Course Instructor Contact: Philip MacEwen, pmacewen@yorku.ca

This course is 1) an introduction to critical thinking 2) with a focus on techniques of persuasion. The critical skills include logical analysis, conceptual analysis, fallacy analysis, language analysis, and writing analysis. Using these critical skills, the techniques of persuasion we will study are advertising, argument, ideology, and propaganda.

MODR 1770N is an in-class course.

However, due to the ongoing threat posed by COVID-19, live lectures will be recorded via Zoom and posted on the course website.

The complete written text of the in-class lectures and tutorials will also be posted on the course website.

Should in-class courses be interrupted or cancelled due to COVID-19, MODR 1770N will be able to shift seamlessly to on-line delivery.

To access the resources of the course website, students will need a computer and/or smart device with stable, higher-speed Internet connection, and Zoom access.

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.]

There are no hard-copy required course texts/readings for MODR 1770N.

All the required course texts/readings will be posted on the course website.

Any optional readings will be on-line resources and referenced in the detailed Course Outline.

The detailed Course Outline will be posted at the top of the course website.

There will be five short, small-group writing assignments for the course, each worth 20% of the final grade (5 x 20%=100%).

Submitted assignments will be assessed according to the following criteria, each worth 33.33% of the grade: 1) content, i.e., what the submissions say; 2) organization, i.e., where the submissions say what they say, and style, i.e., how the submissions say what they say.

No grade will be assigned for attendance or participation, actual or virtual. However, students are encouraged to interact with course materials via in-class discussion and tutorials and/or discussion forums, chat rooms, and other venues.

Times and locations:

MODR 1770N will meet once each week during the F/W 2022-23 Semester, statutory holidays and the Fall 2022 and Winter 2023 Reading Weeks (October 8-14, 2022 and February 18-24, 2023) excepted.

In-class meetings will be held on Thursdays from 8:30-11:30 a.m. in R N203.

Should MODR 1770N transition to an on-line format, it will meet at the same time via Zoom.

Office hours:

Office hours for MODR 1770N will be held after each class in R N203. Classes will end early to allow for office hours thereafter.

Should the course transition to an on-line format, students should contact the Course Director via e-mail with course-related concerns.

The learning objectives of the course are twofold: 1) to gain facility with a variety of critical skills students will need to be successful in any academic or professional career 2) and to use these skills in studying advertising, argument, ideology, and propaganda as types of persuasive discourse.

Course policies:

The written lectures and tutorials for MODR 1770N, as well as the topics and matrices for the five short small-group writing assignments, will be posted on the course website before the course begins.

That way, students will be able to work ahead in the course should they wish to do so.

Students will also know in advance what the five writing assignments are, along with detailed guidelines on how to write them.

During the first week of the course, each student will be assigned to a small writing group (2-5 members) and given contact information for the other members of that group.

Please reach out to the members of your small writing group and get to know how they can contribute to the five required writing assignments.

Writing assignments should be submitted to the Course Director as e-mail attachments no later than the deadlines indicated in the detailed Course Outline.

Each participating member of each writing group will receive the same grade for the same assignment.

Participating members are those whose names and student numbers appear on the cover page of each assignment submitted to the Course Director by the writing group to which they belong.

Each writing group should select one member to submit assignments on its behalf. While writing groups may change who submits given assignments, in no case should more than one student submit a particular assignment on behalf of that writing group.

All assignments submitted to the Course Director must be copied to the participating members of the writing group concerned. That way, participating members will know if and when assignments have been sent to the Course Director.

Assignments which are not copied to the participating members of the writing group concerned will be returned to the sender without comments and without a grade.

Members of writing groups who do not participate in any or all of the five short writing assignments for the course will receive a grade of “0” for the relevant assignment/s.