BASIC COURSE INFORMATION
Cover Page
Department/ Subject Area ENG
Course Number 001D
Disciplines ENG-English
Proposal Type Course Revision (Minor)
Division Library, Learning Resources, and Language Arts Division
Cross Listing Courses
Course Title Critical Composition
Transcript Title Critical Composition
Course Description This course is designed for the student who wishes to transfer to a four-year college or university. The course emphasizes the development of critical thinking skills through instruction in essay writing by focusing on the principles of logic and developing the abilities to analyze, to criticize, and to reach reasoned conclusions. Critical thinking is refined by close reading of prose to distinguish fact from value judgment and knowledge from opinion. The student is required to write between 6000 and 8000 words divided among several essay assignments. (UC, CSU)
Community Service No
Proposed For Associate Degree
Revision
Effective Date 2006 Fall
Change MINOR
How Course is being Changed
Change Text
Course Description
Lecture Hrs: 3.00 - 3.00
Lab Hrs: 0 - 0
Student Unit Hrs: 3.00 - 3.00
Faculty Lecture Units: 3.00
Faculty Lab Units: 0
Field Trips Not Required
Grade Options 0: A-F or Inc.
Transfer/Degree Applicability Associate Degree & Transfer
Non-Credit Options
Repeated NO
Repeat Count
Repeat Frequency
Repeat Period
Repeat Units
Repeat Rationale
Challenged YES
Rationale Because the general goals of English 1D constitute a complex of reading and writing skills, a challenge examination measuring those skills is a reasonable instrument to assess whether or not a student can demonstrate mastery of them.
Fee Amount 0.00
Comparable Course Information
Comparable Course Information Community College Course
Cabrillo College
Composition and Critical Thinking English 2
Catalog Year: 2005-2006 Page: Online
URL: http://babyface.cabrillo.edu:8080/programs/courses.jsp
3 units; 3 hours Lecture Prerequisite: ENGL 1A/1AMC. Recommended Preparation: ENGL 1B/1BMC highly recommended; LIBR 10 (may be taken concurrently.) This course in analytical reading and expository writing develops student skills in critical thinking and composition. Students will write a minimum of 6,000 original words. This course satisfies the IGETC critical thinking requirement. May be offered in a distance-learning format. Transfer Credit: Transfers to CSU. Transfers to UC.

CSU
CSU Sacramento
Critical Thinking and Writing English 001C
Catalog Year: 2004-2006 Page:
URL: http://aaweb.csus.edu/catalog/04-06/PROGRAM/ENGL.pdf
ENGL 001C. Critical Thinking and Writing. Devoted to the principles of critical thinking and the writing of argumentative essays. Course focuses upon formulating defensible statements, evaluating evidence, and applying the principles of inductive and deductive reasoning. Prerequisite: Grade of C- or better in ENGL 001A. 3 units.

UC
UC Davis
Writing Research Papers English 19
Catalog Year: 2004-2006 Page: Online
URL: http://registrar.ucdavis.edu/UCDWebCatalog/programs/ENL/ENLcourses.html
19. Writing Research Papers (4) Lecture/discussion¿4 hours. Prerequisite: course 1 or 3 or the equivalent. Development of skills in critical reading, analysis, documentation, and writing needed for research-based assignments. Instruction provided in formulating research topics and in developing effective arguments. Reading and writing assignments may focus on a single theme. GE credit: Wrt (cannot be used to satisfy a college or university composition requirement and GE writing experience simultaneously).¿I, II. (I, II.)
Course Goals
Course Goals General Goals: Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
1. Read and evaluate college level material on contemporary issues from a variety of sources.
2. Identify and analyze the structure of arguments.
3. Evaluate the soundness of arguments.
Course Objectives
Course Objectives Specific Objectives: Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
1. Distinguish between inductive and deductive processes and develop arguments using both patterns.
2. Distinguish between factual supporting material and judgmental supporting material.
3. Make inferences from texts.
4. Contrast and evaluate the differing effects of denotative and connotative uses of language.
5. Explore outside sources and assess their value for use in supporting the writer's own arguments.
6. Employ such writing techniques as analysis, synthesis, and summary.
7. Practice critical thinking skills necessary to write definition, causal analysis, evaluation, persuasion and refutation.
8. Demonstrate logical organization and effective presentation of ideas in advanced written communications.
9. Apply standard research formatting in documented essays.
Course Outcomes
Course Outcomes
  1. Outcome:Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to paraphrase the argument presented in a college level essay, identify and analyze the reasons supporting the argumentative proposition, and evaluate the soundness of the argument.
    Assessment:Addressing the argument presented in a college level essay, the student will compose a documented essay which incorporates the base text's supporting reasons in presenting the student's stand for or against the issue addressed.
Course Outline
Outline Text
  1. Critical Thinking Skills: Elements of Reasoning
    1. Investigating a problem
    2. Point of view or frame of reference
    3. Assumptions
    4. Concrete and abstract proofs
    5. Reasoning/support
    6. Inferences and conclusions
    7. Clarity, precision, plausibility, and fairness
  2. Critical Reading Skills
    1. Premises and conclusions
    2. Unstated premises
    3. Inductive and deductive arguments
    4. Logical fallacies
    5. Validity
    6. Cultural assumptions
    7. Authority
    8. Inferences
    9. Denotative and connotative language
    10. Diction, tone, style, and mood
    11. Humor, satire, irony, paradox, and analogy
  3. Critical Writing Skills
    1. Prewriting
      1. A clear thesis
      2. Support for the thesis
      3. Opposing points of view
      4. Assumptions underlying the opposing points of view
      5. Organizational structure
      6. The audience
      7. Appropriate tone
    2. Composing
      1. Introduction appropriate to the nature of the argument
      2. Refined, precise thesis
      3. Vivid, specific, concrete language
      4. Appeals to logic, authority, and emotion
      5. Strong evidence
      6. Transitions and internal organizational signals
      7. Conclusion that frames the argument
Course Assignments
Course Assignments Reading
Optional Text:
Assignments: Thorstein Veblen's Pecuniary Emulation
  1. Select one of Veblen's assertions from "Pecuniary Emulation." Quote the assertion, cite a page reference, and then translate what Veblen is saying by putting his complex concepts into your own language. Conclude by arguing whether or not, in your own life and your observations, you find Veblen's point to be convincing and valid.
  2. Here's an example of an opening:
  3. On page 54, Veblen writes that "Wherever the institution of private property is found, even in a slightly developed form, the economic process bears the character of a struggle between men for possession of goods." What Veblen is saying here is that in any society which recognizes private ownership, even extremely primitive ones, its members will compete with each other for goods, either just to obtain what is in short supply or to have more than the next person does. I agree with Veblen¿s assertion. Nearly every facet of American consumerism is driven by what Marx calls "relative" appetites. Whether it's a pair of shoes or a car, or even a brand-name grocery item (Del Monte over Lady Lee, say), consumers "struggle" to outdo the next buyer, far and beyond just satisfying their need for a certain product. They are competing in a social sense, not satisfying basic needs without regard to what people will think of them...

Writing
Optional Text:
Assignments: Raymond Carver's The Third Thing
  1. Select one of the following assertions concerning "The Third Thing That Killed My Father Off" and support it in a well-developed paragraph, incorporating Veblen's concepts of "nobility" and "repute" into your discussion of Dummy's condition.
  2. Dummy would have been better off without getting the fish because "ignorance is bliss."
  3. Even though possessing the fish led to Dummy's demise, he was able to experience "manhood," to which he was entitled.
  4. Possession inevitably is one with corruption, and in Dummy's case possession of the fish leads to selfishness, greed, alienation, and ultimately violence.
  5. "Special circumstances" of character led Dummy to assign too much importance to owning the fish.
  6. If you'd like to formulate and support your own thesis regarding Dummy and the fish, that's fine too.

Other
Optional Text:
Assignments: Brent Staples/Jesus Colon
  1. In their autobiographical essays concerning white-on-black prejudice, Brent Staples and Jesus Colon reach different conclusions about how a stereotyped ethnicity might cope with prejudicial perceptions. In "Night Walker," Staples tells us that he'll continue to do his best to defuse the fear he inspires on the street by whistling classical music and thus signaling his innocence. He implicitly argues that he can adopt this preventative stereotype-breaking behavior without diminishing his own pride and integrity.
  2. In "Memorial Day," however, Colon decides that he will refuse to submit to the stereotyped perceptions of white Americans; he will never again hesitate to help a needy person for fear of being repulsed because doing so would diminish his personal and cultural morality.
  3. Neither man addresses, however, what the prejudicial person might do in order to alleviate the dehumanizing effects of the practice of prejudice.
  4. Put yourself in the position of the women whom Staples has unintentionally frightened and whom Colon has encountered. Determine whether the avoidance behavior exhibited by these women doing the stereotyping constitutes blatant, unthinking prejudice or defensible and valid cautionary action. Decide which of the following thesis statements you want to support, and extend the sentence to include your reasoning supporting your stand in a well-developed paragraph.
  6. In most situations, it is better to measure the elements of the situation before stereotyping, prejudging, and assuming that an individual is harmful because. . .
  7. In most situations, it is better to assume that harm is forthcoming and to conduct oneself defensively, even if it means relying on stereotypes, because. . .
Course Methods of Evaluation
Opt Heading
Course Methods of Evaluation A student's evaluation will be based on a required final examination and multiple measures of performance including critical thinking. These methods may include, but are not limited to the following.
The student will be evaluated on the level of critical thinking, reading, and writing skills demonstrated in prewriting activities, journal entries, writing exercises, group discussions and presentations, formal essays, quizzes, written examinations, and a required final examination essay. The mastery of these skills will be measured primarily by the formal argumentative essay assignments. At least one method of evaluation will be used which will require the student to demonstrate critical thinking as evidenced through writing and/or problem-solving.
Course Methods of Instruction
Opt Heading
Methods Dist Ed-Other
Internet-Delayed Inter
Lecture
Other Methods
Course Distance Education
Delivery Methods Chat Room
E-Mail
Online Forum
Online Lectures
Telephone
Threaded Discussions
Other Methods In the online course, student contact is achieved with e-mail, asynchronous threaded discussion groups, synchronous chats, journal writing, and other similar electronic community mediated communication tools. Of course, office hours are available as well.
Quality Assurance English 1D Online, Critical Composition, is comparable to on-campus sections in the depth of its exploration of critical thinking and in the rigor of the course requirements. The writing content is comparable (and often greater than)that required by on-campus sections. The word count achieved by students in online sections is approximately 11,000 words because discussion takes place on the screen in threaded discussion.
Evaluation Method Students are evaluated by demonstration of their mastery of course concepts with written work in threaded discussions, journals, and formal essays.
Additional Resources
Distance Ed - Contact Types
Distance Ed - Contact Types Email - Weekly
Online Course - Carnegie unit/total units
Course Textbooks
Textbooks Vincent Ryan Ruggiero. Beyond Feelings: A Guide to Critical Thinking. Eighth or current edition McGraw Hill , 2008
Vincent Ryan Ruggiero. The Art of Thinking: A Guide to Critical and Creative Thought. Eighth or current edition Pearson , 2007
Manuals Anna Villegas, editor. English 1D Handbook. Delta College Bookstore
Periodicals
Course Supplies
Course Supplies
Course Resources
Course Resources Learning Resources
Optional Text: Current support adequate
Resources:
Computer Resources
Optional Text: Current support adequate
Resources:
Disabled Student Programs and Services
Optional Text: Current support adequate
Resources:
Other Resources
Optional Text: Current support adequate
Resources:
Entry Skills
Entry Skills Prerequisite - ENG 1A Exit Competencies from Requisite Course
Eng 1A
  • ENG 001A - Write a minimum of 8,000 words of expository writing.
  • ENG 001A - Comprehend and summarize a college-level reading passage.
  • ENG 001A - Compose a complete essay (original and documented) centered on a clear, limited thesis and supported and developed by an introduction, body, and conclusion of college-level sophistication.
  • ENG 001A - Compose sentences in a variety of syntactical patterns free of any but the most minor errors in grammar and mechanics.
  • ENG 001A - Employ both abstract reasoning, specific illustrations, examples, and appropriate outside sources to support and develop a thesis.
    		•
    Course Requisites
    Course Requisites Requisite Type: Catalog Prerequisites
    Sub Area Course #: ENG-001A
    With a Minimum Grade of C
    Comment:

    General Education Requirements
    Proposed For Categories
     
    CSU General Education A.3. Comm Eng Lang/Crit Think - Critical Thinking
     
    IGETC Area 1B - English Communication - Critical Thinking - English Composition
     
    Transfer Types Course can be transferred to CSU
    Course can be transferred to UC
    Course Codes
    CB00 State ID CCC000368017
    SAM Code (CB09) E = Not Occupational
    TOP Code (CB03) 1501.00 - English
    Course Credit Status (CB04) Credit - Degree Applicable
    Coop Educational Code N - N = Not Coop Education
    Coop Work Code (CB10) Y - Y = Not Applicable
    CAN Code (CB14)
    Course Completion Assessment Level None
    Instructional Code M - Intermediate
    Classification Codes (CB11) A - Liberal Arts
    Print Catalog YES
    Print Class Schedule YES
    Independent Studies NO
    Open Entry NO
    Work Experience NO
    Special Topics NO
    Appointment YES
    Contract Course NO
    Basic Skills (CB08) N Not Basic Skills
    Organizational Unit Library, Learning Resources, & Language Arts Div
    Prior Skills (CB21) Y = Not applicable
    Originator Anna Villegas
    Previous Course ENG 001D Critical Composition
    Proposal Type Course Revision (Minor)
    Course Status Active
    Admin Dates
    Board of Trustees 02/21/2006
    2998