Students have the opportunity to participate in a number of group and creative projects in response to the works read in the class. This course covers conventional critical thinking skills from a writing perspective. Students learn to analyze the written and oral claims of others and then to write their own effective arguments. Topics covered include non-argumentative persuasion, logical fallacies, the structure of an argument, inductive and deductive reasoning, causal arguments, population studies, and moral, legal, and aesthetic reasoning. Students will have the opportunity to apply critical thinking concepts to a variety of contemporary issues in four short papers and a larger research project.
Group work is a critical component of the course.
English 250 English 250 covers the fundamentals of college writing in preparation for English 1A. Students will learn how to discover their own writing material, organize data in preparation for writing, arrange ideas in a variety of formats, and revise to create more effective essays. There will be numerous informal preparations for formal writing assignments, including workshops on invention strategies, large and small group discussions, readings on contemporary topics, and journal writing. The course will also prepare students to take and pass the department writing exam through the practice of effective test-taking techniques. Computer classroom instruction is included. This course takes a historical approach to film study.