Argumentation and Rhetoric

To be an effective professional and engaged citizen requires active and informed involvement in the world through public life. Coexistence and cooperation bolstered by empathy and respect allow professionals and citizens to participate in diverse and pluralistic communities demonstrating understanding and appreciation of cultures, beliefs and behaviors differing from their own. The informed professional (citizen) has the wherewithal to tackle both problems and opportunities with critical and ethical reasoning. She or he is able to engage astute scientific thinking and appropriate technologies to meet challenges of the milieu in which he or she lives and works. Additionally, the informed professional (citizen) may comfortably express him or herself in at least two languages (English and Spanish) both orally and in written expositions.

Through academic debate, the course endeavors to guide each student to develop logical reasoning and rhetorical skills. After completing this course, students should be able to construct coherent arguments, free of logical fallacies and supported by the reliable evidence. Moreover, students should be able to employ a variety of rhetorical and stylistic elements in their argumentative communications. Furthermore, students are expected to become critical thinkers and communicators, with abilities to analyze, investigate, organize and compose written and oral presentations on social and political issues.

Topics in this course include, among others, the nature of controversy, evidence, types of reasoning, as well as the obstacles to critical thinking. Conversely, students are directed in the art of building arguments and offering rebuttals to refute claims when engaged in both formal and informal debates. In this course students are directed to present persuasive, rationally based, arguments from emotionally constant footing, which is informed through meaningful audience analysis.