Comm 112: Reasoned Discourse
Monday 6-9 p.m. Canyon County 204
Instructor: Dr. John R. Fisher
Phone: 426 2450
Email: jfisher@boisestate.edu
Office: Room 104 Communications Building
Office hours: MW 9:40-10:30 a.m. Tues. 4:40-5:30 p.m.

Course objectives:

1. To encourage students to further their understanding of issues that affect American life and prepare them to be able to discuss these issues knowledgeably and logically.
2. To help students become more analytical and critical as a consumer of the discourse of others.
3. To teach students to recognize flawed reasoning and equip them with strategies for dealing with it.
4. To help students become more adept and more ethical in constructively advancing and defending their views in both public and personal settings.
5. To help students become more understanding and tolerant of those with whom they disagree.
6. To increase student skills in the areas of public speaking, writing, research and critical analysis.
Course evaluation:
1. Written assignments: Grading will be based on the criteria of creativity and originality, degree of insight, clarity of expression, appropriate logic and evidence, proper use of academic writing formats (especially citations) and use of research and other sources. Correct spelling, grammar and syntax are givens.  Upon timely completion of assignments, students will be allowed to rewrite papers.
2. Positive class participation including individual presentations and general discussions.  Students are expected to keep informed about current issues using newspapers, magazines, web sites, BSU campus activities, etc.
3. Attendance: Attendance will be required as in any professional work situation.  Failure to attend five classes without the instructor's approval with cause an automatic failure.
Assignments:
Written argument - 200 points
Persuasive speech - 100 points (given as part of group presentations)
Group presentations - 200 points
Impromptu speeches - 100 points
In-class participation and exercises - 100 points
Discussion groups - 100
Portfolio - 100 points
Exam 100 points

Students will meet in group discussions once a week.  As part of the group discussion, they will prepare group assignments, discuss readings, and prepare for exams.  Each student is to keep a journal indicating dates and times and content of meetings they attended.  Group presentations will be chosen from Kurt Finsterbusch's book on Social Issues.

Portfolios - Students need to keep informed about current issues by reading and clipping articles from newspapers, magazines, web sites, etc.  They should keep notes from speeches they hear and interviews and informative shows they watch or listen to.  These will form the basis of a portfolio (or scrapbook), which students will present to the class on the last day of class.  In addition, students should include copies of their writing and speech outlines.

Speeches and written assignment:  The written argument and persuasive speech will be a topic of the student's choice taken from Vesterman's book, Reading and Writing Short Arguments.  Students are not to duplicate topics from group presentations.  Students will give extemporaneous speeches based on clippings in their portfolios.  Impromptu speeches will be based on the group topics presented during the evening.

Textbooks:

Finsterbusch. Kurt.  Taking Sides: Clashing views on controversial social issues, 11th edition.  Guilford: McGraw Hill/ Duskin, 2001.
Infante, Dominic A. Arguing Constructively.  Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland, 1988.
Vesterman, William. Reading and writing short arguments, 3rd edition.  Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1999. On-line resources:
http://www.fisherhouse.com/bsu/online.htm
Week Date  Topic Reading/ Assignment
1
 January 14 Understanding arguing
[Capital Punishment]		 Infante, pp. 3-29, Vesterman, pp. 1-3, Finsterbusch, pp. 296-314. [Notes]
2
 January 21 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr./Idaho Human Rights Day Holiday (no classes – University offices closed).
3
 January 28 Constructive argumentation
[Legalization of drugs]		 Infante, pp. 33-55, Vesterman, pp. 4-12, Finsterbusch, pp. 278-295. [Notes]
4
 February 4 Constructive argumentation
Giving impromptu speeches
[Immigration]		 Infante, pp. 57-98,[Defending positions] Vesterman, pp. 14-26, Finsterbusch, pp. 22-40. [Versterman Notes] 
5
 February 11 Finding and using information
Giving persuasive speeches
[Population growth]		 Vesterman, pp. 291-342, Finsterbusch, pp. 315-337.
6
 February 18 President's Day Holiday (no classes - University offices closed).
7
 February 25 Argumentative refinements
[Attitudes] [Structure]
[Government intervention]		 Infante, pp. 101-141, Finsterbusch, pp. 188-207. [Impromptu speeches]
Written argument due
8
 March 4 Work on group projects - No class
9
 March 11 Fallacious reasoning
[Vouchers in Education]		 Vesterman, pp. 12-14, Finsterbusch, pp. 226-241. [Impromptu speeches]
10
 March 18 Exam - Work on group projects
11
 March 25 Spring break - No class
12
 April 1 Group presentation - Is street crime more harmful than white-collar crime? Finsterbusch, pp. 260-277.
[Jeff, Tresha, Rone, Heather, Ryan]
13
 April 8 Group presentation - Are women more burdened than men in society? Finsterbusch, pp. 41-57.
[Michelle, Mindee, Travis, Barry]
14
 April 15 Group presentation - Are communication problems between men and women largely due to radically different conversation styles? Finsterbusch, pp. 58-75.
[Amber, Thayne]
15
 April 22 Group presentation - Should same sex marriages be recognized? Finsterbusch, pp. 76-89.
[Cody, Rachel, Valerie, Cristi]
16
 April 29 Portfolio presentations, Potluck
17
 May 6 Dr. Krista Forrest of University of Nebraska at Kearny. "Sex, lies and false confessions: Factors that place you at risk during a police interrogation." 
Monday, May 6 at 5 p.m. MP106

About men and women's roles in society
Susan Faludi coaches "Fight Club" author http://www.salon.com/books/log/1999/11/24/faludi/
Talking with Susan Faludi http://www.radcliffe.edu/quarterly/200001/words.html
Reading Group Guides http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides/stiffed.asp
Review of STiffed http://www.rambles.net/faludi_stiffed.html
Toronto Sun Review http://www.canoe.ca/JamBooksReviewsS/stiffed_faludi.html
The American Male: Liberated or on the run http://www.soc.duke.edu/~pmorgan/lectures/10-25.99.men/index.html
Masculinity and the American dream in films http://www.columbia.edu/~lcc20/amhs/
Man in the middle http://www.citypages.com/databank/20/983/article8042.asp

Men & Women: Talking Together  Film,1993 (62 minutes) Deborah Tannen & Robert Bly present a model of the differences and similarities of men and women.