AP/MODR1770 6.0 N: Techniques of Persuasion
Offered by: MODR
Session
Winter 2021
Term
W
Format
BLEN (Blended online and classroom)
Instructor
Calendar Description / Prerequisite / Co-Requisite
This is a skills-based course focusing on critical thinking, persuasive writing, and strategic argumentation. Examples are drawn from various forms of persuasion including advertising, propaganda and political argument. Course credit exclusions: AP/MODR 1730 6.00, AP/MODR 1760 6.00. Note: This is an approved LA&PS General Education course: Humanities OR Social Science.
Course Start Up
Course Websites hosted on York's "eClass" are accessible to students during the first week of the term. It takes two business days from the time of your enrolment to access your course website. Course materials begin to be released on the course website during the first week. To log in to your eClass course visit the York U eClass Portal and login with your Student Passport York Account. If you are creating and participating in Zoom meetings you may also go directly to the York U Zoom Portal.
For further course Start Up details, review the Getting Started webpage.
For IT support, students may contact University Information Technology Client Services via askit@yorku.ca or (416) 736-5800. Please also visit Students Getting Started UIT or the Getting Help - UIT webpages.
Jason Robinson
Course Instructor Contact: jasonro@yorku.ca
Times and locations: Please note that this is a course that depends on remote teaching and learning. There will be no in-person interactions or activities on campus despite the “blended” listing of the course. This section is fully online (ignore any posted “in-class” time listings given by the university course catalogue).
| Expanded Course Description:
This course emphasizes critical reasoning skills. These critical-rational skills are then applied to texts and issues on a variety of topics with the goal of gaining clarity of insight as well as formulating our own “reasoned” positions. We shall be taking an inter- and multi-disciplinary approach that draws on numerous disciplinary insights, theories, methods, and forms of research. Developing techniques of persuasion is “not” about emotional manipulation, propaganda, simple appeals to tradition or power and authority, or about naïve acceptance (a person showing a lack of judgment) of ideologies (popular ideas about politics, laws, the good life, etc.). Techniques of persuasion are skills related to thinking, writing, and otherwise communicating rationally/logically and critically/reflectively. In this course students will learn about the importance of being persuasive by providing good reasons for thoughts, actions, and beliefs. Being persuasive in a rational manner is of profound practical relevance. As social creatures we want people to listen to us and to believe what we say. This course will help you on both counts.
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Technical requirements for taking the course: Students will need a computer and reliable internet connection to access course content on Moodle and to complete assignments (quizzes/exams/submission of written work).
Thinking Clearly: A Guide to Critical Reasoning. Jill LeBlanc. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.
Contemporary Moral Arguments: Readings in Ethical Issues. Lewis Vaughn. New York: Oxford University Press.
Times and locations: Please note that this is a course that depends on remote teaching and learning. There will be no in-person interactions or activities on campus despite the “blended” listing of the course. This section is fully online (ignore any posted “in-class” time listings given by the university course catalogue).
Organization of the Course: Fully Online
The entire course, including the submission of assignments and test-taking, will take place on the course’s Moodle. Although we are technically scheduled to meet at particular times and days of the week, this course has no live meetings. Please ignore any posted “in-person” times/locations. Just like an online course, you can learn the course material at your own pace, following the schedule of readings and activities in the syllabus. Be sure to pay close attention to assignment due dates.
The ultimate objective of this course is practical—to provide students the opportunity to develop useful tools for reasoning (being persuasive) in any context. To that end, students will be shown important critical reading, writing, thinking, and problem solving skills needed to successfully navigate different knowledge claims. In addition to critical reading, thinking, and writing skills, there will be an emphasis on personal development, including the creation of competencies in fields/areas of research that are currently unfamiliar—thereby encouraging the ability to rationally consider others’ views on major issues as well as to challenge one’s own.
- Academic Honesty
- Student Rights and Responsibilities
- Religious Observance
- Grading Scheme and Feedback
- 20% Rule
No examinations or tests collectively worth more than 20% of the final grade in a course will be given during the final 14 calendar days of classes in a term. The exceptions to the rule are classes which regularly meet Friday evenings or on Saturday and/or Sunday at any time, and courses offered in the compressed summer terms. - Academic Accommodation for Students with Disabilities
