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No. 65  June 2022
 
   
   
   
   

 

 

編輯報告
EDITOR'S REPORT

        本期範文賞析(SPOTLIGHT),由寫作中心江介維老師撰寫,分享他在理學院開設邏輯思考一課的教學心得,並且闡述邏輯在科學論述裏所扮演的角色。人員專訪(STAR OF THE MONTH)邀請到曾修習寫作中心多門課的王威傑同學,分享他學習邏輯與表達的反思歷程。讀者園地(PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS)宣傳寫作中心於111-1學期持續與理學院聯手打造的臺大特色課程,歡迎理學院的同學踴躍選修。

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省思醒語
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
 
 

“Science is simply common sense at its best, that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.”
 

by Thomas Huxley 

 
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範文賞析
STAR OF THE MONTH

 
(江介維老師 撰文) ( Jie-Wei Jiang, Editor of AWEC Newsletter, NTU)
Teaching Logic to Students in College of Science
  In the semester of 110-1, Academic Writing Education Center (AWEC) initiated a series of intensive courses for the College of Science: Critical Thinking through Logic, Fundamentals of English Writing, and English Poster Presentations for Academic Purposes. The teaching of logic is fundamental to these courses, hence its position as the first course to begin with. As the instructor of this course, I would like to elaborate on how I designed this five-week intensive course and what my students expected to learn and have learned from this course.
 Logic is the key to every reasonable argument. With this principle in mind, I mainly focused on illustrating the process of forming an argument, namely how to reason from a premise to reach a conclusion. In this reasoning process, some formal or informal fallacies might sneak in, undermining the validity or soundness of an argument. The main task in hand for students is to identify all the crucial elements for conducting a fair assessment of an argument. Basically, that summarizes the objective of my logic course. Most students are satisfied with the course design, whereas some others hold a more pragmatic expectation—that is, they are eager for acquiring certain logic knowledge that would assist them not only in the domain of academic writing but also in the context of such language tests as GRE or GMAT.
 I still clearly remember that a student from my logic course approached me with a writing test item from GMAT, seeking for my help with the “correct” approach to such type of writing. Specifically, the student would like to know how we could exactly use logic to compose an outstanding piece of analytical writing. Allow me, at this moment, to cite the exact passage for the ease of my exposition and your understanding:
 Environmentalists warn that humans’ carbon dioxide emissions are endangering the planet. But the Earth naturally emits far more carbon dioxide than we do. In fact, humans’ cumulative carbon dioxide emissions over the whole of human history are just 0.00022 percent of the total amount that has been emitted by volcanoes over geological history. Given that our emissions are such a tiny fraction of natural emissions, there’s no need to worry that our emissions will change the climate.
 To judge from the context, the passage is particularly fit or designed for students with content knowledge of certain science subjects—the scientific issue of carbon dioxide emissions, the theoretical assumption of humans’ carbon dioxide emissions, and the reasoning process of trying to convince the reader of a certain stance. This stance, as required in most analytical writing tasks, is meant to be problematized or overthrown by the test writer who could spot something unreasonable or illogical in the text. Indeed, all of these aspects involve the knowledge, assessment, and application of logic.
 In this regard, we could have a glimpse of what logic means to learners, especially those science-related majors, who have to propose a myriad of arguments based on various forms of clues, data, evidence, etc. In my logic class, students are exposed to all kinds of scientific statements, some of which are precariously fallacious, demanding students’ critical thinking and logical reasoning capabilities to unravel.
 At the end of my logic class, all students are divided into two teams bracing up for a debate that mimics a real-life situation in which every participant agrees on the common ground of logic to express and resolve disagreements. Most of them have undergone the baptism of their first debate in class, memorably. Hopefully, logic will accompany them on their academic journey forward.
 
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人員專訪
STAR OF THE MONTH

(受訪者:王威傑)(Interviewee: Wei-Chieh Wang, Graduate Student of Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University)

我是臺大化學所的王威傑,非常幸運有機會修習寫作中心江介維老師所開設的兩門課程,分別是:邏輯思考以及專業人才溝通術。前者深入淺出地介紹各類邏輯謬誤,並透過辯論讓同學們有機會運用所學;後者則強調精準溝通,以模擬研討會訓練大家的表達與提問能力。

身為理學院的學生,「邏輯思考」與「精準表達」是不可或缺的核心能力。因為研究的過程中無論是試驗設計、數據解讀或理論推導無不講求邏輯的正確性;而想要說服他人接受自己的觀點,則需仰賴準確的溝通。然而,無論是透過口語或是文字進行表達,邏輯是學術溝通的基石,寫作中心在此方面所提供的系統性訓練,無疑是奠定學術基礎溝通軟實力的墊腳石。

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讀者園地
PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

 
於111-1學期,寫作教學中心持續與理學院合作,開設臺大特色課程:邏輯思考、英文基本寫作、口語海報表達。這三門課程各為一學分的五周密集課程,各開兩班,一班為中文授課,另一班為全英文授課;各課程可獨立選修,若同學選擇三階段課程修好修滿,可橫跨、接軌不同語言授課的班級。
 
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