Overview

Public writing often fails not because facts are unavailable, but because the relationship between evidence and conclusion is weak. This course trains learners to examine that relationship directly.

Learners distinguish claims from observations, correlations from mechanisms, primary from secondary evidence and uncertainty from rhetorical confidence. Short writing exercises require each conclusion to be traceable to a source or explicit inference.

The course also supports writer and contributor assessments used within the Gordon ecosystem, including analytical roles connected to The Economy.

Learning objectives

By the end of the course, learners should be able to:

• identify the claim, evidence and inference in an argument;
• distinguish descriptive evidence from causal explanation;
• recognize unsupported generalization and selective evidence;
• interpret charts and statistics without overstating what they show;
• build an argument in which each major conclusion has an evidentiary basis;
• state uncertainty and alternative explanations without weakening clarity.

Intended participants and prerequisites

Course structure

The course is organised into six units. Each unit combines concise explanation, worked examples and short analytical exercises.

Unit	Subject	Principal questions
1	Claims and evidence	What exactly is being asserted, and what supports it?
2	Sources	How should primary, secondary and derivative evidence be weighed?
3	Mechanisms	When does an observed relationship support an explanation?
4	Quantitative evidence	How should charts, estimates and statistical claims be interpreted?
5	Counterarguments	How can alternative explanations be tested rather than ignored?
6	Analytical writing	How can evidence be turned into a concise, defensible argument?

Teaching and assessment

Teaching is delivered through concise lectures, technical notes, worked examples and guided exercises. AI-supported interaction may be used to explain concepts, generate additional practice and challenge a learner's reasoning, but assessment remains based on the learner's demonstrated understanding.

Component	Purpose	Weight
Short exercises	Check understanding of the principal concepts	40%
Applied investigation	Use the course framework on a new problem or dataset	30%
Final assessment	Integrated reasoning across the course	30%

A certificate of completion is issued only when the required assessments have been completed at the stated standard. Participation alone does not constitute completion.

Faculty

Materials and technical requirements

Learning environment

Learners need a current web browser and access to the Gordon learning platform. Where a course uses code, spreadsheets, datasets or external readings, the relevant requirements are identified inside the unit.

Course materials

Required readings, datasets and practice materials are identified within each unit. Public courses are designed so that required core materials can be accessed without a separate tuition charge.