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Course Calendar (revised 2/4)
Rhetorical Terms Glossary (revised 2/21)
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Compare & Contrast Paper is Due!
Monday, April 4
Note: New due date for 1st draft of compare/contrast paper: Friday, April 8 @ 9:00 A.M. (section 4) or 4:30 P.M. (section 3). Turn in to BrightSpace.
Monday, March 28
Monday, March 14: Compare & Contrast Paper Assigned
February 9, 2022: Logical Fallacies, Part II & Ad Presentations!
I knew it - Inappropriate appeals to authority:
—Source is not a genuine authority
—Accuracy of the source’s observations is questionable
—The source cited is known to be generally unreliable
—The source has been cited incorrectly or the claim taken out of context
—The source’s claim conflicts with expert opinion
—The issue can’t be settled by expert opinion
–The assertion is false or highly improbable on its face (see “Bat Baby” tabloid)
2. False alternatives. Another example.
5. Questionable cause:
7. Slippery Slope.
8. Weak Analogy
February 4, 2022: Logacal Fallacies, Part I
from rightingamerica.net (not an endorsement) - Notes from today’s lecture
- Some examples:
- Ad hominem
- Attacking the motive
- Look who’s talking
- Two wrongs make a right Also this one.
- Appeal to pity (caveat: these are not always bad)
- Bandwagon argument (direct)
- Bandwagon argument (indirect)
- Straw man
- Red herring
- Equivocation
- Begging the question (simple)
- Begging the question (circular reasoning)
February 2, 2022
Today’s Terms:
Authorizing tropes: history, logic, nature, science, statistics
accommodation vs. assertion
slippery slope
Today’s ads:
slippery slope 
Ad presentation assigned
Presentation dates (please note your section!):
Section 4: (MWF 9:00-9:50 am). Sign up here.
Section 3: Wednesday, Feb. 9-Friday, Feb. 18. Sign up here.
Directions: Find a partner and exchange contact information. Choose an internet advertisement together and send a link to jchisholm@csum.edu. Plan a 15-minute presentation in which the two of you discuss the following:
- Overt vs. implied vs. covert theses
- Overall rhetorical strategy (assertive vs. accommodating/deductive vs. inductive)
- Visual vs. written rhetoric
- Loaded words
- Target audience
You’re going to want to work from smaller details like loaded words to larger, overarching claims like author/thesis/target audience.
Be sure to support all of your claims with evidence!
January 31, 2022
Friday, January 28: Visual Rhetoric
Homework: Quiz #2 on Monday (inductive arguments)
Can you find a covert thesis? 
A little hard talk from the U.K. Today’s terms (see Glossary on left for definitions):
ad misericordiam
allusion
author
demonize
existential import
naming
slippery slope
target audience
thesis: overt, implied, covert
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Wednesday, January 26: Quiz #1
Monday, January 24: Inductive Arguments
Homework: Study for quiz on Deductive Arguments (Inductive quiz next week)
Arguments from Authority
- Article 1. Arguments from science
2. Article 2. Argument from history
3. Article 3. Argument from nature
4. Robert di Niro says to stay home!
6. So does Gal Gadot
Friday, January 21: Deductive Arguments
Homework: none
from the website Intelligent Speculation - Notes for today.
- Exercise
- What is a valid or sound argument? Here’s a video.
Wednesday, January 19: Everything’s an Argument
Today’s notes
What is an assertion? Assertion or not exercise
Your personal arguments exercise
Let’s talk about assertion, rhetoric and the rhetorical situation. Video. (Play until 15:38, then skip to 19.59)
Friday, January 14: Truth, Facts & Reality
Homework for Monday: none
from A Few Good Men (1992) Quotes about the nature of truth
Truth, facts and reality
Facts and social pressure
Survey
Wednesday, January 12: Deconstructing the Self
Homework for Friday: none
Discuss Habits of Critical Thinking Survey
Discussion Packet: Deconstructing the SelfDo you know where you stand on the political spectrum? Take a survey at Political Compass and put your plotted dot here.
Here’s a handy infographic illustrating the major American political beliefs. We’ll need this when we start looking at arguments.
Important note: Due to the omicron surge, we will hold class online (live) until February 1. Please make sure to be on Zoom at 9:00 on MWF (permanent link to our Zoom room is on the left).
Monday, January 10: Deconstructing the Self
My name is Dr. Julie Chisholm. I’ll be your instructor for critical thinking, an important course in your college experience. This semester, we will first define critical thinking, and look at ways we both encourage and discourage it in our lives. Then we will go into the gym: a mental gym, that is, in which we work out with our brains. We will use a tool called rhetorical analysis, the study of argument, to help get our critical thinking muscles into shape. Along the way, we’ll look at a current event—one we’ll choose together, and the arguments made around it. Ideally, you will learn a few things: not just about the pandemic, but about yourself and the way you think. Welcome to our class!
Critical thinking is a purposeful mental activity. ‘Critical’ means to take something apart and analyze it on the basis of standards.” –Michael Baker, Basics of Critical Thinking
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Introductions!
What is your name? Have you picked up any new interests or skills during the pandemic? or Which is your favorite character in the Marvel Multiverse? (Mine is the Lokigator)
from Collider.com Discussion Packet: Deconstructing the Self