Course Schedule
How To Read This Schedule: All readings will be completed before class on the date on which they are assigned. Anything in bold is work to be completed before class and brought with you on the day listed. Paper due dates, also in bold, indicate that the completed manuscript of your paper must be in the correct dropbox on eCampus before class starts on the day indicated.
Note on Texts: There is no textbook in this class. All readings are available online.
Text Availability: Most texts are linked below. If a text is not a link, it will be available on our eCampus site in the “Information” section.
Day Descriptions: Works that are not links and not in the format of <Author>, “<Title>” or <Author>, <Title> are descriptions of the day’s work and not readings.
Unit 1: Understanding History
This unit examines the topic of history in 20th century rhetorical theory.
Week 1
Tue 01/19
- Course Overview
- John Muckelbauer, “Returns of the Question” (distributed in class)
Thu 01/21
- C. Jan Swearingen, “Literate Rhetors and Their Illiterate Audiences: the Orality of Early Literacy”
- “Sophist” from Wikipedia
- Alcidamas, “Against the Sophist; Or Those Who Compose Written Texts”
Week 2
Tue 01/26
- Aristotle, From On Rhetoric
Thu 01/28
- Wayne Booth, “The Revival of Rhetoric”
- John Poulakos, “Toward a Sophistic Definition of Rhetoric”
Week 3
Tue 02/02
Thu 02/04
- Bruce McComiskey, “Disassembling Plato’s Critique of Rhetoric in the Gorgias (447a-466a)”
- Patricia Bizzell, “Editing the Rhetorical Tradition”
Week 4
Tue 02/09
Academic Writing Day
- Writing About Rhetorical Theory
- Summary
- Quotation
- Commentary
Thu 02/11
- Susan C Jarratt, “The First Sophists and Feminism: Discourse of the ‘Other’”
Unit 2: Shaping Subjectivity
This unit examines the relationship between rhetoric and human subjectivity.
Week 6
Tue 02/23
- Kenneth Burke, “Definition of Man”
Thu 02/25
- Lloyd F. Bitzer, “The Rhetorical Situation”
- First Paper Due on Friday
Week 7
Tue 03/01
- Richard E Vatz, “The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation”
Thu 03/03
- Jim W. Corder, “Argument as Emergence, Rhetoric as Love”
Week 8
Tue 03/08
- Michel Foucault, “Panopticon” from Discipline & Punish
- Barbara A. Biesecker, “Michel Foucault and the Question of Rhetoric”
Thu 03/10
- Sonja K Foss and Cindy L Griffin, “Beyond Persuasion: A Proposal for an Invitational Rhetoric”
- Nina M. Lozano-Reich and Dana L Cloud, “The Uncivil Tongue: Invitational Rhetoric and the Problem of Inequality”
Week 9
Tue 03/15
No Class
Spring Break
Thu 03/17
No Class
Spring Break
Week 10
Tue 03/22
- Diane Davis, “Notes Toward a Rhetoricity of the Living”
Thu 03/24
- George A Kennedy, “A Hoot in the Dark”
Unit 3: Emerging Technology
This unit explores the relationship between rhetoric and emerging technologies.
Week 11
Tue 03/29
- Walter J. Ong, “Writing is a Technology That Restructures Thought”
Thu 03/31
- Richard Lanham, “The Electronic Word: Literary Study and the Digital Revolution”
Week 12
Tue 04/05
Academic Writing Day
- Writing with Technology
- Second Paper Due Today
Thu 04/07
- Cynthia L. Selfe and Richard J. Selfe, Jr, “The Politics of the Interface”
Week 13
Tue 04/12
Week 14
Tue 04/19
- Jeff Rice, “Networks and New Media”
Thu 04/21
- Kevin Brock, “Enthymeme as Rhetorical Algorithm”
- James J Brown Jr, “The Machine That I Therefore Am”
Week 16
Tue 05/03
No Class
Redefined Day (Go To Friday Classes)