ENGL 007

Prerequisite: Successful completion of English 1A (or equivalent). English 007 fulfills the General Education requirement for Critical Thinking.

Course Description: Critical thinking is the analysis of any attempt at persuasion, based on an evaluation of the form and content of that attempt. Thinking critically is a strategy for determining how to persuade others, and whether to be persuaded ourselves. As simple as this sounds, that process of determination can involve literally all we know about ourselves and our world. The purpose of this course, then, is not only to familiarize you with critical thinking, but also to provide you with a systematic approach to its process and components. To these ends, we will pay particular attention to cultural and individual assumptions, to evidence and other types of support, to arguments and fallacies, and to rhetoric and language. Our study of critical thinking will be supplemented with readings and discussions, and written assignments will deal not only with elements of critical thinking, but with their application in a context of traditional values, personal non-conformity, and cultural diversity.

Special Web Section: As an online course, this section of Engl 7 has a special burden to ensure that students receive instruction in critical thinking at least equivalent to that of a conventional classroom setting. I believe this can be accomplished, at the same time that students enjoy significant benefits: the savings of time and money otherwise spent commuting to campus to attend class, the convenience (and more) of controlling one's own schedule, and the ability to repeat any lesson or exercise until it is understood. All of this, I believe, will lead to more attentive, more motivated, more committed, and more successful students.

Still, there are some aspects of face-to-face instruction that will be very hard for an asynchronous class such as this to duplicate. Discussions conducted via email may prove more clumsy than those conducted in person, and will certainly take longer. On the other hand, because email is written, such discussions will give you chances to improve your composition skills, and there will be less chance for the sort of misunderstandings that often occur during verbal exchanges. To make this work, then, we all need to be as clear and precise as we can when writing email messages or posting comments on a bulletin board. Remember to take a few minutes longer to compose your messages, and be sure to proofread before sending anything to the class.

Written Work and Grading: There will be two papers (about 1500 words each), the first counting 10% toward the final mark, the second counting 15%; three midterm exams, counting 15% apiece; and a final examination counting 20% of the course grade. There will also be homework (or "webwork") assignments, at the end of most weeks, which may require email discussions with other students; those discussions will be monitored by the instructor, and (along with the timely completion of each week's work) will determine the remaining 10% of the final mark.

All grades are recorded as a numerical value of 100 or less; those values are then averaged to determine the final grade at the end of the semester. Letter grades, sometimes used on essays, have the following equivalences: A=95, B=85, C=75, D=60; a "plus" or "minus" grade is recorded as 3 points above or the letter's value; finally, A-/B+ = 90 and B-/C+ = 80.

A final grade average of 100-90 will receive A+ to A- in the course; of 89-80, B+ to B-; of 79-65, C+ to C-, of 64-50, D+ to D-; below 50, an F. There is no curve in the class, and therefore students are not competing against each other. In the last two years, the median grade, for students who completed all major assignments in English 7 classes that I have taught, was B-.

Essays are to be submitted as email attachments. Since your essay will be written on a computer, I encourage you to use all the tools at your disposal (including spell-check, thesaurus, grammar-check, and others), in addition to a conventional dictionary; this is, after all, an English class, and critical thinking is just as concerned with language as with logic.

After each essay has been graded and returned, you will be asked to make the corrections noted, and resubmit the essay. This is to ensure that you understand the corrections made, and that you know how to identify and avoid such errors in the future.

Students will take all four examinations in person on campus or (for students not living in the San Jose area) at a facility to be arranged. Students taking off-campus exams must cover any on-site costs. To ensure continued progess throughout the semester, deadlines for the completion of each exam are noted on the schedule below. Students may arrange for an exam at a time before that date, by contacting the instructor. On the day of the section deadline, an examination for that section will be given in the afternoon (time and place to be announced) for any student who has yet to take it. The final exam will be offered at several times during finals week, to accommodate student schedules.

Please keep a copy of any work you submit, and retain graded work until the end of the semester. Plagiarism, the submission of another's work as one's own (in any sense), is the sort of intellectual dishonesty that undermines the very education you are trying to receive, and must be dealt in accordance with university policy.

Course Schedule: The course has been divided up into four parts, each part consisting of two to five weeks, with fifteen weeks total. In the schedule below, the suggested week (Monday to Friday) is listed parenthetically, followed by the deadline for the completion of that week's work. You may be able to finish some weeks' work in one or two days; others may take much more time. At the end of every week, there will be an activity--anything from reading and discussing a Sherlock Holmes story to playing a logic game to doing exercises or writing an essay; some of this work will require you to log onto the course's Conference on the Web bulletin board (COW). If you reach end of a week, and cannot find the activity, contact the instructor. The pace at which you complete the work is up to you, as long as you do not fall behind and begin missing deadlines. Most weeks contain several instructional topics; the final week of each part is usually comprised of review materials and an examination.

Please remember: should you be in danger of missing any weekly deadline, email the instructor as early as possible to make other arrangements.