LPINT5239 Political Arguments in Action Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This course invites students to analyse and construct political arguments in their concrete contexts, narrowing the gap between the academic discipline of Politics and International Relations and contemporary events, debates, and spaces behind which the disciplinary study might at times lag. The course develops students’ critical and theoretical approaches to political speech, broadly understood as a discursive practice that encompasses policymaking, cultural production, rhetoric, public engagement, and that which is expressed via both traditional and social media. The course’s flexibility allows students to reflect on  politically relevant events almost in real time whilst retaining the analytical rigour of academic practice, by equipping them with skills to critically analyse political developments as they occur. These skills are translated into practice through academic study and experiential sessions which require students to write to, for, and with for example practitioners; policymakers; campaigners; NGOs and charities; cultural institutions and bodies; or civil servants. This experiential component is deepened further by the course’s assessments, which ask  students to write for different audiences, contexts, and forms of political communication. These twin experiential pillars thus expose students to knowledge and contexts that traditional undergraduate courses frequently overlook.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies.

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Workshops

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

Version 1:all sessions in the same sized group

OR

Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups. 

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150 hours

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessments are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE.

Summative Assessments

Students will experience and practice different techniques of constructing  effective political arguments aimed at producing  documents commonly used by and addressed to practitioners, institutions, and the public  in different contexts (such as policy/campaign briefs, political speeches, policy initiatives, blogs and online communication; reports; critical reviews, amongst others ): 

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) and/or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Parsons, C. (2007). How to map arguments in political science. OUP Oxford
• Charteris-Black, J. (2018). Analysing political speeches: Rhetoric, discourse and metaphor. Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Haas, T. (2011). Making it in the political blogosphere: The world’s top political bloggers share the secrets to success. ISD LLC.

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below are used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Context and audiences of political communication
• Use of sources and evidence
• Practising forms of political writing: blogs, policy documents, academic or event reviews