Writing and Critical Reasoning? How might these two subjects be fitted together within the frame of a single academic course? Writing--this term suggests that our course will focus on the mechanics of college essay composition. Critical Reasoning--this term suggests something else entirely; it suggests that our course will focus on the fundamentals of logic: those forms of inductive and deductive reasoning that one ordinarily studies in Philosophy or Law courses. Surely we can all agree that both subjects are important, but why is it that they came to be paired up in our English 103 course?

While different instructors will answer this question in different ways, most will agree that sound reasoning is an indispensable feature of all college writing, and that clear, precise, and persuasive expression (e.g., writing) is an essential element of every coherently constructed line of reasoning. Thus, when we write our college papers, we are always concerned to support a hypothesis (i.e., our thesis statement) in a rational manner. Which is to say, we try to give our readers sound reasons as to why they should accept the conclusions that we draw. Similarly, when we deploy the models of inductive and deductive reasoning in order to derive rational conclusions, we must take care to elaborate the terms of our reasoning in a manner that renders them clear and convincing. Thus, to a certain extent, writing and critical reasoning are one and the same thing: writing is a way of logically organizing our thoughts into a coherent form; the schemes of critical reasoning (e.g., induction and deduction) are coherent forms that require careful composition.

The major portion of this course will focus on certain relevant social issues as we analyze and defend particular postions by abstracting and critiquing the lines of reasoning on which they stand. However, parts of this course (the first and final weeks) will focus on an elaboration of the principles of critical reasoning as they are presented in a certain genre of writing and film--namely, detective stories. This might seem a bit unusual at first glance. But, as you will soon discover in your review of this material, writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Agatha Christie are not only masters of mystery and suspense--they are also the first, and maybe even the best, professors of writing and critical reasoning that we have ever had. When we read our way through the analytical triumphs of Sherlock Holmes, C. August Dupin, and Miss Marple, we are in effect schooling ourselves in those very principles and techniques of critical reasoning that will permit us to conduct rational investigations of the larger, personal and social issues we confront in our own lives. To paraphrase Mary Poppins: a spoonful of mystery will help the medicine go down. Now come along Watson. The game is afoot.