Course Instructor: Linda Carozza

lcarozza@yorku.ca

Virtual office hours: Zoom will be used for virtual office hours. Further information will be made available in eClass.

The general purpose of all the Modes of Reasoning courses (MODR) is to equip students with critical thinking and reasoning skills, which are invaluable to academic studies, a professional career, and life generally.

This course is an introduction to a series of reasoning skills, concepts, and techniques from a multidisciplinary stance. With content from the fields of philosophy, psychology, sociology, and conflict resolution, students are guided to: read or listen to others' ideas with an engaged mind; think critically about those ideas; develop strong arguments and ideas of one's own; and, verbalize those ideas clearly and concisely, orally and in writing. We apply various theories and skills to the analysis of timely arguments in popular science, the legal realm, politics, and ethics (to name a few), that are found in the mass media (e.g. newspaper columns, blogs, advertisements, social media, documentary films, Ted Talks, etc.).

Students should leave this course with theoretical knowledge, practical skills (listed below), and general awareness about persuasion tactics used within our culture.

The Power of Critical Thinking (5th Ed.), by MacDonald & Vaughn*

Is that a Fact by Battersby (2^nd Ed.)**

* This text will be available as a virtual rental through the course site. See the York University bookstore, or any book supplier, for a hard copy.

**An e-book is available through the York University bookstore.

All other material provided on eClass course site.

Participation – 15%

Quizzes – 25%

Argument Assignment – 15%

Inquiry Assignment (option to partner with peer) – 15%

Critical Analysis Project (team) – 30%

More specific information about assignments will be provided in the syllabus on eClass.

Times and locations: This is an online course - all lectures, tasks, assignments, meetings, and office hours will be held online through the course eClass site and Zoom. The course is mostly asynchronous, meaning you can choose when to log on weekly to review lecture material and when to complete assignments and quizzes.

• Weekly content will be made available on eClass on Wednesday afternoons.
• All deadlines fall on Wednesdays at noon. You are encouraged to submit work on Tuesdays so that you are prepared to start the new week on Wednesdays.
• Webinars (approximately 60 min) on Wednesdays at 2:30 p.m.

Please note that there will be no in-person interactions or activities on campus.

Synchronous Zoom Webinars and Office Hours

There will be live sessions on Zoom, approximately an hour in length held on Wednesdays from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. The first one will be Wednesday, September 15 at 2:30 p.m. EST. These weekly sessions will include a combination of recap’s of the week, to practice skills you learn in MODR 1730, to ask any questions you may have about the week’s material, etc. You are strongly encouraged to attend these sessions. To be as accessible as possible, for those of you who cannot attend, some of the synchronous Zoom meetings will be recorded. It is your responsibility to connect with another student to learn about activities that were not recorded.

Course policies

Submitting assignments on time

• Expected academic performance includes students not only completing assignments, but completing them on time.
• If you miss a quiz, for which you have 7 days to complete, there will be no opportunity to write it at a later date, regardless of circumstances.
• If you miss a participation task during the required week, there will be no opportunity to complete it at a later date, regardless of circumstances
• For major assignments there will be a deadline, however all students will have a (short) extension window to submit an assignment later without penalty (i.e. if you have accommodations, are ill, someone passes away, etc.). Each assignment’s instructions will have specific details.

To be successful in this course

• You must log on to eClass frequently
• You should be completing coursework every week
• You should be taking notes when you review video lectures - always
• You should be taking notes when you read the course material - always
• Critical Thinking and Reasoning requires practice. The textbook has chapter exercises that you should be answering in order to hone your skills.
• For an updated and helpful website with tips and tools, for writing, time management, and other necessary tools and skills for university success, see:       http://www.yorku.ca/spark/
• Take care of yourself. Balancing the academic, professional, family, personal, and other aspects of your life can be challenging at the best of times. Aim to create some balance in your life. You want to be healthy and rested when you tackle a full year course in half the time, remotely.

Regarding lecture content (e.g. videos, documents, etc.): students do not have

permission to duplicate, copy, and/or distribute content outside of the class. Doing so

violates copyright laws.

Regarding synchronous Zoom recordings: students do not have permission to

duplicate, copy, and/or distribute the recordings outside of the class. These acts

can violate not only copyright laws but also FIPPA. All synchronous webinar

recordings will be destroyed after the end of classes.

Technical requirements for taking the course: A higher internet speed is important to stream lecture material. In order to fully participate in this course students should have access to electronic devices that have video and microphone access. There will be synchronous sessions and office hours through Zoom.

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

Student Guide to eClass

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.]