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Rhetorical

Strategies
for Writers

English 223: Rhetorical Strategies for Writers


Class Grades/Info:
Course Niihka site
Class Blog & Comments:
Google+ Community page
Office Hours: TR 2:30-3:30pm
via Google Hangout (taylo206).

Dr. Katie Trauth Taylor


Assistant Professor of English
Miami University
Email: taylo206@gmail.com

Overview
Rhetoric, or the art of effective and persuasive composing, plays a critical role in all forms of
communicationfrom written text to visual argument. ENG 223: Rhetorical Strategies for
Writers guides students in developing a complex awareness of rhetoric in written, spoken,
visual, and digital texts. Our course introduces students to a variety of rhetorical strategies
and concepts, many dating back to Ancient Greece and the earliest educational institutions of
Western history, in order to prepare students to effectively analyze how texts persuade
audiences. In this writing-intensive course, students will learn not only to analyze, but also to
compose their own effective, rhetorically aware texts for audiences within and beyond the
academic classroom.

Learning Objectives
In this writing-intensive course, students will:
Develop a complex understanding of rhetorical strategies and concepts.
Apply rhetorical strategies and concepts to analyze and compose persuasive texts.
Engage civic topics from multiple perspectives, observing the impacts of various
rhetorical strategies on diverse audiences.
Intensively study and practice the art of style, exploring how word choice, sentence
structure, and rhetorical grammar choices can contribute to persuasion.
Reflect about your own writing habits and processes, discovering what strategies work
best to help you invent ideas, write productively, and revise creatively.
Consider critically the ethical and socio-political implications of diverse forms of
persuasive argumentation.

Required Texts

Longaker, Mark Garrett and Jeffrey Walker. Rhetorical Analysis: A Brief Guide for
Writers. New York: Longman/Pearson, 2011.
Selected articles (under Resources on our course Niihka site)

Grading
Throughout the course, I invite you to talk openly with me about your progress in the
course. The following items determine your grade:
Assignment
Grade Percentage
Participation, Blog Posts, Comments, & Quizzes
20%
Midterm Exam
20%
Project 1: Comparative Rhetorical Analysis
20%
Project 2: Structural Analysis and Revision of a Successful Text
20%
Project 3: Editorial Argument and Partner Analysis
20%
Total
100%
All major assignments will be graded on the standard Miami University letter-grade scale: A+=100-98, A=97-93, A=92-90, B+=89-88, B=87-83, B-=82-80, C+=79-78, C=77-73, C-=72-70, D+=69-68, D=67-63, D-=62-60, F=59 or below.

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Projects & Assignments


The projects in this course present writing as a process that best involves response and
revision. One of the most accepted claims in writing research is that people become strong
writers by writing. Our writing projects are designed for you to articulate course knowledge,
grapple with course concepts and readings, apply skills gained through short assignments and
in-class activities, and develop your confidence and skill in analytical and argumentative
writing. I will offer feedback on your writing with the expectation that you will consider my
and your peersfeedback as you revise.
Project 1: Comparative Rhetorical Analysis (20%)
Our course will explore rhetoric circulating within multiple current events. This project asks
you to apply your knowledge of rhetorical strategies and concepts to compare and analyze a
series of texts surrounding a particular current or historical event. You will compare and
contrast 2-3 rhetorical texts (i.e. articles, editorials, essays, speeches, advertisements, or
works of art) that make persuasive arguments about a shared issue.
Project 2: Analysis of a Successful Text (20%)
This project invites you to reflect back on a successful written, spoken, or digital text that
you created in the recent past. Your goal is to write a report wherein you introduce the text
and its rhetorical situation; analyze the rhetorical strategies that made the text effective in
that situation; and explain how you could revise the text today by adding new rhetorical
strategies youve learned this semester.
Project 3: Editorial Argument and Analysis (20%)
Write an editorial and an accompanying memo documenting contextual information about the
rhetorical situation that your editorial addresses (including a description of the issue,
context, and audience). Your editorial should focus on an issue you care about, and should be
written either in your own voice or the voice of a fictional persona. Next, you will partner
with another student, who will read your editorial and the contextual information you
provide. Your partner will then conduct and write an analysis of the rhetorical strategies that
you employ and their effective or ineffective impact on your audienceand you will do the
same for your partners editorial. This project encourages you to both apply and analyze the
impact of rhetorical strategies on public arguments.
Course Participation: Modules, Blogs, & Quizzes (20%)
Course Modules & Self-Pacing
This section of English 223 aims to meet your expectations as a distance education student,
and thus uses a module and self-pacing approach. Here are some guidelines to help you
understand how self-pacing and modules work:
Modules, or packages including course content and assignments, open one at a time on
Niihka. Students may work ahead within each module, but only within that module.
Students or groups cannot work ahead on peer reviews. Begin reviewing and responding
on the day that drafts are due.
You are encouraged to explore the many collaborative Niihka tools available to our class,
like chat sessions and forums.
Blogs entries and responses must be submitted on-time. Almost every week, you must
write one (1) blog post and five (5) follow-up comments/responses to entries submitted
by your peers.

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Course Participation: Blog Posts and Comments
Since we dont meet face-to-face (F2F), our online blog posts and comments are the glue that
holds the course together, makes collaboration possible, and helps you achieve course goals.
Our activity online substitutes for in-person discussion in interesting (and sometimes deeper)
ways. For these reasons, your engagement in these online discussions will require serious
and consistent attention throughout the course. It won't be possible to make up missed
postings later since the discussion will have already moved on.
Our online interactions occur in two primary ways:

Blog Posts: Much of your writing for this class will be posted publicly to all students
in our class on our Google+ Community page. You will receive an invitation to this
page on the first day of class. You are responsible for writing only one 300-word blog
post almost every week as a reading response. Read the syllabus schedule carefully to
learn about the weeks blog topic. These blog posts will function to synthesize the
readings and your reactions to them, much like class discussion. See Principles of Blog
Posting (on our Google+ Community under Blog) for more information.

Comments and Replies: Each week, you are required to submit five (5) comments
and replies (e.g., follow-up responses) to that weeks blog posts (reading and other
responses posted by other students). Aim for 100 words per comment/response and
attempt to space-out your comments over at least two days each week. Your
responsibilities are to:
o Think of your comments and replies as part of a lively class discussion in which
everyone participates.
o Keep threads alive and relevant and follow-up on comments with further
discussion.
o Use hyperlinks to add information or resources to the conversation, when
helpful.

Expectations
Attendance
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
Since this is an online course, your attendance at a physical location is not required.
However, you will need to demonstrate active involvement in the course activities by keeping
up with reading responses and other coursework. You will also need to respond to course
email promptly to ensure that good communication flows in all directions. More than one
continuous week of absence from course activities is grounds for failure of the class. If you
disappear for a few days here, another few days there, and some more later, then your final
grade may be lowered, and you will likely see your class participation suffer. In addition, if
you are frequently "absent" from the online discussions (i.e., you fail to post for several days
at a time), your module grade may be lowered.
Late Work
The majority of missed class assignments cannot be made up. If a serious and unavoidable
problem arises, however, you should contact me in writing prior to the deadline to determine
whether or not an extension will be granted.
Technology Responsibilities
Writing is a technology that restructures thought. Walter Ong

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Familiarity with certain technologies is crucial for participation and success in the course. If
you need any assistance now or at any point during the semester, simply ask. You are
responsible for the following tasks:
Access your @miamioh.edu email, our course Niihka site, and our Google+ Community
page regularly for announcements.
Become proficient using email attachments, resolving file compatibility issues, and
following email decorum.
Maintain back-up copies of all assignments via your home directory, USB drives, or CDs.
Be open-minded to new technologies that might be encouraged or introduced in our class.
Academic Integrity
Plagiarism is the representation of anothers images, words, or ideas as ones own. It includes
the unacknowledged word-for-word use and/or paraphrasing of another persons work
(whether these ideas appear in traditional print text, in an image etc.), and/or the
inappropriate, unacknowledged use of another persons ideas. If you have questions about
what constitutes plagiarism, please let me know. This is a serious topic that we will discuss in
class. Plagiarizing can ruin a students academic career. See Miami Universitys Plagiarism
Policy at: http://www.ham.miamioh.edu/library/plagiarism.
Howe Writing Center
If youd like help from a highly skilled set of tutors at Miami University, please visit the Howe
Writing Center! Make your appointment online or at the Welcome Desk at the Howe Writing
Center on the first floor of the King Library. I appreciate the effort it takes to visit the
Writing Center and strongly believe in the help they provide there.
Access / Accommodations
I am committed to maximizing your learning potential and making this course as accessible as
possible. I can give you feedback on your work in text format, in on-line chat, in face-to-face
conversation, or in digital audio format (depending on how you learn best). If you have
difficulty using our course website, I can alter it to meet your needs. If you have difficulty
learning from particular course activities, I may be able to provide alternatives. In other
words, if there is any way that I can adapt this course to better meet your unique needs as a
learner, please let me know! If you have a documented disability, I am especially interested
in providing any accommodations that have been determined by you and the learning
assistance center in advance.

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