Fall 2026

Reason in Communication

Teaches critical skills in comprehending, evaluating, and engaging in contemporary reasoning, focusing on argument in mass media.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Julia PelletierJunjie Lu

Summary

1 / 7

Historical reviews of Farid Masrour, Gregory Nirshberg, Katie Deaven: Workload includes problem sets, midterms, and a final, with a probability unit for QRA credit. Reviews suggest exams rely on in-class practice and homework patterns, requiring focused attendance to understand material not covered in slides.

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

Fall 2026

No course-specific feedback yet.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews for Holly Kantin, Danielle Wylie, Farid Masrour, Emi Okayasu, and Gregory Nirshberg show mixed results. Wylie and Masrour received praise for clarity and care, while Masrour's organization and lecture engagement varied significantly across terms.

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

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction68 / 697
DIS 301Classroom Instruction23 / 231
DIS 302Classroom Instruction22 / 230
DIS 303Classroom Instruction23 / 236

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

Historical reviews describe PHILOS 210 as generally easy with fair exams, though organization and clarity vary significantly by instructor. Students note that attending lecture and completing practice problems are key to success.

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

Historical reviews of Farid Masrour, Gregory Nirshberg, Katie Deaven: Workload includes problem sets, midterms, and a final, with a probability unit for QRA credit. Reviews suggest exams rely on in-class practice and homework patterns, requiring focused attendance to understand material not covered in slides.

Historical reviews of Danielle Wylie, Emi Okayasu, Farid Masrour, Holly Kantin: Students value helpful and passionate instructors who explain concepts thoroughly, but report frustration with disorganized lectures. Reviews show mixed TA experiences, with one praising a TA and another criticizing confusing explanations.

Topics

  • Argument in familiar contexts
  • Uses of argument in mass communication media
  • Contemporary forms of reasoning

Skills

  • Comprehending, evaluating, and engaging in reasoning
  • Analyzing argument in mass communication media

Grades

Historical instructor

Fall 2026 · 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 · 0.24 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Fall 2026

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

1283 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.

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Selected offering source records
PHILOS 210 · Fall 2026

Reason in Communication

Recorded 2026-09-07
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
    "semester": "1272",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1272:736:014683",
    "course_id": "PHILOS 210",
    "course_uid": "course_c1aeabd1a79ddbbc49e0e21e",
    "term_id": "1272",
    "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
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-09-07

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "c0eb180f6b44689c484c7a34a2b0e7b970ecbdbbb9a213af3335ce8c4cc21305",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}