Rhetoric and Writing Studies 200:
The Rhetoric of Written Arguments in Context
Instructor Matt Costello
email: matthew.costello@sbcglobal.net*
Department Office: AH 3138 (mailbox)
Office: Adams Humanities 3112
Office Hour: MW 1:00-2:00,
and/or by appointment
*the email address is NOT for submitting assignments
Required Text/Materials
R&W 200: Digital Information: Examining Threats to Education, Press Freedom, and Privacy
A Notebook for notes on readings and writing assignments, and in-class writings
This Syllabus—it will be a much-needed reference throughout the semester
Course Description
While this course provides reading and writing instruction, it offers reading
material that touches on a number of different, vital aspects of our culture and common
experience. No prior knowledge of the subject matter is required. The writers provide
arguments that are worthy of consideration, and knowledge that has a connection to our
everyday lives. This is what makes for the best writing—challenging ideas, and
information that relates to our own experience.
This class continues the work of R&W 100 in that it demands a high level of
critical thinking in response to a variety of texts, as well as the ability to analyze the
“rhetorical situation”—how texts use evidence and appeals to convince an audience within
a certain context. As with 100, you will be asked to engage in a number of different
writing tasks, including shorter, handwritten responses, formal essays, timed writing, and
various types of research and analysis.
The most important distinction between 100 and 200 is the heightened emphasis
this course puts on multiple sources, and their relationships to each other, and to their
audiences. For example, the reading in each sequence will present multiple angles on the
same basic subject, and the idea is to recognize how they relate, as well as how they differ
due to certain contexts, purposes or audiences. Your essays will present your positions on
the issues—informed arguments that show knowledge of multiple views. You will also be
providing your own sources for your essays as well, so research will be an important
component of the class. R&W also emphasizes the practical concerns of essay writing,
such as organization, what to include/exclude, using sources, citing sources, using
quotations, revision, and proofreading.
The course content consists of a variety of texts: newspaper articles,
chapters/excerpts from books, films, etc. which make arguments about higher education
and public issues like press freedom and privacy. Your task is to both understand some of
the prevalent arguments on these issues, and to make claims of your own. Your claims,
and the way you support them, will determine the value of your essays. My goal is that
you leave this class with some new insight on the mission of college, the value of press
freedom, and the issues of privacy and surveillance, in addition to improving your writing
skills, your critical reading/thinking skills, and your argumentative ability. Our four
subject areas are: 1) Higher Education: The Profit Motive and Online Courses,
2) Freedom of the Press Under Fire, 3) Data Gathering and Protection, and
4) Edward J. Snowden: “Spy vs. Leaker.” The course will also feature timed writing,
including a timed final exam in preparation for the Writing Proficiency Assessment.
This class will be active, so it’s very important that you come to class prepared to
participate in group discussion, small group work, and writing exercises that pertain to the
assignments. Improving on your grammar and sentence structure is also important, and
much of this work will be handled on an individual basis. A significant amount of class
time will be devoted to student and instructor feedback on your essays, so you will be
expected to use these evaluations during revision. To succeed in this class, you need to
read actively, keep pace with the assignments, submit them on time, maintain good
attendance so you don’t miss quizzes and participation points, and write good revisions to
improve your grades.
Course Requirements
Attendance: You will be allowed four absences without a major penalty, but your final
grade will be reduced by 1/3 of a letter grade for each absence after four. These are
not excused absences—absences up to four will detract from your participation grade.
Participation: It is vital that you prepare in order to participate in class discussions and
quizzes. This means doing any assignments and essays on time. Attendance is another part
of the participation grade, as well as being on time, doing your work with effort and
integrity, and not missing any assignments. Do not sleep in class. Phones, headphones, or
any communication devices may NOT be used in class, and should be turned OFF in class.
No Plagiarism or Cheating!! Using another writer’s work as if it is yours is illegal and will
not be tolerated. It is very easy to tell when a student copies from a source or another
student. If you plagiarize material from a source or cheat by copying another student’s
work, the assignment will receive a zero, and the incident will go on record with the Office
of Student Rights and Responsibilities.
Take Notes!! They will help you as you construct your essays. They are a necessary part
of the writing process, and will lead to higher grades if you put the effort into them.
3 Essays—the culminating writing project of each sequence, except the fourth sequence.
These papers must be at least three full pages, and must be typed, double spaced, with
one-inch margins on all sides and 12-point font. No cover pages are needed. These papers
will go through two drafts. If you fail to have the first draft on time, you will lose five
points on the graded draft automatically. First drafts must reach the middle of page
three, with one-inch margins, or you will not receive credit for them. Submit the
graded draft with the evaluation sheet.
Revisions of the Essays will be done before they are submitted for grades. Each first
draft will be evaluated in class, and the second draft will be graded. This gives you the
opportunity to rewrite until you have a polished graded draft.
1 Optional Revision: For extra credit, you may rewrite one of the essays after it’s graded if
you want to go for a higher grade. This revision will be due at the end of the semester.
Grades will only go up if the essay is truly improved. By doing the optional revision, you
are trying to earn whatever points were deducted from the graded draft. Submit the
graded draft with the optional revision, so I can see the changes.
4 10-Point Assignments: These are shorter, handwritten answers in response to the
readings, and should be two full pages long minimum. Because these assignments are
worth 10 points, they should be seen as formal assignments and edited carefully.
4 Quizzes will be given on the readings. They will be unannounced, and usually given at
the beginning of class. If you come in as we’re going over the answers, you’ve missed the
quiz and may not make it up.
Extensions: You will be granted one extension for a late assignment during the semester.
You may use the extension for a graded essay or a 10-point assignment, and no points will
be deducted. You may also use your extension for a first draft of an essay (in order to
avoid the 5-point penalty). If you use the extension for a first draft, you will not submit a
first draft, and your graded draft is due within a week of the due date for the graded draft.
After you use your extension, late assignments will not be accepted. When you use your
extension, the late assignment is due within one week. Extensions may not be used more
than a week after the assignment was due.
Final Exam—a timed exam at the end of the fourth sequence on Edward Snowden.
Additional Information and Rules
NO MAKE-UP QUIZZES WILL BE GIVEN.
NO UNSTAPLED OR UNTYPED PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED.
LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED, except for your one extension.
**TURN OFF LAPTOPS, PHONES, i-Pods, ETC. AND DO NOT USE THEM IN
CLASS. Texting/looking at a device will cost 5 pts. off the participation grade.
STUDENT CONFERENCES: These are important student/teacher consultations about
your writing, upcoming assignments, grades, etc. Missing them counts as an absence.
Grade Breakdown
Participation
4 Essays (4x30)
4 10-point Assignments (4x10)
4 Quizzes (4x5)
Total
Grade Scale
186-200 A
180-185 A-
20
120
40
20
200
174-179 B+ 154-159 C+ 136-139 D+
166-173 B
146-153 C
131-135 D
160-165 B- 140-145 C- 126-130 D- 0-125 F
General Course Calendar (to be supplemented by detailed daily calendars)
Weeks 1-5: Higher Education: The Profit Motive and Online Courses
Weeks 5-9: Freedom of the Press Under Fire
Weeks 9-12: Data Gathering and Protection
Weeks 13-16: Edward J. Snowden: “Spy vs. Leaker”
RWS 200 Student Learning Outcomes
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.
Student Learning Outcomes for RWS 200
The following four outcomes describe the four major writing projects or "assignment
types" for the course. Students will be able to:
1. Discern elements of context embedded in arguments, 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 a group of arguments; position themselves in relation to ongoing research
and discussion in order to make an argument, drawing on available key terms,
concepts or frameworks of analysis to help shape the argument.
The following points describe outcomes to work on throughout the semester, to be attained
over the 15 weeks.
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. craft a cohesive paper, and use effective metadiscourse to guide a reader through it;
11. 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;
12. 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;
13. edit their writing for the grammar and usage conventions appropriate to the project.