(Official) Course Description

This is an introductory course in informal fallacies and critical reasoning.  The course will focus on the critical thinking strategies and skills, the elements of an argument, distinctions between deductive and inductive logic, and comparing the strength of arguments.  Students will study causal relations and scientific, statistical, moral, and legal reasoning. The course will present techniques for analyzing arguments used in political rhetoric, advertisements, editorials, scientific claims, social media and social commentary. There is a strong emphasis on the written expression and  the application of critical thinking in a series of presentations, compositions, or a term paper.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Demonstrate the basic skills in critical thinking through written and oral expression.

• Assess the basic forms of arguments.

• Articulate the basic types of informal fallacies.

• Describe the basic forms of formal logical fallacies.

• Articulate the basic forms of scientific, causal and statistical fallacies.

• Articulate, communicate, express and present a complete argument on a complex subject matter.

I started teaching at EVC in 2011. My mother worked at EVC in the 1990's until her death in 1999, so I have a history with the college! (The Appi Mishra room in the EVC library is named after her.) Getting the opportunity to teach here myself has been an incredible privilege. I love what I teach, I love the college, and I love my students. It is a blessing to be able to have a job I am passionate about.

My husband works as a social worker and policy analyst in a county Public Health department, specializing in Children and Family Health. I have two children - a teenage daughter and a younger son. When not working, I love to hike, go to the beach, camp, read, watch movies and play Sudoku. I'm trying to teach myself to play the Ukulele and I'm taking piano at EVC! :)

I am so excited to be with you this semester!