RWS 200-08
RHETORIC OF WRITTEN ARGUMENTS IN CONTEXT
Spring, 2013
Instructor:
Office Hours:
Phone: 594-2773
Schedule # 22555 Day/time/room MWF 10:00-10:50 AH 3130
Pat Morgan
Office: AH 3174
MON 12:00 – 2:00, TTH 9:00 – 11:00, and by appt.
E-mail: morgan2@mail.sdsu.edu
PREREQUISITES
All RWS 200 students must have completed RWS 100, AS 120, MAS 111B, Linguistics 100, or
an equivalent course at another institution.
TEXTS AND SUPPLIES
 Raimes, Keys for Writers , Sixth Edition.
 Rottenberg/Winchell, Elements of Argument, Tenth Edition.
 Two 8 ½ X 11” blue books
 Access to a computer or word processor.
ABOUT THE COURSE
RWS 200 is a course in academic writing and reading, emphasizing the rhetorical analysis of
arguments in context. We will revisit the concept of argument many times, moving from the
context of RWS 100, expanding your level of ability to analyze and to create arguments. These
arguments will take various forms, from academic to technical to pop culture presentations
(including visual language such as cartoons and film). In short, the aim is to convince you that
"everything's an argument."
While it is important to be able to analyze individual arguments, a key goal of this course is to
help you see that arguments do not exist in a vacuum. We will concentrate on identifying and
understanding the background assumptions in each argument. You should come to see
arguments as positioned in the middle of an ongoing discussion. Each successive unit will move
you farther into an investigation of this interconnectedness, calling on you to find sources that
participate in and influence discussion of issues introduced in class. At some points in the
course, you will be attempting to trace an argument back to its earlier sources, and at other times
you will be attempting to move the discussion forward to a recommended response.
As you work on this understanding and as you create your own arguments, you will also be
reviewing the appropriate forms and conventions of various types of discourse—particularly
conventions of formal academic writing (this is what the style manual is for). You should also
begin to identify, understand, and use the conventions of your chosen major. It is my hope that
you will leave this class with a greater awareness of the structure and intent of the messages that
constantly bombard you, and that, as you increase your awareness, you will become a more
effective information producer and consumer.
General Education Capacities/Goals & RWS Learning Outcomes
Our Learning Outcomes Reflect the Goals and Capacities of the General Education Program.
RWS 200 is one of several courses in the area of general education defined as “Communication
and Critical Thinking.” Focusing particularly on argument, this course emphasizes four
essential general education capacities: the ability to 1) construct, analyze and communicate
argument, 2) contextualize phenomena, 3) negotiate differences, and 4) apply theoretical
models to the real world. This course advances general education by helping students
understand the general function of writing, speaking, visual texts, and thinking within the
context of the university at large, rather than within specific disciplines. In addition to featuring
the basic rules and conventions governing composition and presentation, RWS 200 establishes
intellectual frameworks and analytical tools that help students explore, construct, critique, and
integrate sophisticated texts.
Within this framework of four general capacities, the course realizes four closely related
subsidiary goals. These goals focus on helping students
1) craft well-reasoned arguments for specific audiences;
2) analyze a variety of texts commonly encountered in the academic setting;
3) situate discourse within social, generic, cultural, and historic contexts; and
4) assess the relative strengths of arguments and supporting evidence.
Our student learning outcomes for RWS 200 are closely aligned with these goals and
capacities, and reflect the program’s overall objective of helping students attain “essential skills
that underlie all university education.”
Assignment Types: the following four outcomes describe the four main writing projects or
"assignment types" for the course. Students will be able to:
1. Construct an account of an argument and identify elements of context embedded in it, the
clues that show what the argument is responding to--both in the sense of what has come
before it and in the sense that it is written for an audience in a particular time and place;
examine a writer’s language in relation to audience, context and community;
2. follow avenues of investigation that are opened by noticing elements of context; research
those elements and show how one's understanding of the argument is developed,
changed, or evolved by looking into its context;
3. given the common concerns of two or more arguments, discuss how the claims of these
arguments modify, complicate or qualify one another;
4. consider their contemporary, current life as the context within which they are reading the
arguments assigned in the class; position themselves in relation to these arguments and
additional ones they have researched in order to make an argument; draw on available
key terms, concepts or frameworks of analysis to help shape the argument.
Outcomes across the semester: the following points describe outcomes to work on throughout
the semester, to be attained over the 15 weeks. Students will be able to:
5. Building on the work done in RWS 100, students will be able to: articulate what
argument a text is making; describe the work that is done by each section of the
argument; describe elements of the argument—claims, methods of development, kinds of
evidence, persuasive appeals; translate an argument into their own words;
6. understand and incorporate all aspects of the writing process--including prewriting,
drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading;
7. articulate what key terms, definitions, concepts, statements of a problem or issue are
established by a text;
8. investigate and articulate how an argument is positioned—based on certain kinds of
assumptions, located in a way of thinking and representing issues from a point of view;
9. work with multiples sources in a paper, deciding what to include and what to exclude,
choosing an effective structure, and creating significant relationships among sources;
10. analyze and assess arguments made by visual texts; incorporate visual images into their
documents;
11. craft a cohesive paper, and use effective metadiscourse to articulate the project of the
paper and guide a reader through it;
12. describe their own papers and reflect on how they wrote them; differentiate between the
content of their texts and the language and rhetorical strategies they employ;
13. assign significance to the arguments they read;
14. revise their own work effectively, re-reading previous work and re-envisioning it in the
light of reflection, feedback, further reading and new sources of information;
15. edit their writing for the grammar and usage conventions appropriate to the project.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
Class assignments will include the following:
 Class participation/In-class work
In class activities will include group work practicing various critical reading techniques,
peer evaluation, class discussion, and a number of “quick write” exercises held at the
beginning of many class sessions. Please note that class sessions will sometimes be
comprised of individual conferences. Important inclusion—a 30-point debate.
 In-class writing
One day of each unit will be devoted to an in-class response to the readings for that
unit—25 points possible for each. The unit outlines will announce each of these dates;
bring a large (8 ½ “ X 11”) blue book to class. I will count the highest three of these.
 Rhetoric/writing/composition exercises. These will vary—either revisions, grammar or
punctuation practice, or composition exercises
 Four 4-6 page papers and their revisions
The class will be divided into four units. Each unit will have an assigned paper due at the
end of the unit. You will receive a new unit outline the class session the new unit begins.
Use MLA format unless otherwise directed. All final drafts must be typed. In fact, any
out of class work should be typed as well. Please note: Each major paper is worth 100
points. In addition, each paper will be handed in with attachments (collections of prewriting, critical analysis, and short form work). These attachments comprise a
significant number of additional points; give these assignments the attention they
deserve from you and earn for you.

Reflection unit The last unit is a review unit. You will be asked to reflect on your
experience in this class and analyze what you have learned from the readings and the
writing assignments.
Your grade in this class will be determined using the following scaled scoring system:
Class participation/in-class activities
100 points
In-class reading responses
75 points
Rhetoric/writing/composition exercises
100 points
Four unit papers
575 points
Reflection unit
150 points
Total
1000 points
*The instructor reserves the right to make minor adjustments to this point allocation.
This adds up to 1000 possible points. The grade scale is as follows:
900 - 1000 points A
800 - 899 points B
700 - 799 points C
600 - 699 points D
599 points or fewer F
***I do give + and – grades for point totals coming within 10 points of another grade.
EXPECTATIONS
1. Attendance: Your presence (physical and mental) in class is expected; missing class,
arriving late, and leaving early are all unacceptable. Any of these will lower your participation
grade. Please note that attendance for this class should include office visits and several
conferences with me during the semester. Students report that the individual feedback they
receive during these sessions is extremely helpful.
Special cases: 1) Student athletes—let me know your game schedule; 2) students receiving
accommodation through SDS—make me aware of this so that I can make arrangements for inclass writings; 3) students who will be missing class for any religious holiday—inform me. You
must let me know within the first two weeks of class.
2. Effort/workload: Officially, a three-unit course entails six hours of work outside of class each
week. The more time you and effort you spend on this course, the more you will get out of it.
3. Behavior: In college, it is simply assumed that you will not be disruptive, do work for
another class, read the newspaper (unless it is part of a class exercise), use a cellular phone or
any other electronic device (this includes texting!), “pack up” early, or engage in any other
inappropriate behavior. Also, no food or drink, please. It is distracting!
Come to class prepared to be an active, positive participant. Please note that positive
participation means respectful interaction with your classmates—even when you disagree. We
will even be practicing rules of formal debate. Take advantage of the opportunity to engage in
polite, substantive discourse!
4. Late work: Make up of an in-class assignment will not be permitted without special prior
arrangement with me; missing a due date on an out-of-class assignment will result in a
significant reduction in grade; missing a deadline means the work will not be accepted. Writing
is a discipline. Please practice keeping to deadlines.
5. Plagiarism: According to Ann Raimes in Keys for Writers, "The word plagiarize comes
from a Latin word meaning 'to kidnap,' and kidnapping or stealing someone else's ideas and
presenting them as your own is regarded as a serious offense in Western academic culture and
public life." In this class, violation could lead to University disciplinary action—up to and
including expulsion from the university. I will take Raimes' definitions and guidelines on pages
134 - 136 as those to be followed in our classroom. We will discuss these at length in our class
soon.
WELCOME
WELCOME! THIS IS A DEMANDING COURSE, BUT A REWARDING ONE. PLEASE
TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF THIS UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO SHARPEN SKILLS
YOU WILL BE USING THE REST OF YOUR COLLEGE CAREER (AND BEYOND). I AM
HERE TO HELP, AND I WELCOME OFFICE VISITS. BEST WISHES.