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Rhetoric II COR 125-07                                        Fall 2015

Three (3) credit hours                                        Wed.-Fri. 2:00-3:15

                                                                        Joyce 202

Instructor: James McGinniss                      

E-mail:  jmcginniss@champlain.edu        

Office Hours: Please contact me before or after class if you wish to meet. We can arrange to meet at Rm. 100 Aiken Hall, or elsewhere on campus, by appointment. I do not post regular Office Hours.

Required Text:

We will occasionally select readings from the Rhetorical Readings, which are accessed through Canvas (“Files”). We will also read the following text this semester:

As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner.

There are pdf versions of this novel available on-line. The trade paperback version (ISBN 10-067973225) is available at the Champlain Bookstore.

Style Manual:

Students are encouraged to utilize a free online resource, namely, the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) -- http://owl.english.purdue.edu/. 

Students learn rhetorical strategies to read and write in response to academic texts in various disciplines. Thematically linked to COR 110, the course teaches students to engage with ideas and work through difficult texts by posing meaningful questions and analyzing both what a text says and how it says it. Students learn to use writing for learning, thinking and effectively communicating their opinions and understanding of their reading through effective summaries, paraphrases, analyses and critiques.

Learning Outcomes:

Students will write essays and, whenever possible, read them aloud in class. Listening skills will be important, in order to address aspects of the writing that are present in an oral presentation. Student essays will also be projected for the class, as they are read aloud, which will aid in identifying where the essay is successful or awkward.

The multiple revision process will be emphasized throughout the semester, in concert with oral and written responses from the instructor and peers. Students will implement strategies to understand a variety of assigned texts. These excerpts and essays will form the basis of discussion in the classroom and will occasionally be the starting point of written assignments. For example, an essay that features one of the assigned thematic readings may be assigned. The student will then implement that essay as a template to produce their own essay on a similar or a different topic.

Students will practice critical reading and listening skills, and will identify the thesis or point (explicit or implicit) of a written text, as well as learn to identify supporting details. Students will learn to recognize rhetorical strategies-- what makes a text interesting, effective or persuasive—and will employ strategies to understand texts in fields that may be new to them. The course work will entail developing writing strategies (prewriting, expressive writing, free-writing and so forth) to enhance and broaden both reading and writing skills.

Attention will be paid to the habit of writing to a specific audience and purpose. Students will be encouraged to employ words clearly and appropriately, write coherent paragraphs, relate sentences logically to the topic sentence and to create a thesis. Formally, students will be introduced to the idea of structuring their writing along the lines of an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Students will be encouraged to write concisely, to recognize redundant words or passages, and to effectively proof, edit and revise their own work.

Students will also be introduced to the practice of citing texts according to MLA format and will be expected to produce a finished draft of a college level response paper. It is important that students learn how to include specific, appropriate, and adequate evidence to support a stated idea. Some time will be spent identifying the format of essays required at the college level. In general, this class will facilitate the use of writing to communicate a text’s argument and review rhetorical strategies involved in summary, analysis and / or critiquing a text.

Description:

 Building on the skills learned in Rhetoric I, this second-semester course teaches students to develop opinions based on critical reading and discussion of interesting and diverse texts into effectively written and researched arguments. Students continue to learn strategies for writing texts that are clear, coherent, comprehensive, creative, concise and correct for a specific audience and purpose. Students learn rhetorical strategies to read and write in response to academic texts in various disciplines. Thematically linked to COR 120, the course teaches students to engage with ideas and work through difficult texts by posing meaningful questions and analyzing both what a text says and how it says it. Students learn to use writing for learning, thinking and effectively communicating their opinions and understanding of their reading through effective summaries, paraphrases, analyses and critiques.

Learning Outcomes:

Students will recognize rhetorical strategies (e.g., what makes a text interesting, effective, persuasive, including the writer’s voice, choice of genre, ethos, pathos, logos) and analyze how a text makes a specific point to an audience with a specific purpose. They will develop meaningful arguments for a variety of purposes and audiences by synthesizing multiple sources of evidence and establish authorial voice through control of tone, style and an awareness of their political, philosophical and social values. Students are encouraged to synthesize multiple perspectives. Students will be asked to work in small groups and to effectively and appropriately engage in discussion. The writing assignments and the class discussion will constitute how the students reflect on what they have learned.

Students will write essays and, whenever possible, read them aloud in class. Listening skills will be important, in order to address aspects of the writing that are present in an oral presentation. Student essays will also be occasionally projected for the class, as they are read aloud, which will aid in identifying where the essay is successful or awkward.

The multiple revision process will be emphasized throughout the semester, in concert with oral and written responses from the instructor and peers. Students will implement strategies to understand a variety of assigned texts. These excerpts and essays will form the basis of discussion in the classroom and will occasionally be the starting point of written assignments. For example, an essay that features one of the Rhetorical Readings may be assigned. The student will then implement that essay as a template to produce their own essay on a similar or a different topic.

Students will demonstrate the following critical reading and thinking skills: they will analyze arguments, recognize tones of voice (irony, satire, humor), recognize rhetorical strategies (e.g., what makes a text interesting, effective, persuasive) for a specific audience, formulate useful questions about complex texts to develop a thesis. Students will conduct research using primary and secondary sources, evaluate information in terms of its reliability and potential to contribute to and advance a thesis, recognize logical fallacies and employ appropriate reading strategies to understand difficult texts in differing discourse communities. In concert with other outcomes, students will demonstrate the following listening, discussing, and presenting skills: they will converse constructively, critically, and civilly with peers-- about complex and provocative texts-- and present ideas, formally and informally, to the class. Students are expected to demonstrate the following critical writing skills with attention to a specific audience and purpose: they will write arguments addressing a clear question and defend a thesis in response to that question, synthesize information and ideas from several sources to create various short formal and informal essays. They will incorporate and document directly quoted passages from a variety of sources in MLA format. As a principle part of the course work, students will write formal research–driven essays using a variety of sources, constructively critique the writing of their peers, revise their writing-- to create and develop new ideas on the basis of early drafts, proofread effectively and, finally, adapt writing strategies to different discourse communities.

Written Assignments:

Please pay careful attention to this paragraph and the description entitled “The Revision Process”, which has been uploaded to Canvas! I will collect the papers and make edit calls on them. These papers will then be returned to the student so that revisions may be accomplished. The student revises the paper and then hands it in with the first draft containing my edit calls attached. (This is the second time the paper is handed in!) I will then grade the paper and return it to the student. Be sure to follow MLA format. Please include the section number. Use staples, please; do not use paper clips. It is strongly recommended that you keep your drafts and your graded papers in a folder, at least for the duration of the semester. My experience has been that many students—for a variety of reasons—don’t understand that handing in a revised paper is the mechanism for obtaining a grade!

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