This course aims for the development of learners’ proficiency in English writing and ability of critical thinking by integrating the knowledge and strategies of critical thinking into the traditional teaching about English argumentative essays. Core learning contents of the course include critical thinking strategies, English discourse organization skills, and language tips of effective written English. Upon the completion of the course, learners will be able to understand the purpose and core components of a critical essay, present clear theses over contemporary issues, apply five inductive and deductive reasoning strategies to justify their theses, evaluate and respond to conflicting ideas forcefully, produce complete persuasive critical essays in accurate English, and reflect on their own thinking and writing and make self-correction if necessary. All of this will give learners better competence in international communication and decisive edge in global competition.
Section 1 What Is Critical Thinking (I)?
Section 2 What Is Critical Thinking (II)?
Section 3 What Is Critical Writing?
Section 4 What Is the Connection Between Critical Thinking and Critical Writing?
Section 5 Lesson Review
Language workshop: Word Choice
Lesson 2 Understanding Arguments and Essay Structure
Section 1 What Is an Argument? (I)
Section 2 What Is an Argument? (II)
Section 3 What Is the Structure of Critical Essays? (An Overview)
Section 4 What Is the Structure of Critical Essays? (The Introduction Section)
Section 5 What Is the Structure of Critical Essays? (The Body Section)
Section 6 What Is the Structure of Critical Essays? (The Conclusion)
Section 7 Lesson Review
Language workshop: Effective Use of Verbs
Lesson 3 Writing Theses and Introductions
Section 1 What Is a Thesis?
Section 2 Types of Theses
Section 3 What Makes a Thesis Statement? （I）
Section 4 What Makes a Thesis Statement? （II）
Section 5 What Makes a Thesis Statement? （III）
Section 6 Writing Introductions (I)
Section 7 Writing Introductions (II)
Section 8 Lesson Review
Language workshop: Periodic vs Loose Sentences
Lesson 4 Reasoning and Paragraph Writing
Section 1 What Is Reasoning?
Section 2 All about Reasons
Section 3 Oh! Evidence (I)
Section 4 Oh! Evidence (II)
Section 5 Reasoning vs Explaining
Section 6 Going into Explanations
Section 7 Patterns of Reasoning
Section 8 Paragraph Writing—Unity
Section 9 Paragraph Writing—Reasoning
Section 10 Paragraph Writing—Coherence
Section 11 Lesson Review
Language workshop: Use Concrete and Specific Language
Language workshop: Transitional Words
Lesson 5 Applying Deductive Arguments to Writing
Section 1 Deductive Arguments
Section 2 Inductive Arguments
Section 3 Deductive Arguments vs Inductive Arguments
Section 4 Deductive Arguments in Writing—Reason by Principle (I)
Section 5 Deductive Arguments in Writing—Reason by Principle (II)
Section 6 Deductive Arguments in Writing—Reason by Definition (I)
Section 7 Deductive Arguments in Writing—Reason by Definition (II)
Section 8 Lesson Review
Language workshop: Parallel Structure
Lesson 6 Applying Inductive Arguments to Writing
Section 1 Making Generalizations (I)
Section 2 Making Generalizations (II)
Section 3 Reasoning by Analogy (I)
Section 4 Reasoning by Analogy (II)
Section 5 Reasoning by Cause and Effect (I)
Section 6 Reasoning by Cause and Effect (II)
Section 7 Lesson Review—Employing Various Reasoning Techniques
Language workshop: Run-Ons and Commas
Lesson 7 Evaluating and Improving Arguments
Section 1 Evaluating and Improving Arguments by Principle
Section 2 Evaluating and Improving Arguments by Definition
Section 3 Evaluating and Improving Generalizations (I)
Section 4 Evaluating and Improving Generalizations (II)
Section 5 Evaluating and Improving Generalizations (III)
Section 6 Evaluating and Improving Arguments by Analogy
Section 7 Evaluating and Revising Causal Reasoning (I)
Section 8 Evaluating and Improving Causal Reasoning (II)
Section 9 Lesson Review
Language workshop: Redundancies in English Sentences
Lesson 8 Writing Counter-Arguments and Essay Conclusions
Section 1 What Is a Counter-Argument?
Section 2 Writing Counter-Arguments in Critical Essays (I)
Section 3 Writing Counter-Arguments in Critical Essays (II)
Section 4 How to Rebut Conflicting Arguments（I）
Section 5 How to Rebut Conflicting Arguments（II）
Section 6 Writing Essay Conclusions
Section 7 Lesson Review
Language workshop: Capitalization and Punctuation