An introduction to reading, writing, and critical thinking in an academic setting. The goal is to practice strategies for understanding academic texts and for developing one's ideas in relation to those texts. Focus is on writing thesis-driven essays that incorporate ideas and information from sources and demonstrate critical thinking, proper attribution, and effective language use.

This course offers you extended practice with essential university-level reading, writing, and thinking skills. You will read and discuss several texts on core values and critical social issues. As you explore these topics, you will employ the reading and writing process and you will practice identifying, summarizing, and responding to the ideas and information from the readings. Your work this semester will culminate in a case study project that integrates key ideas from the course readings with your ideas and personal values. All course assignments and learning activities will work towards the case study project.

After completing this course, you should be able to:

• apply active reading practices to identify and engage key ideas in texts.
• apply the writing process to create essays that incorporate ideas from readings.
• demonstrate proper attribution using APA in-text citations.
• demonstrate accurate grammar and mechanics in writing.

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Core Values Essay

In this essay, you will define and discuss your core values. Specifically, you are to identify and explain your core values and the origins of these values.

Summary-Response

You will select one of the social issues covered in class and you will write a short paper in which you summarize and respond to the assigned course readings.

Quote Log

For this assignment you will select one of the social issues discussed in the assigned readings. You will then review the course readings related to your selected social issue, select 4-6 key quotes from the reading selections, and complete the following:

• Give the bibliographic information for the reading selection source in APA format
• Give the exact quote and page number
• Paraphrase the quote
• Explain why you selected the quote and how the quote relates to your selected social issue and your perspective on the issue

Case Study Project

You will use the social issue you selected for your quote log as the focus of your case study. The final product will be an essay where you will:

• Describe a “real life” instance of this social issue in a professional or a personal setting.
• Discuss your perspective on this issue and why?
• Discuss how your core values inform or influence your perspective on this issue?

You will be required to use ideas and information from the course readings to support your main points. You will submit an initial draft that will be revised and resubmitted.

Weekly Discussions

Each week you will participate in discussion forums related to the course content and assigned readings. These discussions will require you to make an initial post and to respond to the posts of your classmates. Your initial posts are due by Friday of each week. Your responses to classmates are due by Sunday of each week.

In addition, there will be one required Academic Integrity Pledge post.