Critical Thinking CRT 100 FYE 1200 Fall 2023 Th 12-2:45PM M307
What will you contribute to this class?
Critical Thinking CRT 100 FYE 1200 Fall 2023 Th 12-2:45PM M307

Week 8: Evaluating and Constructing Arguments

Contents

Activity 1: Argumentative essay assignment

What issues do you care about?

We are beginning to work on the argumentative essay. Please review the guidelines and let me know if you have any questions.

CRT-100-FYE-argument-project

Activity 2: What does the word “research” mean?

What does successful research look like? What are reliable sources? How can we distinguish them from the unreliable ones?

I ask that you access two databases via the BMCC library. Please watch a few brief videos for more information: Introduction to BMCC library databases + CQ Researcher & Opposing Viewpoints + Access from Home/ outside of BMCC & help + Evaluating Information.

Using the BMCC database, find at least 2 of the 3 sources you use in the final essay. You can find all your sources here too.

research guidelines

Activity 3: Create and take quiz 5.

Create a quiz that consists of 3-5 questions about the argument project, CQ Researcher and/ or Opposing Viewpoints.

Activity 4: Check out the advocacy toolkit.

Who will you try to convince to think or to do something?

Advocacy-toolkits

Activity 5: Check out the 10 essay topics and select 1.

Select one of them. Please note that you need to be logged into the database to view the topics.

Arts, Culture and Sports

Education

Employment and Labor

Health

Housing and Development

Human Rights

Media

Personal and Family Relations

Transportation

War and Conflict

Activity 6: Submit Summary and Response assignment on Blackboard.

Summary and Response 250 words +

Once you conduct some research on your topic for the argumentative essay, select one article from CQ Researcher and do the following: 

  • provide a brief summary of the article, including the main idea and supporting details
  • respond to the article: why you selected it, what you learned, how you might use it
  • NO REPLIES TO CLASSMATES NEEDED

Activity 7: Deductive and Inductive arguments

Learn about Deductive and Inductive Arguments. Think about the structure of an argument as it applies to your summary and response assignment, as well as you begin formulating your own argument for the upcoming essay.

Activity 8: Review arguments

Review what you learned about deductive and inductive arguments by watching this YouTube video: