COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will assist students in making responsible and effective contributions to intellectual discussions in a range of academic and other cultural settings. Students will be challenged to establish a strong foundation in critical reading, writing, researching, and reflecting. In a variety of rhetorical situations, students will also demonstrate their ability to express ideas and to craft and articulate arguments with and for other writers and readers.
To accomplish all of those goals, we need something to read, something to write and research about, something to reflect upon. In this course, that something will be power: who has it?; what do they do with it?; who has earned it?; who deserves it?.
This semester we will engage in Problem Based Learning, working to understand problems as groups, therefore collaboration is a key ingredient of success in this course, and you will be called upon to contribute to and learn from others on a regular basis. I urge you to demand from yourself and your colleagues a dedication to quality reading, stimulating writing, thoughtful researching, and deep thinking. The time and space are here for you to experience something special. Do your part!
To accomplish all of those goals, we need something to read, something to write and research about, something to reflect upon. In this course, that something will be power: who has it?; what do they do with it?; who has earned it?; who deserves it?.
This semester we will engage in Problem Based Learning, working to understand problems as groups, therefore collaboration is a key ingredient of success in this course, and you will be called upon to contribute to and learn from others on a regular basis. I urge you to demand from yourself and your colleagues a dedication to quality reading, stimulating writing, thoughtful researching, and deep thinking. The time and space are here for you to experience something special. Do your part!
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
- Develop process approaches to writing and speaking that include these key areas:
- Explore ideas and clarify one's thinking.
- Communicate ideas and knowledge to a range of audiences, including showing a critical understanding of the nature and function of "Standard English" as a set of shared and evolving conventions largely expected in academic and professional settings, and demonstrating competency in the use of these conventions when rhetorically called for.
- Reflect on ideas and learning.
- Respond to the work of others and revise own writing-in-progress.
- Understand course readings, in part, by posing questions and by drawing connections to other readings, in-class and virtual discussions, and other course material.
- Make effective arguments that include these key areas regardless of topic, medium for communication, or assignment type.
- Connect ideas and knowledge with those of other speakers and writers.
- Support the overarching learning outcomes for reading and arguing by developing information literacy practices, especially:
- Acknowledge and integrate other people's ideas (oral and written) ethically:
- Evaluate the relevance and quality of information, regardless the medium or type of source.
- Integrate the well-chosen evidence from information resources into original intellectual work.
- Employ evidence in way that enhance the rhetorical effectiveness of original intellectual work.
- Cite and document all pertinent evidence and information resources.
- Access a variety of information resources available through libraries like the Foley Center Library.