Overview

This unit develops critical reasoning skills which students will find very useful in academic, professional, and everyday contexts. The emphasis is on the study and practice of argumentation.

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Distinguish between arguments and non-arguments, and to systematically analyse short arguments in standard written and diagrammatic forms, so as to clearly show their intended logical structure
  • Understand, and demonstrate the ability to apply the core requirements for systematic argument evaluation
  • Understand, and apply the requirements for analysing several important specialized types of arguments and for evaluating their cogency
  • Recognize arguments, their intended roles, and their importance, in real-world contexts of everyday life, academic life, and the communication of scientific ideas to a general audience
  • Demonstrate ability to identify common fallacies and problematic uses of language, and to appraise the extent of these defects in weakening the related arguments
  • Demonstrate the foregoing skills of argument analysis and evaluation in a critically evaluative appraisal of an extended argument

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Face to Face Contact (Phasing out)
Lecture
1.00 12 weeks 12
Face to Face Contact (Phasing out)
Tutorial
2.00 12 weeks 24
Specified Learning Activities (Phasing out)
Various
5.00 12 weeks 60
Unspecified Learning Activities (Phasing out)
Individual Study
4.50 12 weeks 54
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
EssayIndividual 40% 2,3,5,6 
PortfolioIndividual 30% 1,2,3,4,5 
TestIndividual 30% 1,2,3,5 

Content

  • How to distinguish claims from evidence and assess claims in the light of supporting evidence
  • Identifying (and in one's own reasoning avoiding) fallacies
  • Organizing material in logically coherent patterns
  • Identifying (and in one's own reasoning avoiding) problematic uses of language
  • Critically evaluating extended arguments and writing evaluative essays
  • Recognizing the pervasive roles, importance, and forms of argumentation in everyday life, the academic world, and in science
  • More specialised types and roles of reasoning, and the specialised forms of analysis and critical evaluation appropriate for dealing with them

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.