AP/MODR1730 6.0 A: Reasoning About Social Issues
Offered by: MODR
Session
Summer 2025
Term
SU
Format
ONLN (Fully Online)
Instructor
Calendar Description / Prerequisite / Co-Requisite
This is a skills-based course focusing on critical thinking, research-based writing, and qualitative and quantitative analysis. The particular focus will be on different positions taken within the social sciences on issues such as abortion, euthanasia, pornography, immigration etc. Typical examples are to be analyzed. Course credit exclusions: AP/MODR 1760 6.00, AP/MODR 1770 6.00.
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 UIT Student Services or the Getting Help - UIT webpages.
Professor Philip MacEwen
pmacewen@yorku.ca
Virtual office hours: Students should contact their Tutorial Leaders about virtual office hours. Contact information for Tutorial Leaders is at the top of the Course Outline which will be posted on the course website when the website is activated.
This course addresses a number of contemporary social issues, using the critical skills developed in the first part of the course. These critical skills included 1) logical analysis, 2) language analysis, 3) fallacy analysis, 4) conceptual analysis, and 5) writing analysis.
This course is entirely on-line and asynchronous. In other words, there are no lectures times or course meetings. Instead, course material will be available to students via the course website which they should access regularly, i.e., several times each week at their while the course is in session. Once the course website is active, students can access it by logging into their student accounts and clicking on MODR 1730 6.0A.
All the required texts/readings are posted on the Course Website.
The course is weighted on five short small-group writing assignments, each worth 20% of the final grade. Writing groups will consist of no more than 5 students each, all of whom will be in your tutorial.
The first half of the course is devoted to studying critical skills 1-5. The second half of the course uses critical skills 1-5 to address a number of contemporary social issues.
This course is designed to help students improve their reasoning skills, an essential component of becoming successful professionals.
All the writing assignments will be graded by your Tutorial Leader. Grades will come with detailed comments provided by your Tutorial Leader. Assignments must be submitted to your Tutorial Leader by the dates indicated in the Course Outline. Tutorial Leaders will indicate to their students at the beginning of the course how they wish their students to submit their assignments (e.g., Turnitin, Email, etc.). Late assignments will be accepted without penalty up to a week after the deadline for the assignment concerned, but no comments will be provided. Thereafter, late assignments will be assigned a grade of “0”, medical, legal, or other outstanding reasons excepted.
- 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
