Rhetorical Theory for Writing Studies Writing 3701W Jarron Slater Spring 2018 Bruinicks Hall 420A Tuesday and Thursday, 1:00pm to 2:15pm University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Instructor Profile Hello and Welcome to Rhetorical Theory for Writing Studies! My name is Jarron Slater, and I ll be your instructor for this course. I am from a city just south of Seattle, Washington, called Kent, and I am excited to be with you in this class. I am currently a 5 th year PhD candidate in Rhetoric and Scientific & Technical Communication, and my research emphasizes rhetorical theory and criticism, history of rhetoric, and rhetorical stylistics. Some of my research will soon be published in Rhetoric Review and the Journal of Religion and Communication. The best way to reach me is in class. Please don t be afraid to ask questions or make comments! You can also email me, and while I often respond the same day, sometimes I don t see emails sent later in the afternoon Figure 1: Yep, that s me. until the next day, and I generally don t respond to email after 5pm or on the weekends. My office is in 338B of the Nolte, and I have office hours right after this class, from 2:15 to 3:30. I am also available to meet with you by appointment. Preface This document gives an outline and overview of the policies, practices, and schedule for Writing 3701W, Rhetorical Theory for Writing Studies. It is a plan that is subject to revision and change. Course Description This course is designed to provide you with a solid background in the history and principles of rhetorical theory and criticism. We will study classical theories of rhetoric and apply Aristotle s Rhetoric to examples of contemporary communication. We will also discuss the relationship of classical rhetoric to scientific discourses and technical communication. The principles we will learn in your course will enable you to improve your writing. It won t be long until you start to see these principles at work all over the place, whether you re designing an infographic, texting a friend, typing a high-priority email, presenting statistics to a corporate executive, or answering questions being asked to you by a prospective employer. Sure, the class is called Rhetorical Theory, but theory never was meant to be totally disconnected from practice. So, as you apply the principles we will study together, you will see an improvement in your writing not only will you become a better writer, but you ll also enjoy writing a lot more, too. You ll be able to see and understand writing and speaking as you never have before. But don t just take my word for it. This course will study the work of ancient and modern theorists of rhetoric, looking particularly into relationships between the realms of rhetoric and the aesthetic and why that matters for technical communicators. We ll begin the first 7 weeks by studying ancient theories of rhetoric. When we come back after Spring Break, we ll look into modern theories of rhetoric, noting how they use understand ancient theories as a foundation for more recent developments. Course Texts We ll be reading some exciting texts this semester. You may purchase these texts at the bookstore, but used editions of the texts are much cheaper on Amazon (from half to 1/3 rd or less of the price). The texts we will read earlier in the course are cheaper than those we will read later, so you might also purchase the earlier texts at the bookstore and the later texts (Burke
and Booth) on Amazon. That way, if there s a delay in ordering the later texts, you ll still have them when we read them. The texts available in the course packet are also available on the Moodle site. I provide a course packet for those who want printed copies of texts. The packet is available at Paradigm Copies. Aristotle. The Rhetoric and the Poetics of Aristotle. Trans. W. Rhys Roberts and Ingram Bywater. NY: Modern Library, 1984. Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives. Berkeley: U of California Press, 1969. Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Rhetoric: The Quest for Effective Communication. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. 2004. Course Packet. Prepared by Jarron Slater. For Rhetorical Theory for Writing Studies, Spring 2018. Available at Paradigm Copies. Longinus. On Great Writing (On the Sublime). Trans. G. M. A. Grube. Hackett, 1991. Plato. Phaedrus. Trans. Alexandar Nehamas and Paul Woodruff. Hackett, 1995. A List of Texts in the Course Packet Burke, Kenneth. Psychology and Form. From Counter-Statement. 3 rd edition. University of California Press, 1968. 29-44.
Gorgias. Encomium to Helen. From Aristotle, On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. 2 nd edition, ed. and trans. by George A. Kennedy. Oxford UP, 2007. 251-256. Isocrates. Antidosis. From Isocrates, Volume II. Ed. and Trans. by George Norlin. Harvard UP, 1928. 181-367. Lanham, Richard. The Rhetorical Ideal of Life. From The Motives of Eloquence. Yale UP, 1976. 1-35. Assignments Since writing a paper invites students to not just know but also apply the principles of rhetoric, we will write 4 papers in this class. Three of those papers include a reflection paper, a summary paper, and an analysis paper. A fourth paper will be a revised version of one of these papers. Summary or Question Paper Please begin this paper by summarizing a question or an insight you had while studying a text in this course. Please focus your summary on something you learned in this class and discuss how it relates to technical and professional writing. Analysis Paper For this assignment, please consider a principle that you understood better as you studied these classical texts. Describe that principle, and then use that principle as a lens through which to see an instance of rhetoric that you have encountered in your own life. In other words, conduct a rhetorical analysis using a key notion of rhetoric that you learned about in the last 7 weeks. Then conclude by stating why this matters to technical and professional communicators. Reflection Paper This paper asks you to consider the following questions: What is your current understanding of rhetoric and identification? How do they influence one another? How does understanding this relationship or tension help you as a technical and professional communicator? Why? Revision Paper For this assignment, please choose one previous paper and revise it, following the suggestions you received in your feedback from me. The revised paper should be 4-6 pages. Since revision means essentially to re-see something, this assignment asks you to do more than simply copy and paste the previous paper while lightly editing it. What you want to do in this assignment is take the original paper and look for the next right answer by expanding your previous discussion of it.
Grading Scale The first 3 papers will be worth 10 points each. The final paper will be worth 20 points. The final grading scale is as follows: Revision Paper, 20 Points Grade Breakdown Summary Paper, 10 Points Reflection paper, 10 Points Analysis Paper, 10 Points Final Grade % A 93-100 A- 90-92.99 B+ 87-89.99 B 84-86.99 B- 80-83.99 C+ 77-79.99 C 74-76.99 C- 70-73.99 D+ 67-69.99 D 64-66.99 D- 60-63.99 F 0-59.99 Attendance Your participation in class is important for your own learning, and your attendance is critical for our classroom discussions. Attendance in this class is required. On the third unexcused absence, a student s final letter grade will fall by 1/3 rd (A- to B+, B to B-, etc.). Please see the University Policy for more details. Participation Please read the required pages listed on the syllabus before coming to class to prepare for our class discussion about the readings on a particular day. Some of the readings are short to keep them to a digestible length. We will also have days of class set aside for workshopping our papers. Please bring a completed draft of your paper to class on the day in which we workshop it in peer review. Class members will be assigned peer review groups of 3-4 members. Class members who do not attend class on the workshop days or do not bring a full draft will lose 1 point on the final assignment. Late Work Please turn all work in on time. In general, late work will lose 1 point. However, if you need an extension, please email me before the due date and let me know. I am more than willing to make adjustments if I know before the due date. Thank you.
Schedule Week 1 Tuesday, January 16 Introduction to course. Gorgias, Encomium to Helen Thursday, January 18 Plato s Phaedrus (pages 1-49) Week 2 Tuesday, January 23 Plato s Phaedrus (pages 49-86) Thursday, January 25 Aristotle s Rhetoric, Book 1.1-3 (pages 19-34 in Corbett) Week 3 Tuesday, January 30 Aristotle s Rhetoric, Book 2.1, 20, 22 (pages 90-92, 133-135, 139-142 in Corbett Also, another assigned selection as a group TBA Thursday, February 1 Aristotle s Rhetoric, Book 3.1-2, 7, 12-13 (pages 164-171, 178-180, 196-200 in Corbett) Week 4 Tuesday, February 6 Aristotle s Poetics, 1-14 (pages 223-241 in Corbett) Thursday, February 8 Aristotle s Poetics, 15-26 (pages 242-266 in Corbett) Week 5 Tuesday, February 13 Summary Paper Workshop Thursday, February 15 Isocrates, Antidosis (pages 185-277 in Norlin) Week 6 Tuesday, February 20 Isocrates, Antidosis (pages 277-365 in Norlin) Thursday, February 22 Longinus, On the Sublime (pages vii-22 in Grube) Week 7 Tuesday, February 27 Longinus, On the Sublime (pages 23-58 in Grube)
Thursday, March 1 Burke, Psychology and Form Week 8 Tuesday, March 6 Analysis Paper Workshop. Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives Intro. Thursday, March 8 Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives, pages 20-27 Spring Break Tuesday, March 13 Thursday, March 15 No Class. No Class. Week 9 Tuesday, March 20 Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives, pages 27-32 Thursday, March 22 Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives, pages 37-46 Week 10 Tuesday, March 27 Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives, pages 49-55 Thursday, March 29 Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives, pages 55-59 Week 11 Tuesday, April 3 Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives, pages 65-78 Thursday, April 5 Reflection Paper Workshop Week 12 Tuesday, April 10 Booth, The Rhetoric of Rhetoric, pages viii-38 How Many Rhetorics? A Condensed History of Rhetorical Studies Thursday, April 12 Booth, The Rhetoric of Rhetoric, pages 39-84 Judging Rhetoric Some Major Rescuers
Week 13 Tuesday, April 17 Booth, The Rhetoric of Rhetoric, pages 85-128 The Need for Rhetorical Studies Today The Fate of Rhetoric in Education Thursday, April 19 Booth, The Rhetoric of Rhetoric, pages 129-172 Media Rhetrickery Reducing Rhetorical Warfare Week 14 Tuesday, April 24 Thursday, April 26 Lanham, The Rhetorical Ideal of Life Bogost and Losh, Rhetoric and Digital Media Week 15 Tuesday, May 1 Thursday, May 3 Revision Paper Workshop Revision Paper Workshop, Course Evaluations Additional Policies Students with Disabilities Any student with a documented disability condition (e.g., physical, learning, psychiatric, systemic, vision, hearing, etc.) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations should contact the instructor and Disability Services (626 1333) at the beginning of the semester. Plagiarism Policy Students who knowingly plagiarize will fail the course. Please see https://policy.umn.edu/education/studentresp for more details. Writing-intensive Credit The University of Minnesota requires that courses with a WI designator include at least one assignment for which students are required to revise a previous document after receiving feedback from their instructor. In order to receive credit for this course, students must receive feedback from the instructor that contributes to the writing process of producing a final polished draft. In other words, students cannot pass this course who do not meet this revision requirement. The Grammar Policy Correct grammar and mechanics are important in scientific, technical, and professional writing if
any writer wants to be taken seriously. As such, the grade of any document with a misspelled word or a grammar or usage error will receive a lower grade than if the same document had been turned in without the same error. Please don t misunderstand grammar and mechanics are not the most important things in a document. But they will cause readers to negatively judge a writer s intellect and who wants that? Late Work Policy In the case of an unexcused absence, the grade on late work will be lowered by 1/3 rd for each weekday it is turned in late.