RWS 200: The Rhetoric of Written Arguments in Context
San Diego State University, Spring 2013
Instructor: Bert Dill
Sections:
#11 – (10 am MWF)
#26 – (1 pm MWF)
#30 – (3:30 pm MW)
Office: AH 3156
email: bdill@mail.sdsu.edu
bdillrhetoric@cox.net .
SKYPE voicemail 619-618-0242
(I prefer email.).
Office hours: 2:30-3:15 MWF
Texts and Materials:
Bizzell and Herzberg. Negotiating Difference: Cultural Case Studies for Composition. Boston:
Bedford St. Martin's, 1996.
Raimes, Ann. Keys for Writers. 6th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
A good college dictionary (such as The American Heritage Dictionary)
Access to a computer with word processing and printing capability (or a typewriter) as well as
Internet and email capability.
Course Description:
RWS 200, The Rhetoric of Written Arguments in Context, satisfies the university requirement
in Intermediate Composition and Critical Thinking. Other courses, which satisfy this
requirement, are Africana Studies 200, Linguistics 200 and Philosophy 110. To enroll in any of
these courses, students must have satisfied the Lower Division Writing Competency
Requirement.
RWS 200 is a course in academic writing and reading, emphasizing the rhetorical analysis
of arguments in context. Building on RWS 100, the course asks students to continue the work
of articulating what argument a text is making and describing elements of the argument. It now
asks them to also consider the contexts of arguments and to discover what arguments are
responding to, both in the sense of what has come before them and in the sense that they are
written for an audience in a particular place and time.
The course examines the ways in which writers use sources in their writing in order to pursue
questions and understand both experiences and texts. By the end of the course, students
should be able to write and revise papers for which they have investigated arguments in
context, created significant relationships among them, and shown an understanding of their
positioned, cultural dimension. Students should be able to make independent decisions about
structure, cohesion and conventions of correctness. They should be able to present an
argument—not in the sense of defending an already-formed opinion, but in the sense of
having inquired into a question and discovered ways to analyze, use, and respond to texts
about that question.
Course Content
Reading: Course readings will be difficult, in terms of both amount and complexity. The
subjects are often unfamiliar, the ideas are often challenging, and the language is often
difficult. Our main goal is to understand these arguments from within their own contexts, in
relation to their own time, and often in relation to each other. We are trying to understand
the intentions of the authors, not just to form or to express our own opinions on the topics.
In fact, it can be fairly said that until we have genuinely understood an author in depth, we
are not entitled to an opinion.
Writing: The course involves a good deal of writing. Most of it will involve exploring,
analyzing, evaluating, and responding to the reading assignments.
Rhetoric: Perhaps the easiest way of understanding the term “rhetoric” is to see it simply as
the art of persuasion. Students in this course will study the principles of effective
argumentation, examine the writings of others to see these principles in action, (noting
how writers vary the use of these principles in actual argumentative contexts) and employ
these principles in their own writings.
Policies: You are expected to attend all classes (on time) and to turn in all assignments (also
on time). The assigned readings for each class must be read before the beginning of class.
Assignments are due at the beginning of class. You are expected to participate in class
discussions based on these readings (and the quality, not just the amount, of your
participation is important). You cannot participate if you have not read the assignments or if
you are surreptitiously attempting to finish an assignment during a class discussion.
Ordinarily there will be no make up work allowed unless you have a documented emergency.
Please turn off all beepers, pagers, phones, iPods, etc., before entering class. Please do not
turn them on again until you have exited the room entirely (meaning do not stop in the
doorway to dig you phone out of a backpack while thirty other students are trying to get out to
go to their next class).
Please observe all the standards of student conduct outlined in you SDSU Catalog. Please
treat each other with the respect appropriate to a college classroom.
Grading:
Unit Sequence Assignments (3) -----------------------------------------15%
Essay Assignments (including final exam) (5) -------------------------- 70%
Miscellaneous Assignments ----------------------------------------------7%
Instructor's evaluation of effort, progress, participation, etc. -----8%
Missing work will be graded as zero. Please consider carefully the effect of a zero on your
overall average.
A word of warning about plagiarism
Don’t Do it!
“One of the unintended effects of new technology is to force new moral decisions upon us”
Lawrence Hinman, UCSD
Yes, the massive availability of information through the Internet has provided those who lack academic
integrity a wealth of opportunity to cheat. Completely finished research papers may be purchased and
downloaded in a few minutes. Others are posted on personal web pages and may be copied for
nothing. It is very easy to lift major sections from web sites and to incorporate them into your paper
without giving credit to the author. (Study your handbook for legal ways of using such information.) It
is also a bit difficult for your teacher to catch all the offenders. Studies also indicate that about 80% of
today’s students seem to believe there is no problem with cheating. For those of you who tend to
sacrifice integrity for expediency, I have two points, one philosophical the other pragmatic: first, as both
the ancient stoics and the modern existentialists have pointed out, we become what we have chosen
to be--we are what we do (I laugh at those who try to tell me they are really honest people after they
have cheated--get a clue!); second, if I catch you, you get a zero--not an F--and you can go take the
course again with someone else. I fully support university policies regarding plagiarism.
Don’t Do it!
Student Learning Outcomes for RWS 200
The following four outcomes describe the four major writing projects 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.
The following points describe outcomes to work on throughout the semester, to be attained
over the semester
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.
RWS 200 Essay Assignments
1. Articulating argument and context: Study the essay “Federalist #10” by
James Madison and submit the following:
a. An annotated copy of the essay using some version of the principles set
forth in Adler’s “How to Mark a Book.”
b. A detailed outline of Madison’s argument
c. An abstract of no more than 300 words summarizing his argument
d. An essay based on the following:
i. What does Madison see as the advantages of the Constitution?
ii. What does Madison see and the weaknesses and strengths of other
governmental plans (such as direct democracy or elimination of
states)?
iii. Why do you agree or disagree (either completely or in part) with
Madison theory and how would you change it or why wouldn’t you?
Bring at least one, preferably two typed copies of the essay to class on the
assigned date for peer review.
2. Researching elements of Contexts: After you have studied all the
assignments in Unit One and have completed the Unit One Study Project
(details given separately), research (by means of the library or Academic—that
is, peer reviewed—internet sources) and write a report that compares the
relationships between the Puritans and Native Americans with one of the
following:
a. The Spanish and one of the groups of Native Americans they came in
contact with (in South America, Mexico, California, etc.)
b. The Portuguese and Native Africans
c. The English and the Natives of the Far East (India, Burma, etc.)
d. The French and the Natives of Indo-China
e. A similar case of cultural contact, with the instructor’s pre-approval.
Your finished essay must be in MLA format, using parenthetical citations and a
“Works Cited” list to document all of your source materials.
Bring two typed copies of the essay to class on the assigned date for peer review.
3. Commonalities: After you have studied all of the assignments in Unit Two and
have complete the Unit Two Sequence Project, write a report that examines
the ways both proslavery and antislavery arguers made their arguments.
Things you may consider as you narrow and focus your ideas include the
following:
a. What rhetorical strategies and techniques do they employ?
b. How do they draw upon shared cultural values and legacies to reach
different conclusions? These may include
i. The role of religion or specific religious groups in both attacking
and defending slavery
ii. The importance of some key philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato,
Machiavelli, or John Locke
c. How do they anticipate or respond to each other’s arguments?
d. Your finished essay must be in MLA format, using parenthetical citations
and a “Works Cited” list to document all of your source materials.
Bring two typed copies of the essay to class on the assigned date for peer review
4. Contemporary media argument: Select any of the remaining units of
Negotiating Difference. Do a Unit Sequence Project for that Unit. Then
develop an argument (a claim plus reasons and evidence) about that unit’s
material. Present your argument in a contemporary media format such as
a. A Quick Time movie
b. A PowerPoint presentation
c. An MP3 “podcast” type audio report in the form of a radio talk show, an
audio drama (multiple characters), etc.---Note that the term “podcast” is
generic and doesn’t mean an iPod is necessarily involved. Basically, it’s
just a recording in digital (mp3) format. If you have no means of
converting your audio to digital format, contact me and I can arrange to
have audiotapes recorded in digital format.
d. A magazine-type layout (using, perhaps, something like Microsoft
Publisher, Adobe InDesign, or Apple Pages—even Microsoft Word will
work), using textboxes, pictures, etc.
e. A “website” with linked html pages—note that it need not actually be
posted on an Internet server.
f. Another contemporary media argument format, with the instructor’s prior
approval.
Turn in a detailed written report that explains your project, discussing the
rhetorical choices you have made (for example, why you chose certain colors,
shapes, backgrounds, sounds, etc.). What elements of your project seem most
likely (and least likely) to persuade an audience? In what ways do you think
your choices reveal and reflect the issues in the unit you have chosen?
5. Final exam—details to be announced.
The Rant:
Although the content of some college subjects might be mastered through individual reading
and study, rhetoric is not one of those subjects. Rhetoric is a skill, not a body of facts to be
memorized or even interpreted or evaluated. It’s a little like learning to play basketball: you
can’t learn to play basketball just by sitting at home and reading a book. You must get out on
the court and practice dribbling, shooting, and passing. Also, rhetoric, like basketball, is a
group activity. It necessarily involves an “audience”—an intended reader (or body of readers)
whom you are attempting to persuade. You need others to play with and against you. You
need a coach. You need to show up for practice sessions and do all the exercises and drills.
If you are not in class, you miss out. Worse, others miss out also; they need you too.
This is your class, not mine, just at it is your education, not mine. You are here for your
benefit, not mine. While I have selected texts and prepared materials, they are valuable only
if you actually use them. I am old fashioned enough to believe that students should actually
complete all of the assignments. I am even old fashioned enough to believe that really good
students (that is, students who want an “A”) go far beyond just completing the minimum.
(Successful completion of a minimum will most likely result in a minimally successful grade—a
“C.”)
“A” students will come to class prepared. They will have completed all assignments before
they arrive and will turn them in when class begins. (Don’t try to complete assignments during
class; the lectures and discussions will keep interrupting you.) They will have studied (not just
quickly read) all assignments and will be prepared to answer questions and (perhaps more
important) will be prepared to ask questions of the instructor and other members of the class.
If your come to class unprepared and then sit silently hoping I won’t call on you, you are
wasting your time my time, and the time of the others in the class. They can’t really judge the
value of their ideas except in comparison to the ideas of others. Therefore, participation is
vital. Speak up. Argue. Get interested and get involved. Read and study aggressively. Take
notes on what you read and on what is said in class. Passivity is not a virtue in the class.
Some final thoughts:
“What is written without effort is,
in general, read without pleasure.”
Samuel Johnson
Or, as the Romans said: labor omnia vincit (work conquers all)
Monday
Wednesday
This schedule is subject to change. Bring it to class regularly
1/21
Holiday
1/28
2/4
Read ND 44-84
Student Conferences
2/11
Read ND 106-141
1/23
Course intro. & Adjustments
1/30
Read ND 1-43
2/6
Student Conferences
2/13
Friday
1/18
Course intro. & Adjustments
1/25
2/1
Essay #1 Peer Review
2/8
Read ND 85-106
Student Conferences
2/15
Read ND 141-164
Essay 1 Final draft
2/18
Unit 1 Sequences due
2/25
2/20
Read ND 165-173
2/27
2/22
3/1
Essay #2 Peer Review
3/4
Read ND 189-208
Student Conferences
3/11
Read ND 208-238
3/6
3/8
Student Conferences
3/13
Student Conferences
3/15
Essay #2 final draft
3/18
3/20
3/25
3/27
3/22
Unit 2 sequence due
3/29
4/1
Holiday
4/8
4/3
Holiday
4/10
4/5
Holiday
4/12
4/15
4/17
4/19
Essay #3 final draft
Unit 3 sequence due
4/22
4/24
4/26
4/29
5/1
Student Conferences
5/3
Student Conferences
Media Projects/Unit Seq. due
Media Projects/Unit Seq. due
5/8
Student Conferences
5/10
Essay #3 Peer Review
5/6
Student Conferences
Media Projects/Unit Seq. due Media Projects/Unit Seq. due
5/13
5/15
5/17
Monday
Wednesday
This schedule is subject to change. Bring it to class regularly
1/21
Holiday
1/28
2/4
Read ND 44-84
Essay #1 Peer Review
2/11
Read ND 106-141
Student Conferences
2/18
Unit 1 Sequences due
2/25
1/23
Course intro. & Adjustments
1/30
Read ND 1-43
2/6
Read ND 85-106
Student Conferences
2/13
Essay 1 Final draft
2/20
Read ND 165-173
2/27
Essay #2 Peer Review
3/4
Read ND 189-208
Student Conferences
3/11
Read ND 208-238
3/18
3/6
Student Conferences
3/13
Essay #2 final draft
3/25
3/20
Unit 2 sequence due
3/27
4/1
Holiday
4/8
4/3
Holiday
4/10
Essay #3 Peer Review
4/15
4/17
Essay #3 final draft
Unit 3 sequence due
4/22
4/24
4/29
5/1
Student Conferences
Media Projects/Unit Seq. due
5/6
Student Conferences
5/8
Student Conferences
Media Projects/Unit Seq. due
Media Projects/Unit Seq. due
5/13
5/15