Catalog Description

Prerequisite: Completion of ENGL 1A with grade of "C" or better
Hours: 54 lecture
Description: Develops critical thinking, reading, and writing skills as they apply to textual analysis of primary and secondary sources, essays, articles, and book-length works from a range of academic and cultural contexts. Emphasis on the techniques and principles of effective written argument in research-based writing across the curriculum. Requires 6,500 words of formal writing. (C-ID ENGL 105) (CSU, UC)

Course Student Learning Outcomes

  • CSLO #1: Demonstrate logical and analytic strategies to interpret texts.
  • CSLO #2: Construct focused, developed and organized essays that exhibit research, analysis, and critical thinking skills.
  • CSLO #3: Develop MLA research skills to find, evaluate, and utilize appropriate sources.

Effective Term

Fall 2017

Course Type

Credit - Degree-applicable

Contact Hours

54

Outside of Class Hours

108

Total Student Learning Hours

162

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of the course, as measured through 6,500 words of assigned writing, the student will, through oral and written work:
1. identify and employ appropriate logical and analytic strategies to interpret assigned readings. To achieve this outcome, the student will be able to:
a. distinguish between fact, inference, and judgment;
b. identify, evaluate, and apply patterns of inductive and deductive reasoning;
c. recognize formal and informal logical fallacies;
d. distinguish between various disciplinary perspectives; and
e. identify and analyze cultural ideology, or unconscious biases/orientations.
2. Write analytic essays based on topics generated by assigned reading and class discussion, demonstrating the ability to:
a. develop and limit a topic;
b. clearly state a central thesis and develop an
organizational plan appropriate to the thesis;
c. select supporting material at all levels of generalization;
d. identify, analyze, and describe formal and informal logical fallacies;
e. recognize and write to an appropriate audience; and
f. use coherent, clear diction appropriate to the subject matter.
3. Employ research skills in the production of an independent research paper, including the ability to:
a. identify and employ library research resources and techniques of recording research;
b. evaluate resources; and
c. demonstrate discipline-specific methods of bibliography and documentation.

General Education Information

  • Approved College Associate Degree GE Applicability
    • AA/AS - Comm & Analyt Thinking
    • AA/AS - Reading Skills
  • CSU GE Applicability (Recommended-requires CSU approval)
    • CSUGE - A3 Critical Thinking
  • Cal-GETC Applicability (Recommended - Requires External Approval)
    • IGETC Applicability (Recommended-requires CSU/UC approval)
      • IGETC - 1B Crit Think Eng Comp

    Articulation Information

    • CSU Transferable
    • UC Transferable

    Methods of Evaluation

    • Essay Examinations
      • Example: Example 1: Essay Assignment #3 "Supporting Claims with Evidence": Choose any question between 2 and 8 on page 121-122 of "Strategies for Argument." Essay Length, 750-1000 words. Example 2: Responses to Readings: Emotional Appeals," "What a Lovely Generalization," and "Quit It, Ompremitywise." (500-750 words per response). Example 3: In Rovelli's Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (Riverhead 2016), read "Third Lesson: The Architecture of the Cosmos" (pp.23-30) and describe one effective and stylistically-engaging process analysis strategy. 750-1,000 words.
    • Projects
      • Example: Example 1: Term Research Project, open and/or directed topics, 3,750-5,000 words. Example 2: Group Research Project. Choose an issue from "Pros, Cons, & Maybes," "Data and Debate," in "Strategies for Argument" or an issue that interests you. In groups, you will write either an individual research paper or one paper for the entire group. In addition, the group will write a two-page summary of their analysis of the issue they chose and prepare a presentation for the class illustrating the issue. Summary Length, 500-750 words/Group Project Length, 3,750-5,000 words.
    • Reports
      • Example: Example 1: Analyze Nietzsche's "On Truth and Lies in a Non-moral Sense" and Berger's "Ways of Seeing." Then, in a 1,000-1,500-word essay, compare Nietzsche's and Berger's concept of truth to a movie's or TV advertisement's concept of truth (you may pick from the list of movies discussed in class). Use Nietzsche's and Berger's texts as primary touchstones to analyze and evaluate how truth functions throughout the movie or advertisement.

    Repeatable

    No

    Methods of Instruction

    • Lecture/Discussion
    • Distance Learning

    Lecture:

    1. Critical Thinking: Instructor will lecture and facilitate large group discussion to present context, issues, and concepts. Instructor will manage small group work to apply concepts, summarize and critique central ideas of essays and other readings, analyze concepts, synthesize concepts in discussion. Instructor will show students how, through research and directed study, to apply concepts to independent projects, analyze, select, and synthesize data, construct arguments and counter-arguments. Reading: Instructors will use lecture and large group discussion to set context, issues, and ideas from reading. Instructor will facilitate small group discussion to apply concepts to reading; summarize, critique, analyze, synthesize reading and concepts from reading. Instructor will facilitate activities/directed study in the form of on-going critical responses to reading. Writing: Lecture and large group discussion: Instructor will present models and options for writing.

    Distance Learning

    1. Through LMS, the Instructor will set up small group work: Peer review and editing (drafts); cooperative writing assignments (research/analysis of reading and issues); thesis formation. Instructor will promote activities, directed study: Essay assignments(including synthesis, argumentation, and rhetorical analysis); research essays; journals or other on-going responses as appropriate. Students are to actively engage in all online activities.

    Typical Out of Class Assignments

    Reading Assignments

    Readings in texts for methodologies, topics, prompts for written responses (summary, critique, analysis, synthesis, argumentation). Example: Using Evidence to Support Your Argument Read about what constitutes evidence and how to analyze evidence in the following essays: "The Example" by Munson, "Testing Data" by Zieglemueller & Duase, and "Who is That State Department Official Anyway?" by Gartner. Use the principles of evaluation presented in these essays to analyze the argument presented by Caroline Bird in "A Case Against College." Example: Read the following essays, which categorize and discuss the most common logical fallacies. "Emotional Appeals," by Beardsley, "What a Lovely Generalization," by Thurber, and "Quit It, Ompremitywise" by Wright. Example: Read "Fallacious Arguments" from Writing Logically, Thinking Critically, and apply what you've read, identifying the fallacious argument presented in the list of statements at the end of the chapter.

    Writing, Problem Solving or Performance

    Essays, response journals, in class exercises, research papers, revisions: Example: 1) Essay Assignment #3 "Supporting Claims with Evidence": After reading the assigned essays on education, choose one of the following questions for your essay. Be sure to support your argument with strong evidence. Essay Length 750-1000 words. 1. After reading Allan Bloom's essay "The Education of Openness," respond to the following prompt: Truth is a concept that students of argument must consider. Do you agree with Allan Bloom's first sentence? ("There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative")? What does that statement mean, that 'truth is relative'? Relative to what? Do you believe that truth is relative? If not, what do you believe about truth? Explain. 2. After reading Henry Rosovsky's essay, "The Educated Person," respond to the following prompt: Whether or not your college has such a requirement, argue in favor of or against requiring all students at your college to take a basic 'core' of courses in specified areas or subjects. Consider as your audience those students who would be affected (or are now affected) by such a program. Example: 2) Essay Assignment #4 -Recognizing and Avoiding Fallacies 1. After reading Michael Schudson's essay, "An Evaluation of Advertising," respond to the following prompt: Does advertising still 'wink at sexism or encourage it,' as Michael Schudson and others have argued? Argue your answer, supporting your reasons with evidence gleaned by examining a substantial number of recent advertisements. Alternatively, ask the same question with regard to racism.

    Other (Term projects, research papers, portfolios, etc.)

    Research Paper/Group Project Research Paper: "Analyzing the Issues." Group paper project. Choose an issue from "Pros, Cons, & Maybes," "Data and Debate," in "Strategies for Argument" or an issue that interests you. In groups, you will write either an individual research paper or one paper for the entire group. In addition, the group will write a two page summary of their analysis of the issue they chose and prepare a presentation for the class illustrating the issue. Research Paper Length: 5-8 pages if done individually: 15-25 pages if done as a group. Summary Length: 2 pages for the group.

    Required Materials

    • Everything's an Argument with Readings with 2016 MLA Update
      • Author: Lunsford, Ruszkiewicz, Walters
      • Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's
      • Publication Date: 2016
      • Text Edition: 7th
      • Classic Textbook?:
      • OER Link:
      • OER:
    • The Essential Guide to Research Writing across the Disciplines
      • Author: Lester, Lester
      • Publisher: Pearson
      • Publication Date: 2015
      • Text Edition: 6th
      • Classic Textbook?:
      • OER Link:
      • OER:
    • MLA Handbook
      • Author: MLA Editors
      • Publisher: Modern Language Association
      • Publication Date: 2016
      • Text Edition: 8th
      • Classic Textbook?:
      • OER Link:
      • OER:
    • TEDTALKS: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking
      • Author: Anderson
      • Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
      • Publication Date: 2016
      • Text Edition: 1st
      • Classic Textbook?:
      • OER Link:
      • OER:
    • Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
      • Author: Rovelli
      • Publisher: Riverhead Books
      • Publication Date: 2016
      • Text Edition: 1st
      • Classic Textbook?:
      • OER Link:
      • OER:

    Other materials and-or supplies required of students that contribute to the cost of the course.

    Purdue Online Writing Lab: PurdueOWLhttp://owl.english.purdue.edu Book-length research models(s), e.g. Agus's The Lucky Years (2016); Koppel's Lights Out, A Cyberattack (2015); Pollan's Cooked (2013); Horowitz's Inside of a Dog (2010); Thoreau's Walden (1854)