Instructor: Chris Richter
Office: 207 Pleasants Hall; Phone: x6358
Office Hrs: M & W 1:30-3:30 p.m.;
Th 4:15-4:45 p.m. and by appointment

Course Objectives:
This course is designed to help you develop argumentation and  critical thinking skills. In particular you will:
1. Learn theories of argumentation;
2. Develop your critical thinking skills with regard to logic and appropriate use of evidence;
3. Develop your writing, oral presentation and research skills;
4. Apply all of the above in the process of crafting, presenting and critiquing arguments.

Required Reading
The textbooks for this class are:
Rybacki, K. C. & Rybacki, D. J. (2000). Advocacy and opposition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. ("Rybacki" in schedule)

Wood, N. V. (1998).Writing argumentative essays. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall. ("Wood" in schedule).

In addition, all students are required to subscribe to the daily New York Times (available through the bookstore).

Electronic Resources:
APA guide to citing electronic references: http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html

Policies:
Attendance: This is a highly participatory class. Lecture and discussion involve important concepts not covered in the readings, and will also involve activities which will help develop your argumentation, oral presentation and writing skills. Thus, regular attendance is expected. You are permitted two absences. Use your two absences wisely. More than two absences for any reason will result in your grade being lowered. On any day marked with an "*" in the schedule below, attendance is required of all students

Assignments:
In this course you will prepare a variety of assignments. A brief description of each, and point distributions, are presented below. More detailed descriptions of assignments will be linked to this web page and discussed in class. (NOTE: assignments and schedule are subject to change based on consultation between instructor and class).

Issue Clippings: Everyone is expected to bring in one or more newspaper/magazine clippings every class. These should be on controversial social issues, that is, issues that people are likely to feel strongly about (e.g. environmental issues, free speech, television violence, domestic abuse, etc.). Clippings should be mounted on a piece (or pieces) of three-hole note-book paper. Include your name on each, plus the source, date and page number. These will be put on reserve in notebooks in Robertson Library for you to use in choosing/researching topics.

Exploratory Paper: Pick an issue from an article or articles in the binder. Identify ALL the possible sides that people might take on this issue. In the paper, identify the issue, and the different sides or perspectives people might take on it. Justify EACH of the sides, or explain why people would support each one.

Position Paper # 1: Address the same issue as you did in the exploratory paper. This time, choose only one side--the one you feel strongly about--and write a persuasive paper on this position, in which you acknowledge, but rebut arguments from other perspectives. You will also use this topic for your first graded presentation, the persuasive speech.

Position Paper #2: As a class we will agree on three to four topics for the second issue paper and the traditional debate. You will write a longer, more thoroughly researched position paper taking one side of your topic. You will also use this paper in preparing for the traditional debate.

Persuasive Speech: craft and present to the class a persuasive speech based on your first position paper.

Traditional Debate: In-class debate based on participants' second position paper.

Consensus Debate: As a class, we will develop techniques for working toward consensus or agreement on controversial issues, then apply them in a debate in class.

Speech & Debate Evaluations: Everyone will evaluate two speeches and one debate (forms to be provided).

Written Assignments

Oral Presentations

Class Involvement

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