Forming Groups: Every group should consist of 2-5 people. Once a group is formed turn in a piece of paper with all the group members names on it.
Assignment: The assignment is to find multiple instances of deceptive arguments or fallacies being used in the real world. For each group member 3 news stories (interviews, opinion columns, speeches, etc..) need to be found that are deceptive. Once these arguments have been found the group needs to collect them in some format and explain exactly where and what type of fallacy the argument is using. The group should also be able to explain exactly what every group member contributed to the project.
Things to Turn in: Each group should turn in a project summary containing all the deceptive arguments. This could be a website with youtube links, a scrapbook with articles cut out and pasted, or any other creative or non-creative medium. The project should have the name of every member of the group on it somewhere. The project summary should also include how each argument is being deceptive and where it occurs in each argument.
Each group should turn in something explaining what each member of the group contributed.
Grading: The project will be graded in three areas.
The first is clearness of presentation (5 points). Your project should be easy to read, not contain spelling or grammatical errors, and clearly explain your reasoning for why every argument is deceptive.
The second is correctness and diversity (10 points). Be sure to give a correct reason and back it up, for why an argument is deceptive. In order to get the full 10 points at least 6 of the arguments have to have different fallacies.
The third is groupwork (5 points). Different members of the group can be given different scores for their level of participation. If all group members feel that everyone pulled their weight then full points will be awarded. If some group members are not contributing be sure to let me know.