Topics Covered in Course
Topics Covered in Course
Critical thinking and the critical thinker
Community of learners
Arguing in good faith
Standardizing arguments
Diagramming arguments
Deductive reasoning
Deductive and non-deductive arguments
Fallacies of reasoning
Cognitive biases
Correlation
Causation
Analogies
Inference to the best explanation
Reasoning about science
General Overview
Value: 25% of final grade
General Instructions
Choose a topic (instructions below).
Complete the assessment.
This is an individual assessment. Collaborating or passing off the work of others as your own constitutes plagiarism and is a serious offence. All suspected cases of plagiarism are referred to the Associate Dean's office. See the Faculty of Arts webpage on ethical behaviour for important information on plagiarism and other academic offences. Link:https://uwaterloo.ca/arts/undergraduate/student-support/academic-standing-understanding-your-unofficial-transcript/ethical-behaviour.Eligible Topics
You are free to choose a topic that interests you: this can be a current event, a recent blog post you've read, a news story, a recent discussion you were in, etcetera.
Assigned Task
Apply course concepts to your topic of choice. (To review course conceptsthe stuff that we have been learning in class, refer to the intended learning outcomes for each lecture.)
Form of Assessment
Mini lecture. Create a PowerPoint presentationwith detailed presenter notes. Aim for a 15 minute presentation with roughly 15-20 slides. Note: you do not actually have to present this.
Specific Instructions
The submission must have a cover page with a title and a one paragraph explanation linking your topic with course concepts. The purpose of this paragraph is for you to convince me that your topic is related to what we have been talking about in class. This can be submitted as a separate document.
You must include aworks citeddocument if you reference the ideas/work of other people. This can be submitted as a separate document.
General Overview
Value: 20% of final grade
General Instructions
Choose a topic of interest to you (see below) and complete the assigned task (also below).
Choose one (1) form of assessment from the list below.
Complete the assessment.
This is an individual assessment. Collaborating or passing off the work of others as your own constitutes plagiarism and is a serious offence. All suspected cases of plagiarism are referred to the associate dean of your faculty. See the Faculty of Arts webpage on ethical behaviour for important information on plagiarism and other academic offences. Link:https://uwaterloo.ca/arts/undergraduate/student-support/academic-standing-understanding-your-unofficial-transcript/ethical-behaviour.Eligible Topics
You are free to choose a topic that interests you: this can be a current event, a recent blog post you've read, a news story, a recent discussion you were in, etcetera.
Assigned Task
Apply course concepts to your topic of choice. (To review course conceptsthe stuff that we have been learning in class, refer to the intended learning outcomes for each lecture.)
Example 1: Suppose you've read an editorial in the local newspaper and you disagree with the author. You could choose to identify their argument (that is, identify the premises and conclusion of their argument) and then use the tools we have learned in class to assess their argument.
Example 2: Suppose a Canadian politician claims that there is a free speech crisis on the campuses of Canadian universities. Use course concepts (particularly from the first three weeks) to evaluate the politician's claim.
Example 3: Suppose you have an uncle who claims that higher education makes you lose your common sense. Use course concepts (particularly from the first three weeks) to evaluate your uncle's claim.
Form of Assessment
Choose one form of assessment from this list.
Short story. The short story must be at least four pages in length. (1 page = ~500 words single-spaced at 12pt font.)
Socratic dialogue. The dialogue must be at least seven pages in length. There must be at least three characters: Socrates, and at least two other interlocutors. The dialogue must begin with Socrates claiming ignorance about a topic; the rest of the dialogue will consist of Socrates asking a series of questions leading to all characters coming to consensus. The characters cannot agree to disagree! (Your dialogue should look something like this:https://www.thoughtco.com/socratic-dialogue-argumentation-1691972)
Specific Instructions
The submission must be formatted in a form-appropriate way (e.g. a screenplay must look like a screenplay; a Socratic dialogue must look like a Socratic dialogue).
The submission must have a cover page with a title and a one paragraph explanation linking your topic with course concepts. The purpose of this paragraph is for you to convince me that your topic is related to what we have been talking about in class.
You must include aworks citedpage if you reference the ideas/work of other people. This can be uploaded in a separate document.
