ENG 309

Advanced Composition and Rhetorical Theory

Shaw University

Dept. of Humanities

Dr. Desire Baloubi

Office: Old Education Building #6

Contact: (919)546-8307/546-8254, dbaloubi@shawu.edu, and desbaloubi@hotmail.com

Office Hours

Textbooks:
Crowley, Sharon and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students (3rd ed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004.

Bizzell, Patricia and Bruce Herzberg. The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present (Second Edition). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001.

Course Description:

Advanced Composition and Rhetorical Theory exposes students to discipline-specific skills in reading and writing. It focuses on writer's voice, style, and strategies; it also introduces students to rhetorical theories from classical times to the present.

Course Objectives:

* To develop discipline-specific writing skills

* To prepare students for graduate level writing

* To enhance critical and analytical skills

* To hone students' skills in narrative, profile, and argumentative writing

Specialty Area Standards:

Standard 3: Teachers know and understand written and oral composition processes.

Standard 6: Teachers use effective strategies and techniques in teaching English Language Arts (ELA).

Standard 7: Teachers evaluate and select appropriate, high-quality resources that support learning of the ELA.

Standard 10: Teachers use instruction that promotes understanding of varied uses and purposes for language.

Diversity Standard: Teachers respect and accommodate areas of exceptionality in learning, including learning disabilities, visual and perceptual difficulties, special physical or mental challenges, and giftedness.

Specific Indicators (approved by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction):

3:1. Teachers understand how different forms of oral and written discourse can influence thought and action.

3:3. Teachers understand composition theory.

6:2. Teachers develop interdisciplinary teaching strategies and materials.

6:3. Teachers promote active, personal engagement through reading, writing, and discussion.

7:1. Teachers emphasize interdisciplinary connections through materials selected.

7:2. Teachers promote awareness of diversity through selection of appropriate instructional materials.

7:3. Teachers use information on developmental characteristics of students to provide rich and appropriately challenging materials.

10:1. Teachers model Standard English.

10:3. Teachers read and write regularly with students.

13:1. Teachers use instructional materials to meet the various needs of students.

13:2. Teachers use varying strategies and techniques to meet the individual needs of students.

Student Classroom Decorum Expectations

To enhance the learning atmosphere of the classroom, students are expected to dress and behave in a fashion conducive to learning in the classroom. More specifically, students will refrain from disruptive classroom behavior, that is, talking to classmates, disrespectful responses to teacher instructions; swearing; wearing clothes that impede academic learning such as but not limited to wearing body-revealing clothing and excessively baggy pants; hats/caps; and/or headdress. Students will turn off telephones prior to entering the classroom. Students who exhibit the behaviors described above, or similar behaviors, will be immediately dismissed from class at the third documented offense. The student will be readmitted to class only following a decision by the department chair. The student may appeal the decision of the department chair to the Dean of the College offering the course, and, subsequently, to the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, and then to the President of Shaw University. The decision of the President will be final. Failure to follow the procedures herein outlined will result in termination of the appeal, and revert to the decision of the department chair.

Each behavior construed by the teacher/professor as noncontributive to learning will be recorded, properly documented, and appropriately reported to the student and to the chair of the academic department offering the course. The report will be in written form with a copy provided to both the student and the department chair. The faculty member should retain a copy for his/her own records.

Additional student behavior codes may be found in Student Affairs.

Class Schedule and Assignments:

Week 1: Introduction to the course / Narrative (5 pages minimum) is assigned.

-Rhetoric: definition, purpose, applications. Week 2: Overview of concepts (style, voice, thesis, synthesis, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, introducing, and concluding)

-Narrative/Application of rhetoric: On features of a narrative (Examine various sources, including Readings in Writing and Reading...(Remember MDS 216 WRAC?) pp. 21-22 (on features of a narrative), pp. 415-422, and pp. 549-553.

-Chapter 1 in Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students (ARCS) + Exercises {1, 3, 4, 5} or {2, 3, 4, 5}, pp. 33-35. Note: every student must sign up on Blackboard to present a selected reading on a specific classical rhetoric. Presentations begin the 2nd week.

Week 2: General Introduction to Classical Rhetoric based on Rhetorical Tradition (RT)

-Student Presentations on Classical Rhetoric + Chapter 2 in ARCS with Exercises 2 & 3, p. 51

-Narratives: teacher writing read in class

Week 3: a) Class discussion on previously assigned readings; b) Student Presentations on Classical Rhetoric; c) Chapter 3 in ARCS + Exercises 1 & 3, pp. 92-93

Week 4: a) Student Presentations on Classical Rhetoric (end); b) Narratives:" Frederick Douglass 1818-1895" in RT, pp. 1061-1084; c) Chapter 4 in ARCS + Ex 4 & 5, pp. 131-132

Week 5: a) Narrative 1st draft is due: peer feedback + teacher feedback; b) Sign up on Blackboard to present a selected reading on a specific medieval rhetoric; Chapter 5 in ARCS + Ex 1 &2, p. 161

Week 6: a) Narrative is due/Midterm Exam assigned/Take-home Midterm Exam (5 pages minimum): write a concise explanatory synthesis on the major characteristic features of classical rhetoric. b) Argumentative is assigned: formulate a thesis and develop supporting ideas on a controversial issue (8-10 pages). Note: Restrictions on topics to select; see instructor for details.

c) Introduction to writing to persuade: the three appeals to argument: logos, ethos, pathos; d) Introduction to Medieval Rhetoric; e) Student Presentations on Medieval Rhetoric; f) Chapter 6 in RACS + Ex 1and 2 or 1 & 4, pp. 202-203

Week 7: a) Midterm Exam due; b) Student Presentations on Medieval Rhetoric; c) Chapter 7 in ARCS + Ex 1 &4, pp. 218-219

Week 8: a) Discussion of Homework and readings assigned (end); b) Student Presentations on Medieval Rhetoric (end); c) Sign up to present a selected reading on a specific Renaissance Rhetoric; d) Chapter 8 in ARCS + Ex 2 & 3

Week 9: a) Chapter 9 in ARCS +Ex 1 & 2, pp. 256-257; b) Student Presentations on Renaissance Rhetoric; c) Sign up to present a selected reading on a specific Renaissance Rhetoric.

Week 10: a) Argumentative paper is due, and Profile is assigned (8-10 pages); b) Student Presentations on Renaissance Rhetoric; c) Sign up to present a selected reading on Enlightenment Rhetoric; d) Teacher writing on profile read in class; e) Chapter 10 in ARCS + Ex 2, p. 277.

Week 11: a) Student Presentations on Enlightenment Rhetoric; b) Sign up to present a selected reading on 19th-Century Rhetoric; Chapter 11 in ARCS + Ex 3 & 5, p. 314.

Week 12: a) Student Presentations on 19th-Century Rhetoric (end); b) Sign up to present a selected reading on Modern and Postmodern Rhetoric; c) Chapter in ARCS; d) peer & teacher feedback on Profile paper.

Week 13: a) Student Presentations on Modern and Postmodern Rhetoric; b) Chapter 13 in ARCS + Ex 1, p. 350; c) Profile due.

Week 14: a) Student presentations (end); b) Take-home Final Exam: Either build upon the midterm exam in writing a short essay titled, "Trends in rhetorical theory: from the Sophist Movement to Postmodern Era," or compare and contrast two prominent classical rhetoricians' views on rhetoric, and discuss possible applications in contemporary academic writing (e.g., advanced composition)--10 pages minimum; c) Chapter 14 in ARCS.

Week 15: a) Chapter 15 in ARCS; b) Final Exam is due.

Week 16: Final Grades

STUDENT WORK ON RHETORIC

Spring 2004