Spring 2027

Reason in Communication

Develops critical skills in evaluating arguments and reasoning within mass communication media contexts.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Gregory Nirshberg

Gregory Nirshberg’s section involved nine problem sets, two midterms, and a non-cumulative final, covering tough material.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Evaluate the strength of arguments with an eye for recognizing fallacies and common errors of reasoning.

  • Characterize complex arguments clearly.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

MATH 96or placement into MATH 141

  • take one
PHILOS 210

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Any of

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

DANIELLE WYLIE is recorded teaching in Spring 2013. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

EMI OKAYASU is recorded teaching in Spring 2016, Fall 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

FARID MASROUR is recorded teaching in Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

GREGORY NIRSHBERG is recorded teaching in Fall 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

HOLLY KANTIN is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Spring 2008. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KATHERINE DEAVEN is recorded teaching in Fall 2021. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 690
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 230

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Danielle Wylie

Students described Danielle Wylie’s teaching as clear and engaging, with fair tests and helpful in-class exercises that made the material accessible.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.33 GPA, 58.7% A/AB (n=63 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.65 GPA, 80.8% A/AB (n=130 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.35 GPA, 64.6% A/AB (n=65 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Gregory Nirshberg

Gregory Nirshberg’s section involved nine problem sets, two midterms, and a non-cumulative final, covering tough material.

Past student reviews · Farid Masrour

One student found Farid Masrour’s mandatory discussion section useless, though they noted he was a good guy who wanted students to succeed.

Topics

  • Arguments in familiar contexts
  • Uses of argument in mass communication media
  • Logical fallacies and common errors of reasoning

Skills

  • Evaluating argument strength and recognizing logical fallacies
  • Analyzing arguments in mass communication and characterizing complex reasoning structures

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.20 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
PHILOS 210 · Spring 2027

Reason in Communication

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:736:014683",
    "course_id": "PHILOS 210",
    "course_uid": "course_c1aeabd1a79ddbbc49e0e21e",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "014683",
    "source_subject_id": "736",
    "title": "Reason in Communication",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "12e75a340571d29c8cbc0d00c8ee529e21a5902908e4d74bb7227076fca84297",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}