Hilary E. Davis

hdavis@yorku.ca

Virtual Office hours: by appointment on Zoom

• The overall purpose of this and all Modes of Reasoning (MODR) courses is to teach students to reason correctly and to express themselves clearly and precisely in verbal and written form. These critical thinking skills will help students not only with the remainder of their academic studies, but also in their professional and personal lives in general.
• This course (MODR 1770) will introduce important critical thinking and analytical skills by focusing on arguments and other techniques of persuasion including propaganda and advertising. You will learn how to distinguish between inductive and deductive reasoning and how to identify, evaluate, and construct arguments.  You will be asked to develop arguments that arise from your personal interests and opinions as well as criticize arguments that assess the writing of others.  Throughout the course we will analyze various media such as the news and popular press, feature films, advertising and political rhetoric, blogs and websites, as well as academic writing and philosophical arguments in this field.

• This is an approved LAPS General Education course for Humanities or Social Science.

Course credit exclusions: AP/MODR 1730 6.00, AP/MODR 1760 6.00.  This means you may not take this course for credit if you are currently enrolled in or have a credit in either MODR 1730 or MODR 1760.

There will be two in-person tests, in our classroom.  There will be no online or remote option for these tests. If you know you will not be able to take these tests in person you should not take this course.

Technical requirements for taking the course:

To meet with Prof. Davis during her virtual office hours on Zoom, you will need a computer or smart device with webcam and microphone and a stable internet connection.  Zoom can be downloaded as an app on most smart phones.  Google chat is also an option for Prof. Davis’ virtual office hours.

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.

Lewis Vaughan.  Concise Guide to Critical Thinking, Third Edition.  (Oxford, 2024).  ($72.00 CD)

Additional readings may be posted on eClass

1. In-person Argument Basics Test                                                               = 25%

1. Definition Argument Essay                                                                        = 20%

1. In-person Article Analysis Test                                                                 = 20%

1. Rogerian Argument Essay                                                                          = 25%

1. In-class teamwork (weekly)                                                                       = 10%

       Total                                                                                                               100%

• Both essays are due at 11:59pm, EST on their respective due dates.
• Please note that this schedule of deadlines and grading breakdown is non-negotiable. The value of assignments will under no circumstances be reweighed or redistributed.

• All course materials are accessed through eClass.
• Class will meet in-person, weekly on Tuesdays between 2:30-5:20pm. You should view the video lectures and engage with the other course material prior to the Monday classes.  These classes will not be recorded.
• Students are expected to come to class prepared to do teamwork and other in-class activities. Classes will focus on developing critical skills in identifying, evaluating and constructing arguments about social issues and putting those skills into practice.  The class will combine review, team work exercises and assignments, presentations, and large discussions with the entire class.
• There will be two in-person tests, in our classroom. There will be no online or remote option for these tests.  If you know you will not be able to take these tests in person you should not take this course.
• To succeed in this class you must attend regularly and arrived prepared. This means having viewed all the lecture videos and material posted on eClass and having done the reading and any assigned homework.  Your textbook should be brought to each class along with all notes and homework.  Organized notes are also essential as well as a willingness to participate in group work and larger class discussions.  Attentiveness in class is also a must.

By the end of this course, if you apply yourself, do all the reading, watch all pre-recorded lectures, and complete all assignments, activities, and quizzes, you can expect to see improvement in the following areas:

• Reading Comprehension: You will become a more active reader which includes learning how to read between the lines and how to ask critical questions.
• Writing: You will learn how to write two different types of arguments – a definition essay and researched proposal essay.  Your essay planning, organization, and editing should also improve.
• Critical Reasoning Skills: You will learn to identify and evaluate arguments in order to distinguish strong from weak arguments.  This will include learning how to evaluate evidence and sources used in arguments and those you use in your own research.
• Critical Thinking Skills: Ideally, you will learn to become a 'reasonable skeptic' and become able to identify and discuss the weaknesses and strengths in claims and arguments you encounter in the media, academic texts, and everyday conversation.

Course policies

• The lecture slides, handouts, and all materials found on this site are for the personal use only of students who are registered in this course, MODR 1770F. They are for educational purposes only and intended only to enhance accessibility. The instructor of this course holds the copyright to this material and does not give permission for any course material to be to duplicated, copied, and/or distributed outside of the class.  Nor do students have permission to upload course materials to commercial websites, file sharing websites or apps, or social media.  Anytime you download material from this eClass site you agree to these terms. Any person who uploads or shares course material without the instructor's permission violates copyright regulations and also FIPPA  and will face serious consequences.

• In this course, all work should be completed by you and you alone. As such, you are not allowed to use generative artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT, to help you complete any of your work in this course (e.g., tests, papers, assignments, presentations, etc.). If you do not know whether an online resource or tool can be used in this course, please contact me for guidance. Any use of generative AI in this course will be considered a breach of the Senate Policy on Academic Honesty http://www.yorku.ca/policies/senate.
• Plagiarism and other misappropriation of the work of another will not be tolerated in this course.  Plagiarism is the representation of another person's ideas or writing as one's own. The most obvious form of this kind of dishonesty is the presentation of all or part of another person's published work as something one has written. However, paraphrasing another's writing without proper acknowledgement may also be considered plagiarism. It is also a violation of academic honesty to represent another's artistic or technical work or creation as one's own. Just as there are standards to which one must adhere in the preparation and publication of written works, there are standards to which one must adhere in the creation and presentation of music, drawings, designs, dance, photography and other artistic and technical works. In different forms, these constitute a theft of someone else's work. This is not to say that students should not use the work of others with the proper acknowledgement.  It is also a violation of academic honesty to forge another student’s signature on an attendance sheet.  Please see the Senate Policy on Academic Honesty at http://www.yorku.ca/policies/senate.
• Successful academic performance includes students not only completing assignments, but completing them on time. Late penalties are applied to assignments submitted after the due date. Exceptions to the late penalty can be presented to the course director by email for consideration. All essays must be uploaded to Turnitin via eClass.

• An assignment will be considered late one minute past the Turnitin deadline.

• You are strongly encouraged to avoid uploading assignments within the last hour of a deadline. If, for whatever reason, your document does not upload, it will be considered late.

• The tests will be in-person, in our classroom. There will be no online or remote option for these tests. If you know you will not be able to take these tests in person you should not take this course.
• No make-up work or outstanding assignments will be accepted after the last day of class, Wednesday, April 1st.