CO300 as a University Core Course
(Possible) Differences between COCC150 and CO300
Portfolio Grading as an Option
Audience awareness and rhetorical contexts
Mid-course, group, and supplemental evaluations
More detailed explanation of Rogerian argument and Toulmin analysis
Portfolio explanations, checklists, and postscripts
Presenting evidence and organizing arguments/counter-arguments
Workshopping and workshop sheets
Sample materials grouped by instructor
We make lots of statements every day that we don't necessarily mean to apply to every human being everywhere. But in the language of logicians like Stephen Toulmin, all unqualified statements could have inserted in them the words all, every, never, none, always, and so on, without changing the statement. For example, I might say,
Books by Anthony Trollope are fun to read.
Stephen Toulmin would rewrite that sentence as
All books by Anthony Trollope are always fun for everyone to read.
I would consider defending some version of my statement, but I would never try to defend Toulmin's version of my statement. Most folks stating claims for arguments try not to get themselves into the position of defending a statement that always applies to everyone everywhere, so most claims will include qualifiers. These are often little words like some, most, many, in general, usually, typically, and so on. They may be little words, but their value to an argument is immeasurable.
