English 388 - Rhetoric, Writing & Society

This course is an introduction to the history, theory, and practice of rhetoric, defined here as the art of persuasion. For nearly 2,500 years, rhetoric has been the central academic discipline for thinking about the adaptation of discourse to purpose, audience, occasion, and subject matter. The earliest rhetorical arts were focused on public speaking in direct democracies; later rhetorics treated eloquence more broadly, including written discourse and its role in not only political and legal affairs but also religion, science, commerce, art, and education. More contemporary rhetorical theories have expanded the purview of rhetoric to include visual media, digital culture, and nonverbal performance and to see rhetorical motivations lurking in artifacts produced without conscious persuasive design. Rhetoric is useful as a critical tool for analyzing others? discourse; as a practical art for inventing one?s own discourse; and as a theoretical discipline for interrogating the languages of social and political life. In this course, we?ll learn about and practice these various rhetorics.

CW Gen Ed The course is also meant to help students meet objective 10 of the English section of the Massachusetts Test for Educator Licensure (MTEL): to understand principles of rhetoric as they apply to various forms and purposes of oral and written communication.