Attached is a syllabus for a FYW 150 course structured around a controversy on a single theme, and asks students to engage popular, trade, and academic texts. The paper sequence described in the syllabus is
- Map stakeholders and core positions in a controversy (instructor-supplied texts)
- Write a comparative rhetorical analysis of arguments in the controversy (instructor-supplied texts, all opinion based op-ed)
- Take a position (advocate) based on research (student selected texts, popular and scholarly, through library research)
In this class, the emphasis is on student recognition of the mode of argumentation for each paper prompt (i.e., descriptive? interpretive? evaluative? advocacy?), the type of evidence they are using (i.e., popular? scholarly? trade? opinion?), and handling complexity in their critical thinking around controversies that have multiple stakeholders with valid perspectives.