AEM 2818 - Sustainable Arguments

(WRT-AG) (CU-SBY)

Fall, Spring. 3 credits. Letter grades only (no audit).

Prerequisite: First-Year Writing Seminar or equivalent. Enrollment limited to: Dyson students. Satisfies CALS written expression requirement and Dyson Grand Challenges writing requirement.

T. Stewart-Harris.

In Fall of 2015 the United Nations’ General Assembly adopted a resolution titled, “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” This 35-page resolution includes an elaborate vision statement, a list of principles and commitments, and a list of 17 goals, among many other items. In 2022, the resolution is still very much in effect and having an impact on our world. Upon analyzing or reflecting on the text of the UN resolution and exploring its related goals and topics, we can quickly begin to identify the issues people, organizations, and governments are likely to argue over, or are already arguing over. Thus, UN goal and topic is up for argument, including facts (e.g., climate change) will be contested in one way or another, by someone or some group or another, and arguments of all kinds, formal and informal, will proliferate. It is amid these arguments about our sustainable future that this course will take place. Sustainable Arguments will focus on making and understanding data driven, logical, and rhetorically focused arguments about sustainability that connect to the UN’s Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Outcome 1: Analyze, state, and arrange the structures of written and oral arguments.

Outcome 2: Generate data-driven arguments appropriate to varied contexts and situations.

Outcome 3: Explain the general history of rhetoric and argument as fields of study.

Outcome 4: Identify types of arguments and logical fallacies, and apply them effectively.

Outcome 5: Design arguments that use and follow the rules and tools of rhetoric.

Outcome 6: Construct arguments (written and oral) to specific audiences.