PHIL 9  Critical Thinking and Writing

3 Units (Degree Applicable, CSU, UC)
Lecture: 54   
Prerequisite:(ENGL C1000 or ENGL 1A) or (ENGL C1000H or ENGL 1AH) or AMLA 1A.

This course aims to help students from diverse backgrounds develop good writing skills through learning and applying critical thinking tools in their everyday lives. The critical thinking tools that will be learned in this course include rules from both formal and informal logic, rules for identifying impartial sources to conduct informed research, and rules for writing argumentative essays on topics of interest to students. Among other topics of interest, students are invited to research and write on topics that identify explicit and implicit biases in everyday thinking and speaking, to explore images and discursive forms of representation that help overcome these biases, and to employ research that guides them into forming clear, coherent, and equitable arguments. This course is equivalent to English 1C for transfer and there is a requirement that students write a minimum of 6000 words throughout the semester. This requirement is easily achievable based on a variety of writing assignments included in the course.
Course Schedule