College Seminar (101-7-20)

Instructors

Brady Z Clark
847/491-6547
1908 Sheridan Road, Room 306
Office Hours: by appointment

Meeting Info

Annenberg Hall G28: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

When academics discuss communication, they tend to focus on ideal uses of language involving cooperative, honest, helpful, and trustworthy speakers. Real-world communication is not like this at all. This seminar examines communication in our non-ideal world. Our focus will be several forms of deceptive communication: lying, bullshitting, and misleading. We will explore a wide range of topics: what are the linguistic cues to deceptive communication, if any? does lying necessarily involve deception? why is there so much bullshit in contemporary political speech? how is fake news related to lying, misleading, and bullshitting? is fake news a useful notion at all? Our goal will be to figure out what tools and concepts we need to understand the varieties of deception that characterize human language interaction.

Registration Requirements

First-Year Seminar: WCAS First-Year Seminar; P/N Options: No P/N option for this section.

Learning Objectives

(i) to identify the tools and concepts we need to understand the varieties of deception that characterize human language interaction, (ii) to develop an understanding of several dimensions of linguistic meaning, and (iii) to acquire a working knowledge of several analytical tools used to investigate meaning in linguistic communication.

Evaluation Method

Grades will be based on participation in discussion, several short papers, and one long paper. Students will have an opportunity to revise their written work for the course.

Class Materials (Required)

No required texts (instructor will upload all required readings to the course website)

Class Attributes

WCAS College Seminar