McMahon English 1C Critical Thinking Syllabus Fall 2016 (Peer Edit Included)
Email: jmcmahon@elcamino.edu
Office: H121P; extension 5673
Office Hours: M and W: 2:45-3:45 and 5:30-6; T and TH 12:30-1 and 3:30-4:15
Students with Disabilities:
If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible.
Course Catalog Description:
This course focuses on the development of critical thinking skills. Students will apply these skills to the analysis of written arguments in various forms and genres, both classic and contemporary, and to the writing of effective persuasive essays. Students will learn to evaluate and interpret data, to recognize assumptions, to distinguish facts from opinions, to identify and avoid logical fallacies, to employ deductive and inductive reasoning, and to effectively assert and support argumentative claims.
Course Objectives:
- Evaluate arguments in terms of bias, credibility, and relevance.
- Assess an argument's claims by examining assumptions, by differentiating between facts and inferences, by recognizing errors in logic, by analyzing support, and by identifying both explicit and implied conclusions.
- Recognize and assess argumentative claims embedded in literary works, advertisements, political tracts, and presentations in other media.
- Express critical viewpoints and develop original arguments in response to social, political, and philosophical issues and/or to works of literature and literary theory.
- Demonstrate the ability to evaluate electronic sources and databases, to incorporate research from on-line and print media, and to compose unified, coherent, fully supported argumentative essays that advance their claims by integrating primary and secondary sources, and by employing the tools of critical interpretation, evaluation, and analysis.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, students will:
- Compose an argumentative essay that shows an ability to support a claim using analysis, elements of argumentation, and integration of primary and secondary sources.
- Identify and assess bias, credibility, and relevance in their own arguments and in the arguments of others, including primary and secondary outside sources.
- Write an essay that is correct in MLA format, paragraph composition, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and usage.
Essay Requirements (based on 6,000 words):
One. Students will express critical viewpoints and develop original thesis-driven arguments in response to social, political, and philosophical issues and/or to works of literature and literary theory. This argumentative essay will be well organized, demonstrate an ability to support a claim using analysis and elements of argumentation, and integrate primary and secondary sources.
Two. The paper should use at least three sources and not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.
Three. This paper will be approximately 5-6 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required. The Works Cited page does NOT count toward length requirement.
Four. Within your argument, address issues of bias, credibility, and relevance.
Five. Analyze and employ logical structural methods such as inductive and deductive reasoning, cause and effect, logos, ethos, and pathos, and demonstrate understanding of formal and informal fallacies in language and thought.
Six. You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.
Seven. You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.
Eight. You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Course Catalog Description:
This course focuses on the development of critical thinking skills. Students will apply these skills to the analysis of written arguments in various forms and genres, both classic and contemporary, and to the writing of effective persuasive essays. Students will learn to evaluate and interpret data, to recognize assumptions, to distinguish facts from opinions, to identify and avoid logical fallacies, to employ deductive and inductive reasoning, and to effectively assert and support argumentative claims.
English 1C Grammar Policy and Grading
Students in English 1C are expected to write clear, college-level essays with logical paragraph composition and sentence structure as well as correct grammar, spelling, word usage, and punctuation. If you feel you cannot be successful in this class due to struggles with grammar or other elements of essay composition, please see the instructor as early as possible to discuss resources and strategies for your improvement.
Policy on Plagiarism
Any attempt to commit fraud, misrepresenting someone else’s writing as your own, including turning in essays from previous semesters, will result in an automatic F grade, zero points, which mathematically, will disqualify you from earning a grade higher than a C for the semester. You will not be allowed to rewrite for a higher grade and because of the breach of trust it will be preferred that you drop the class. I will use turnitin to investigate plagiarism.
Each essay must be submitted to www.turnitin.com where it will be checked for illegal copying/plagiarism.
I cannot give credit for an essay that is not submitted to this site by the deadline.
The process is very simple; if you need help, detailed instructions are available at http://turnitin.com/en_us/training/student-training/student-quickstart-guide
You will need two pieces of information to use the site:
Class ID and Enrollment Password, which I’ll give you first week of class.
Late Essays Are Deducted a Full Letter Grade
You cannot turn in a late paper more than a week after the due date.
You Cannot “Ride” the Class
You cannot miss over 10 percent of the classes while not keeping up with the assignments because you are not fulfilling the Student Learning Outcomes. Therefore, you will have to be dropped if you are “riding” the class.
Books You Need for This Class:
One. The Story And Its Writer, edited by Ann Charters, 9th edition
Two. From Critical Thinking to Argument, by Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau, 4th edition
Three. Rules for Writers, 8th edition, by Diana Hacker
Other Materials: 4 large blue books for in-class writing exams
All 4 Typed Essays Need 3 credible sources to be used for in-text parenthetical citation and MLA formatted Works Cited page.
All four essays are 1,500 word typed and double-spaced.
Essays 1-3 from The Story And Its Writer, 9th Edition
Essay One Is Due September 21: Choose One:
Option 1: Comparing “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and “Winter Dreams,” develop an analytical thesis about the American Success Myth. (teach with Laurence Shames’ The Hunger for More)
Option 2: Comparing “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and “The Overcoat,” develop an analytical thesis about impoverishment through substitution.
Option 3: Comparing “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and “The Overcoat,” develop a thesis that defines the distinguishing characteristics of being unhinged.
Essay Two Is Due October 19: Choose One:
Option 1: In the context of “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” develop an analytical thesis that explains Nathan Englander’s strategies, and the success or failure of those strategies, for writing “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.”
Option 2: Comparing “Sonny’s Blues” and “Cathedral,” develop an analytical thesis about spiritual death and resurrection.
Option 3: For "Sonny's Blues," develop an analytical thesis about the narrator's struggle with nihilism.
Option 4: Develop an analytical thesis that compares the ways “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” and “The Hunger Artist” are condemnations of philistinism.
Option 5: Develop an analytical thesis that compares the ways “The Swimmer” and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” are indictments against the cult of perpetual adolescence.
Essay Three Is Due November 16: Choose One
Option 1: Drawing from “Battle Royal,” “Those Who Walked Away from Omelas,” “The Lottery,” and “Harrison Bergeron,” support, refute, or complicate the argument that evil is not is not so much generated from the individual as is it created by the masses as a tribalistic, idealistic force. Consider, for example, how the privileged class exploits, scapegoats, and sacrifices an underclass for the upper class’s benefits. Or consider the manner in which those in power have misguided notions of what defines utopia and the mangled path they create to reach that utopia. Also consider the other side of the argument: That it is individuals who create these fractured utopias and the hellish schemes to reach them and that without the cult of the individual evil would have no power over the masses.
Option 2: Support, refute, or complicate the argument that the moral relativism we glean from “The Lady with the Dog” is superior to the moral absolutism evident in “Young Goodman Brown.”
Option 3: Support, refute, or complicate the argument that while Hulga from “Good Country People” is not a serial killer, she exists on the same “evil scale” as the Misfit from “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
Option 4: Compare the themes of tribalism and Groupthink in “Battle Royal” and “Brownies.”
Option 5: Write a psychoanalysis of the husband in Tobias Wolff’s “Say Yes.”
Essay Four: From Critical Thinking to Argument Due December 14
Choosing a debatable topic that we’ve covered in class or another current topic of your choice, utilize the argumentative principles in our text From Critical Thinking to Argument to write a 4-page argumentative essay.
Grading Based on 6,000 words
First 3 1,500-word essays are worth 100 points each.
Fourth essay, your Final, is 1,500 words and worth 200 points.
Every essay must have a completed typed first draft for peer edit day. This typed draft is worth 25 points.
Total Points: 600
Attendance and Class Participation
Deductions of 50 for more than 4 absences or more than 3 tardies; repeated use of smart phone in class or leaving class repeatedly to "take a call."
More than 5 absences or more than 4 tardies is a loss of 100 points. These rules are designed so that we will be complaint with Title 5 Contact Hour Laws prescribed by the State of California.
Reading and Writing Schedule
8-29 Introduction: What is critical thinking? Why “Bartleby”?
8-31 “Bartleby, the Scrivener” 886
9-5 Holiday
9-7 “Winter Dreams” 474
9-12 “The Overcoat” 546
9-14 “The Overcoat” continued
9-19 Peer Edit for Essay 1 (bring typed draft to class)
9-21 Essay 1 Due; “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” 521
9-26 “The Hunger Artist” 710
9-28 “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” 227
10-3 “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” 430
10-5 “Cathedral” 200
10-10 “Sonny’s Blues” 40
10-12 “The Swimmer” 253; “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” 977
10-17 Peer Edit for Essay 2
10-19 Essay 2 Due; “Those Who Walked Away from Omelas” 814
10-24 “Harrison Bergeron” 1306; “The Lottery” 624
10-26 “The Lady with the Dog” 271; “Young Goodman Brown” 578
10-31 “Good Country People” 1016
11-2 “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” 1031
11-7 “Battle Royal” 418
11-9 “Brownies” 1081 and “Say Yes” 1359
11-14 Peer Edit for Essay 3
11-16 Essay 3 Due; Tentative Topics: Is college worth it? FCTA Chapter 1
11-21 FCTA Chapters 2 and 3; Developing a Thesis and Evaluating Sources: Is College Worth It? (continued)
11-23 FCTA Chapters 4 and 5: Is the Anti-Vaxxer Movement Defensible?
11-28 FCTA Chapters 6 and 7: From Summary to Thesis: Is Watching the NFL Morally Defensible?
11-30 FCTA Chapters 8 and 9: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos; Introductions and Conclusions: Is America Doomed to be a “Gun Country”?
12-5 Should we accept Syrian refugees?
12-7 Are we unfairly demonizing autistic people as being dangerous in an age of rage shooting?
12-12 Peer Edit for Essay 4
12-14 Final Essay 4 Due
Peer Edit for Typed Essay (First Draft)
First Page
- Do you have a salient, distinctive title that is relevant to your topic and thesis?
- Do you have your name, instructor’s name, the course, and date (in that order) at the top left?
Format
- Are you using 12-point font with Times New Roman?
- Are your lines double-spaced?
- Is your font color black?
- Do you make sure there are no extra spaces between paragraphs (some students erroneously use 4 spaces between paragraphs)
- Do you use 1-inch margins?
- Do you use block format for quotes of 4 or more lines in which you indent another inch from the left margin?
Introduction
- Does your introduction have a compelling hook using an anecdote, a troubling current event, a startling statistic, etc.?
- Do you avoid pat phrases or clichés? For example, “In today’s society . . .” or “In today’s modern world . . .” or “Since the Dawn of Man . . .”
Thesis
- Do you have a thesis that articulates your main purpose in clear, specific language?
- Is your thesis sophisticated in that it makes an assertion that goes beyond the obvious and self-evident?
- Is your thesis debatable?
- Do you address your opponents with a concession clause? (While opponents of my proposal to raise the minimum wage to $22 an hour make some compelling points, their argument collapses when we consider _____________, _______________, __________________, and ________________. )
- Does your thesis have explicit or implicit mapping components that outline the body paragraphs of your essay?
Questions from Your Reader (write on a separate page so you’ll have more room to write)
One. What’s most compelling about the essay so far?
Two. What is most needed for improvement so far?
Three. Something I would like the writer to explain more is . . .
Four. One last comment would be . . .
Five. What is the writer’s thesis?
Six. On a scale of 1-10, how compelling is the thesis and what could make it more compelling?
Seven. On a scale of 1-10, how effective is the title? Could it be improved? How?
Eight. Does the writer have well developed paragraphs with clear topic sentences?
Nine. Does the writer use a diversity of paragraph transitions?
Ten. Does the writer use diverse and appropriate signal phrases?
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