Course Instructor Contact: David Stamos at dstamos@yorku.ca

This is a skills-based course which focuses on skills that are essential for most of your university courses (and consequently can be expected to raise your grades in those courses). Specifically this means: conceptual analysis, fallacy analysis, argument structure analysis, premise analysis, essay style.

1) S. Morris Engel (2000). With Good Reason. 6^th edition. Bedford/St. Martin’s. ISBN 978-1457695957. I have not ordered this book through the bookstore. We will be using this book in the second quarter of the course.

This is for the purchase of a pdf copy (roughly only $6.00):

https://monsterbookstore.com/product/ebook-pdf-with-good-reason-an-

introduction-to-informal-fallacies-sixth-edition/

This is for the rent or purchase of a paper copy:

https://store.macmillanlearning.com/ca/product/With-Good-Reason/p /0312157584?searchText=Engel

2) Chris MacDonald and Lewis Vaughn (2016). York University Custom Edition: The Power of Critical Thinking. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-901536-8. We will be using this book for the fourth quarter of the course.

This book will be available in the bookstore as a paper copy (make sure you buy the edition for this course). An e-book version will also be available through the bookstore.

Conceptual Analysis Assignment (20%) – due at the end of the first quarter

Fallacy Analysis Test (15%) – at the end of the second quarter

Passage Analysis Assignment (20%) – due at the end of the third quarter

Article Analysis Assignment (25%) – due at the end of the fourth quarter

Participation (20%) – accumulated throughout the duration of the course

The Delivery of this Course:

This is a fully ONLINE course. What this means is that there are no times, locations, in-person activities, or interactions on campus for any of the lectures or coursework.

However, this course is scheduled for Wednesdays 7:00–10:00 p.m. What this means is that this is the day teaching videos will be available, homework will be due, major assignments will be due, and the online fallacy test will occur (at the end of the Fall semester, 7:00–8:30 p.m.)

The lectures will consist of teaching videos combined with what I call Skeleton Notes. There will not be any tutorials but there will be a weekly discussion forum in which we can all communicate with each other (ask and answer questions, etc.)

There will be a Participation mark, which will consist of viewing the lecture videos any time on the corresponding Wednesday and submitting homework any time on the corresponding Wednesday. All submissions will be to Moodle. There will also be teaching videos taking up the homework.

The major assignments will be due on a specified Wednesday, after which there will be late charges. All submissions will be to Moodle. The exact information for those dates will be specified in the Course Syllabus (which will be on Moodle before the start of the course).

The ability to apply to other courses what is learned/acquired in this course.

As this is primarily a skills-based course, not primarily a knowledge-based course, much of your learning will be from applications and practice. This is why the Participation grade is 20%. It is relatively easy to get 20/20 for this portion of the course (and even easier to get 0/20 if you don’t put in the time and do what is required). You therefore need to be able to commit yourself to putting in the time and doing the work per week.