Course Description

This course helps students who desire to understand all sides of an issue while developing their ability to exchange ideas, defend their thoughts, and grow as confident and understanding communicators. Specifically, students have an opportunity to identify fallacies in reasoning and language, test evidence and evidence sources, advance a reasoned position, practice public speaking, communicate ideas of an informative and persuasive nature, and defend and refute arguments. The course presents methods of critical inquiry and advocacy to analyze, present, and evaluate oral and written arguments of themselves and others through two or more live debates. Upon completing the class, students should be able to confidently articulate various perspectives in a logical, clear, and persuasive manner in their professional and personal lives.