Course Outline for English 7A
Critical Thinking and Writing across Disciplines

Effective: Fall 2019
SLO Rev: 11/26/2018
Catalog Description:

ENGL 7A - Critical Thinking and Writing across Disciplines

4.00 Units

Develops critical thinking, reading, and writing skills as they apply to the analysis of primary and secondary non-fiction books, articles, and essays from a range of academic and cultural contexts. Primary texts will showcase diverse writers, including marginalized voices. Theme based units will emphasize the techniques and principles of effective written argument in research-based writing across disciplines.
Prerequisite: ENGL 1 or ENGL 1A.
1501.00 - English
Letter Grade Only
Type Units Inside of Class Hours Outside of Class Hours Total Student Learning Hours
Lecture 4.00 72.00 144.00 216.00
Total 4.00 72.00 144.00 216.00
Measurable Objectives:
Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:
  1. Demonstrate critical thinking and reading skills
    a. recognize and analyze how racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and classism shape the contexts for thinking, reading, and writing;
    b. read and interpret book-length works from a range of academic, cultural, and disciplinary contexts and by a range of diverse authors (in terms of expertise, writing style, race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, ability, etc.);
    c. identify how identities (race, nationality, gender, sexuality, ability, class, etc.), power and inequities, and historical, social, political, moral, cultural, psychological, or aesthetic contexts shape writers, audiences, purposes, rhetorical contexts, and texts;
    d. identify and analyze conventions and rhetorical strategies appropriate to academic, professional, and public genres in print, digital, and multi-media composition;
    e. analyze and employ logical and structural methods such as inductive and deductive reasoning, cause and effect, and logos, ethos, and pathos;
    f. demonstrate flexible use of note-taking strategies, to develop metacognitive skills as a reader;
    g. evaluate the relationship between meaning and language manipulation;
    h. evaluate the pattern of reasoning present in an argument; assess arguments in terms of fairness, accuracy, completeness, and effectiveness;
    i. demonstrate understanding of formal and informal fallacies in language and thought;
    j. recognize the similarities and differences between the intentions, biases, assumptions, arguments, and effects of authors and their critics;
    k. recognize the disciplinary contexts and perspectives within which arguments are constructed, and how various disciplines evaluate similar arguments differently; evaluate cross-disciplinary ideas and arguments.
  2. Demonstrate composition skills
    a. employ writing process strategies to generate, organize, edit, and write thesis-driven argument essays to suit a variety of rhetorical situations, including interpretation, evaluation, and analysis, among others;
    b. explore a line of inquiry and develop the topic appropriately;
    c. establish and state clearly a unifying thesis or proposition; d. use sound reasoning in the logical construction of an argument;
    e. select and appropriately integrate examples, details, and other evidence (direct and indirect quoting) from a variety of primary and secondary sources to develop central ideas and support the thesis and other generalizations, using appropriate documentation format without plagiarism;
    f. organize main parts of the essay and define a sequence that contributes to clarity and coherence;
    g. write with a sense of an audience and purpose in mind, using writing conventions appropriate to academic, professional, and public genres;
    h. use style, diction, and tone appropriate to the academic community and the purpose of the specific writing task; proofread and edit essays for presentation so they exhibit no disruptive errors in English grammar, usage, or punctuation.
  3. Demonstrate appropriate research techniques
    a. determine purposes for research across diverse disciplines, including kinds of questions posed in different academic fields;
    b. formulate productive research questions;
    c. use appropriate library resources for research;
    d. develop research practices to identify relevant sources and data, to evaluate them for legitimacy, and to make honest, ethical use of these sources;
    e. investigate diverse discipline-specific research methods, efficiently gather, record, summarize, paraphrase, organize and integrate information (i.e. through conventions of direct and indirect quoting) to develop the central argument;
    f. correctly utilize systems of citation (MLA) and bibliography.
Course Content:
Instruction integrating critical thinking, reading, and writing:
  1. Student-Centered and Equity-Oriented Curriculum
    1. Relating course materials to the lives and values of students to create student-centered classrooms in which students are meaning makers; students provide cultural capital to engage in academic discourse; acculturation into academic pursuit does not diminish students’ histories and cultural wealth; there is transparency in recognizing a wide range of voices and media as text, including that of students.
  2. Reading
    1. Detailed critical analysis of book-length works (primarily non-fiction) as well as print and digital writing, and/or other media, representing different academic disciplines and a variety of non-fiction prose genres, for the purpose of developing academic work.
    2. Showcases diverse authors and perspectives (based on culture, gender, race, ethnicity, class, national or geographic background, and sexual orientation) as well as diverse subject matters, genres, forms, and purposes.
    3. Metacognitive strategies for comprehending, analyzing, and developing responses to complex texts.
    4. Identifying organizational structures and language in relation to genre and content.
  3. Critical Thinking
    1. Stressing the connection between thinking, reading, and writing, and use each as a reinforcement for the other.
    2. Identifying and constructing sound arguments;.distinguishing between fact and inference; supplying sufficient support for claims; acknowledging, conceding to and refuting objections.
  4. Writing
    1. Writing of several academic papers, totaling 6,000 words, including a research paper, based upon texts and any other media under study.
    2. Exploring rhetorical uses of writing in a variety of academic, professional, and public genres and contexts.
    3. In-class and out-of-class essays clearly stating an argument and supporting the argument with logical and sound exemplification.
    4. Strategies for identifying and integrating outside sources and quotations from source texts to develop one’s own writing.
    5. Writing with clarity, creativity, and authenticity, appropriate to audience and purpose.
    6. Revision of written arguments coupled with instruction, to demonstrate progressive improvement and refinement of writing style, structure, coherence,effectiveness and emphasis.
  5. Research
    1. At least one researched paper that posits a logically supported argument and is based on a synthesis and analysis of a variety of primary and secondary sources, which may include: print materials, audio video presentations, interviews, personal observations, computer databases;
    2. Evaluation of sources for relevancy, legitimacy, and bias.
    3. Strategies for gathering and synthesizing information and perspectives from various sources to develop a central line of inquiry.
Methods of Instruction:
  1. Collaborative learning in pairs and groups, which may include brainstorming, modeling close reading, role-playing, developing analysis and synthesis, debate, advocacy.
  2. Distance Education
  3. Instruction and scaffolding for developing a research paper that follows a line of inquire and posits an argument, logically supported by texts and other primary and secondary source materials.
  4. Lecture and discussion that requires student to construct meaning and engage in academic discourse.
  5. Presentation and analysis of multimedia materials in support of primary texts and/or understanding of elements of multimedia composition.
  6. Revision activities to improve style, structure, and coherence, including peer review, self-reflection, and instructor conferences.
Assignments and Methods of Evaluating Student Progress:
  1. Oral presentation leading the class in discussion about an assigned text.
  2. Students write a 5-page essay in which they apply concepts from a philosophical text, Cosmopolitanism, to analyze the conflicts between the members of two different cultures in the anthropological text, The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down.
  3. Students write a 7-10 page research essay in which they examine a particular historical event from the perspectives offered in at least three different primary sources. They will not need to argue which perspective is “right,” but rather to explore what these different perspectives reveal about power and culture.
  1. Essays and other assigned writing evaluated on critical thinking, development of thesis, and correct mechanical usage. In English 7, writing will be evaluated on the student’s ability to synthesize information and perspectives from a variety of both primary and secondary sources and types of data.
  2. Depth of understanding of assigned readings assessed via quizzes, tests, and midterm and final examinations.
  3. Quality and consistency of class presentations, responses, and regular in-class and homework assignments.
  4. Self-reflection and peer evaluation of reading and writing.
Upon the completion of this course, the student should be able to:
  1. respond to a topic, demonstrate critical thinking, comprehension and use of text to support ideas.
  2. organize a paper so that it is unified and coherent
  3. demonstrate sentence-level fluency and control of grammar
Abbreviated Class Schedule Description:
Develops critical thinking, reading, writing, and research skills as they apply to the analysis of primary and secondary non-fiction books, articles, and essays from a range of academic and cultural contexts.
Prerequisite: ENGL 1 or ENGL 1A.
Discipline:
English*