SMC GE Area 1B (Oral Communication & Critical Thinking)

This course surveys the principles and techniques of current and evolving business communication as a process in a variety of business situations. The course emphasizes planning, organizing, composing, and revising business documents using appropriate utilization of a variety of technological platforms, business related internet writing contexts, and web resources. Also, this course will incorporate a variety of internet-based communication tools relevant to doing business in today's world. This course is designed for students who already have college-level writing skills.

In this course, students learn and apply foundational rhetorical theories and techniques of public speaking in a multicultural democratic society. Students discover, develop, and critically analyze ideas in public discourse through research, reasoning, organization, composition, delivery to a live audience and evaluation of various types of speeches, including informative and persuasive speeches.

This course provides students with the foundational knowledge of persuasion, which includes ancient and modern theories of persuasion in addition to the functions and processes of persuasion. In this course, students also learn about the role of persuasion in historical social movements and diverse orators who have positively contributed to society. Lastly, students formulate logical persuasive speeches to live audiences.

This course focuses on the identification and analysis of processes and challenges of communication as affected by small group interactions. This course helps students develop competence and confidence as a group member and leader through a combination of theoretical and practical knowledge of small groups in everyday life. The course focuses on the principles of communication theory as they apply to the small group setting with an emphasis on practical application through study and practice in various group activities.

This course provides students with the foundational knowledge of argumentation and debate concepts and theories to successfully dissect and deliver arguments in distinct contexts and public speaking settings and to critically evaluate the arguments of others. The course covers concepts, such as Aristotle’s proof of ethos, pathos, and logos, audience analysis, ethics in argumentation, critical listening, and effective verbal and nonverbal practices for effective argumentation. Lastly, the course includes analysis of strong evidence and the process of reasoning needed for effective arguing and presentation of arguments to live audiences.

In this course, students receive instruction in critical thinking for purposes of constructing, evaluating, and composing arguments in a variety of rhetorical forms, using primarily non-fiction texts, refining writing skills and research strategies developed in ENGL C1000 Academic Reading and Writing (or C-ID ENGL 100) or similar first-year college writing course.

This advanced writing course is intended especially for English majors and other students desiring to develop rhetorical skills beyond those practiced in English 1. It stresses critical analysis and argument, and focuses on style in effectively communicating with various audiences.

This course presents an overview of historians’ methods of research, critical analysis, and written argumentation and introduces historiography and historical theory. Students will apply these methods through a variety of written assignments, including a properly-documented academic research paper. This course’s research component will further students’ information competency skills.

A course in general logic emphasizing its applications to practical situations. The course covers both inductive and deductive techniques.