Philip Macewen
pmacewen@yorku.ca

This course studies some of the major techniques of persuasion using the critical skills developed in the first part of the course. These critical skills included 1) logical analysis, 2) language analysis, 3) fallacy analysis, 4) conceptual analysis, and 5) writing analysis.

Technical requirements for taking the course: Students will need a computer with high-speed Internet. They will not need a computer with webcam and microphone, and/or a smart device with these features.

Here are some useful links for student computing information, resources and help:

Student Guide to Moodle

Zoom@YorkU Best Practices 

Zoom@YorkU User Reference Guide

Computing for Students Website

Student Guide to eLearning at York University

To determine Internet connection and speed, there are online tests, such as Speedtest, that can be run.]

Times and locations: This course is entirely on-line. In other words, there are no in-class lectures, tutorials, or course meeting times. Instead, all course material will be available to students via the course website which they should access regularly, i.e., several times each week at their convenience. Once the course website is active, students can access it by logging into their student accounts and clicking on MODR 1770 6.0A.

Virtual office hours: If students have issues or concerns about the course, they should contact the Course Director, pmacewen@yorku.ca  Almost every concern will be addressed before it arises during the weekly lectures and tutorials and in the weekly required texts/readings, all of which are posted on the course website (see next item).

All the required texts/readings are posted on the course website.

There are five short small-group-writing assignments, each worth 20% of the grade. Each writing group will consist of no more than 5 students

This course is divided into two parts. In the first part, we will study the nature of reasoning. In the second part, we examine some of the major techniques of persuasion, equipped with the requisite reasoning skills. Each week, the Zoom lectures and tutorials for that week will be posted on the course website. Students should log on to the course website regularly to access the Zoom lectures and tutorials.

This course is designed to help students improve their reasoning skills, an essential component of becoming successful professionals.

Course policies:

1. Final grades will be posted on-line within a few days after the official final day of classes for SU 2026 (Tuesday, August 4). You may access your final grade by logging on to your student account and following the relevant link/s.

Additional Information: All the five required writing assignments will be graded by Marker-Graders. Graded assignments will come with comments. Assignments must be submitted to the Marker-Graders by the dates indicated in the Course Outline. Late assignments will be accepted without penalty up to a week after the deadline for the assignment concerned, but no comments will be provided. Thereafter, late assignments will be assigned a grade of “0”, medical, legal, or other outstanding reasons excepted. Students will receive the contact information of the members of their Writing Group as soon as the add deadline for the SU 2026 Semester (Monday, May 11) has passed along with instructions on how they are to submit their assignments to their Marker-Graders (e.g., Turnitin, E-mail, etc.).