall employ one or more of the following methods of regular, timely, and effective student/faculty contact:
1. Private messages within the Course Management System
2. Personal email outside of the Course Management System
3. Telephone contact/weekly announcements in the Course Management System
4. Chat room within the Course Management System
5. Timely feedback and return of student work (tasks, tests, surveys, and discussions) in the Course Management System by methods clarified in the syllabus. Discussion forums with appropriate facilitation and/or substantive instructor participation
6. E-portfolios/blogs/wiki for sharing student works in progress; provide feedback from fellow students and faculty in a collaborative manner, and to demonstrate mastery, comprehension, application, and synthesis of a given set of concepts
7. Field trips

Materials shall be primarily non-fiction, are expected to represent culturally diverse perspectives, and will vary by individual institutions and sections. A writing handbook must be included. Open Educational Resources (OER) materials are encouraged.

Representative Writing Handbook:

Bullock, Richard, et al. The Little Seagull Handbook, 5th edition. W.W. Norton & Company. 2024.

Representative Textbooks:

Mills, Anna. How Arguments Work: A Guide to Writing and Analyzing Texts in College. OER Libretexts. 2022. How Arguments Work - A Guide to Writing and Analyzing Texts in College (Mills) - Humanities LibreTexts.

Rottenberg, Annette. The Elements of Argument. Bedford/St. Martins. 2021.

Paul, Richard, and Linda Elder. Critical Thinking. The Foundation of Critical Thinking. 2022.

Barnet, Sylvan. Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Bedford/St. Martins. 2022.

Booth, Wayne C., et al. The Craft of Research. U of Chicago P. 2024.

Foresman, Galen A., and Peter S. Fosl. The Critical Thinking Toolkit. Wiley-Blackwell. 2016.

One critical thinking text and at least three additional book-length college level texts of non-fiction literature presented either in separate or anthology form, to be supplemented at the instructor's discretion with additional readings, handbook, and/or rhetoric.

Suggested critical thinking, rhetoric, and research textbooks:

Haber, Jonathan. Critical Thinking. 2020.

Lunsford, Andrea, and John J. Ruszkiewicz. Everything’s an Argument. 2020.

Suggested OER textbooks:

Butler, Walter, Aloha Sargeant, and Kelsey Smith. Introduction to College Research. 2020.

Suggested non-fiction books and anthologies:

Clavin, Tom. All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard―Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy. 2020.

Collins, Patricia Hill. Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. 2019.

Cornejo Villavicencio, Karla. The Undocumented Americans. 2021.

Haber, Jonathan. Critical Thinking. 2020.

Harjo, Joy. Poet Warrior: A Memoir. 2021.

Kolbert, Elizabeth. Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future. 2021.

Loomis, Joshua. Epidemics: The Impact of Germs and Their Power over Humanity. 2020.

Mann, Charles. The Wizard and the Prophet. 2019.

McKibben, Bill. Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? 2019.

Vargas, Jose Antonio. Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen. 2018.

Washington, Harriet A. A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and the Assault on the American Mind. 2020.

1. Reading and discussion of non-fiction texts from across the curriculum
2. Timed essays based on analysis of assigned reading
3. Formal analytical, text-based essays based on analysis of reading and research