what role does "rhetoric" play in 3250?

It's VIP! We will workshop and develop our writing together on this wiki, which will function, in a way, as an open CMS, a common space where we will share ideas, practice writing daily, form into clusters, and determine social and compositional outcomes for our semester's work. By means of a series of informal and formal grading assignments, we will emphasize the importance of rhetorical choices in diverse professional writing scenarios as we rehearse traditional narratival, definitional, evaluative, causal, and problem-solving strategies of communication together in wiki.

The first 4 weeks will have us writing informally but consistently, and, at the same time, we will perform specific edits and "remixes" of our blogs with two goals in mind:

1. Right away, we will write to establish specific professional writing goals and forge connections with potential team partners for project work

2. Now is the time to rehearse and refine the simplest acts of writing, especially a) listening and responding in a timely manner b) training our attention on our peers' writing, and offering sentence-level and paragraph-level strategies and revisions pertaining to syntactical clarity and topical cohesion.

This course welcomes all compositional strategies, and will work closely with rhetorical strategies of invention, especially "early and often" information-sharing practices combined with purposive linking. This brand of "peer-to-peer" rhetoric is often understood and felt as a way of transforming the feelings, ideas and opinions of others, but you can use rhetoric as an investigative tool as well. For example, by studying the language, templates, and argumentative premises used in your specific case-study or even in the general area/genre of professional writing that you hope to master, you will learn a great deal about what that field of study takes for granted, which will help you learn appropriate timing and form of address, learn the best available means of writing to suit your scenario, and just plain learn to learn, as well.

So, in this peer-learning approach to learning professional writing, think of rhetoric as the "glue." Sometimes, you will write for persuasion - you will attempt to move someone to do something, such as change their mind. Other times, you will write for inquiry - by putting ideas into different contexts and forms, you will explore problems and find unexpected solutions. The paradoxical axiom, then, is this: professional writing has a purpose, even if we have to sometimes drift aimlessly, if we are to write at all. Think practically about what you are trying to do with words, images, tone, and moods. Composition is the practice of finding the right mixture for any given goal. Different foci will emerge in each of your itineraries, but the dynamic linking wiki enables should help each of you connect with peers with compatible goals, so that by the end of the first 4 weeks of the semester, each of you will be a part of professional writing team that can propose and design a purposive project in one of the 4 major areas of professional writing defined by our preliminary research and blogging.

Nota Bene: while both sections of this course can intertwingle freely on our shared wiki, you may only form into groups within your enrolled section.

head on back the the main page of the syllabus: ResponseAbilities

Week One: rhetorical "rules of three"

a. 3 appeals: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos

"There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man (sic) who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions-that is, to name them and describe them, to know their causes and the way in which they are excited" Aristotle, Rhetoric, Book I

logos-It is often translated into English as "Word" but can also mean thought, speech, meaning, reason, proportion, principle, standard, or logic, among other things. It has varied use in the fields of philosophy, analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion.

ethos-is a Greek word originally meaning 'the place of living' that can be translated into English in different ways. Some possibilities are 'starting point', 'to appear', 'disposition' and from there, 'character'. From the same Greek root originates the word ethikos

pathos-is one of the three modes of persuasion in rhetoric (along with ethos and logos). Pathos appeals to the audience's emotions. It is a part of Aristotle's philosophies in rhetoric.

b. Audience, Text, Purpose

browsing, reading, and writing rhetorically means finding the right mixture of these elements of "ingredients" for any given goal

Week Two

stasis theory: one way to organize and sequence writing actions

facts

definitions

cause/effect

evalution

proposal/policy

Week Three

Remember, professional writing asks us to write for inquiry, and to write for persuasion.