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Week 1 - July 11th

• Introductions

• Protips

• Guided debate - Is this rock alive?

• Debate and discussion - Is homework harmful or helpful?

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Week 2 - July 18th

• Formulating arguments

• Choosing a side

• Deductive reasoning in popular culture - Famous presidential speeches

• Debate and discussion - Is global warming man-made?

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Week 3 - July 25th

• Logical fallacies

• Structured rebuttals - How to eliminate ambiguity by word choice and sentence structure

• Debate and discussion - Should animals be used for research?

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Week 4 - August 1st

• Classical rhetoric

• Rhetoric in popular culture

• Debate and Discussion - Should cigarette smoking be banned?

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Week 5 - August 8th

• Topics to avoid

• How to lose

• SOMEONE IS WRONG ON THE INTERNET!

• Debate and Discussion - Is net neutrality beneficial?

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Week 6 - August 15th

• Analyzing bias

• Lies, damned lies, and statistics

• Advertising

• Debate and Discussion - Should citizenship be automatically granted to any child born in the United States?

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Week 7 - August 29th

• This will be posted in a few days...sorry about the delay!

• In the meantime, feel free to continue debating "Should citizenship be automatically granted to any child born in the United States?".

An overwhelming majority has convinced me that the best time to hold the class is on Sundays at 10PM (EST). Additionally, it turns out that Tuesdays at 10PM are just as great.

Now, this class has two portions. The first consists of lecturing whereas the second requires active participation.

Course material is going to be posted on Sunday and will be made available promptly at 10PM. You'll be able to view/download all of the material at http://www.universityofreddit.com/wiki/ (the website is in the process of being overhauled...I'll be dedicating a specific page to the class once it's up and running). Additionally, depending on the lesson, it may be accompanied by a video lecture. In short, everything will be posted on the wiki.

The portion where you prove your worth as a debater is strictly optional. However, if you choose to use your newly acquired skill of verbally assimilating your opponents, you can do so at http://www.convinceme.net/

On Tuesdays, also at 10PM, you will all receive a link that will lead you to that week's debate. You'll need an account to participate but, trust me, it's definitely worth it. If you choose to partake in the festivities, you'll have until Saturday at 10PM to "be more right". While you'll still be able to make submissions after that, you'll be excluded from my commentary regarding that week's debate during the following class.

This class will be running from July 11th to August 22nd (that's seven weeks for those who can't count!). Questions are always welcome and I hope you're all excited to start tearing apart each other's arguments.

Currently directing an educational studies program at MIT (Summer HSSP) and have taught several classes in the past. Physics, math and computer science triple-major but am a jack-of-all-trades in the sense that I can teach anything as long as I'm passionate about it. More than willing to furnish credentials.