Prof. Julie A. Allen, PhD

allenj@yorku.ca

Regular Office hours: Rm 445S Ross,  Mondays 1pm-2pm &

Wednesdays 10am-11am

IN PERSON CLASS
(Lecture materials will be delivered in person)
Attendance is mandatory & highly beneficial

This is a skills-based course focusing on critical thinking, critical writing, and logical and linguistic analysis. The course uses examples drawn from areas in the humanities where value judgments are made. The first two thirds of the course will focus on arguments — their structure, type, construction and evaluation. This portion of the course will also include an emphasis on the identification of fallacious forms of arguments. The final portion of the course will focus on passage analysis and applying the analytical skills to a range of writings drawn from philosophy, literature, history, politics, and various forms of media. Students will learn a set of techniques for tackling vague and ambiguous concepts and students will develop their own writing and argumentation skills. We will consider both legitimate, rationally justified forms of persuasion, illegitimate forms of persuasion such as fallacies, as well as some borderline forms of persuasion, such as propaganda, rhetoric, manipulation, and fake news.
The overall purpose of this and all Modes of Reasoning (MODR) courses is to teach students to reason correctly and to express themselves clearly and precisely in verbal and written form. These critical thinking skills will help students not only with the remainder of their academic studies, but also in their professional and personal lives in general.
This course (MODR 1770) will introduce important critical thinking and analytical skills by focusing on arguments, and other techniques of persuasion. You will be asked to develop arguments that arise from your personal interests and opinions as well as criticize arguments and assess the writing of others.

This is an approved LAPS General Education course which counts as either a Humanities Gen. Ed or  a Social Science Gen. Ed.

Prerequisite / Co-requisite: None.  Note: Students are only permitted to count one Modes of Reasoning course towards degree credit.

The Power of Critical Thinking

Fifth Canadian Edition  (available in Print or as an eText)

By: Chris MacDonald; Lewis Vaughn

• Publisher: Oxford University Press Canada

Print ISBN: 9780199030439, 019903043X

eText ISBN: 9780199030484, 0199030480

This text is absolutely required for success in the course.  It may be purchased either through the York Bookstore or directly from Oxford University Press.

Additional topical articles and materials be posted on the course eClass page.

• Test One                                                                        15%
• Test Two                                                                        15%
• Test Three                                                                     15%
• Essay outline + Short essay                                    15%
• Class Participation, Homework, group discussion, &   

specific participation assignments                                15%   

• Final Writing assignment                                         25%

Times and location:  Mondays, 2:30 – 5:30,  SC 224 

Each week’s readings and activities should be completed each week before moving on to the next Chapter/Topic.  Homework assignments, and forum discussion posts, and any group work will also be due on a weekly basis.

All required elements, including lecture materials, will be presented in class, with assignment answers and power point slides to be accessed via eClass. The submission of assignments to Turnitin.com of papers and assignments will be done via eClass.  The course Text and the Online Text Supplement “Dashboard” for The Power of Critical Thinking 5^th ed. CANADIAN.   This online resource “Dashboard” available from Oxford University Press, is a free accompaniment to the Text and provides students with additional learning materials.

• You can learn the course material at your own pace, following the schedule of readings and activities for each week. That said, there are deadlines for HOMEWORK, TESTS and ASSIGNMENTS that you should strive to complete these promptly..  Textbook homework is intended to prepare you for tests and quizzes.  Homework for each chapter should be completed and answers should be checked as we progress through the material.
• Since this is a skills-based course, it is a grave mistake to procrastinate and undertake course work only immediately before tests and assignments are due. It is crucially important for successful completion of the course that students work through materials, attend lectures, and do the readings and homework exercises on a WEEKLY BASIS.
• Tests and quizzes may be held via eClass. The mode of testing (in-person or eClass) will be announced in advance.  For eClass tests, students will require a stable internet connection.

• All deadlines and launch times are Eastern Standard Time.

• Virtual office hour appointments, by appointment will be conducted via Zoom.

• In person office hours are:

 Mondays 1:00-2:00pm &

 Wednesdays 10:15am – 11:15am

By the end of this course, if you apply yourself, complete all of the readings, and complete all assignments, activities, and quizzes, you can expect to see improvement in the following areas:

• Reading Comprehension: You will become a more active reader which includes learning how to read between the lines and how to ask critical questions.
• Writing: You will learn how to present different types of arguments..  Your   essay planning, essay organization, and essay editing should also improve.
• Critical Reasoning Skills: You will learn to identify and evaluate arguments to distinguish strong from weak arguments.  This will include learning how to evaluate evidence and sources used in arguments and those you use in your own research.
• Critical Thinking Skills: Ideally, you will learn to become a 'reasonable skeptic' and become able to identify and discuss the weaknesses and strengths in claims and arguments you encounter in the media, academic texts, and everyday conversation.

A tentative schedule of readings and topics will be posted separately within eClass.  Homework exercise requirements will be posted weekly.

Course policies

The lecture slides, handouts, and all materials found on this site are for the personal use only of students who are registered in this course, MODR 1770C. They are for educational purposes only and intended only to enhance accessibility.  The instructor of this course holds the copyright to this material and does not give permission for any course material to be duplicated,  and/or distributed outside of the class.  Nor do students have permission to upload course materials to commercial websites, file sharing websites such as course hero, apps, or social media.  Anytime you download material from my eClass site you agree to these terms. Any person who uploads or shares course material without the instructor's permission violates copyright regulations and also FIPPA and will face serious consequences.

• Students do not have permission to record and capture images from Zoom office hours.

• Successful academic performance includes students not only completing assignments but completing them on time. Late penalties are applied to assignments submitted after the due date. Exceptions to the late penalty can be presented to the course director by email for consideration. All essays must be uploaded to Turnitin via Moodle. Turnitin is used to ensure academic honesty.  Purchased essays, downloaded essays, cutting and pasting from internet sources will be detected using various methods and those guilty of academic dishonesty/ plagiarism will face serious consequences and academic discipline.  All forms of cheating are morally wrong.

Without a valid excuse all late assignments will be penalized 5% per day.