Introduction

“Thinking isn’t agreeing or disagreeing. That’s voting.” – Robert Frost

What is it to think critically and creatively? Why does it matter? Where do our thoughts come from and how do we know when to trust our thinking, insights, opinions and beliefs and when to challenge ourselves, ask questions, and seek other alternatives to our own understanding? The world is often an opinionated and messy place. We need to develop the proper tools to help us navigate these increasingly complex, crowded, and confusing spaces. Through the careful analysis of language and the study of the techniques of persuasion, this course emphasizes the power of words to shape opinions, attitudes, and behavior.

Students will explore the critical thinking skills necessary to recognize logical fallacies and manipulative communication through the analysis of political rhetoric, commercial media and other materials. Students will also create arguments based on analyses and supported by evidence and logic. By the end of this course, the student will be able to meet the OWEAC Outcomes for WR 122.

Writing is a tool for personal, academic, and professional empowerment. The essay form itself is a wonderful piece of linguistic technology for use in further educating oneself about a topic and then sharing your ideas with the world. It is a process by which we attempt to increase our understanding of a given topic through entering into a substantive dialogue with the ideas of others.

In this text, we will cover all aspects of the college writing process, including: the importance of developing sound critical and creative thinking skills, topic and thesis generation,  research methodology, formatting, and patterns of development. This text also explores the academic pillars of argument analysis and critical thinking skills, so we will be studying the way arguments are constructed to see how they work (or don’t work) in different contexts.