ENGLISH 150
WRITING AND RHETORIC
Winter 2010
Section 11: TTh 8am-9:15am 1129 JKB
Section 60: TTh 1:35pm-2:50pm 1013 JKB
Your Instructor
Dr. Brian Jackson
brian_jackson@byu.edu
4110A JFSB
801.422.8086
Office hours: Mon, 2-4pm; Wed, 3-4pm
Required Texts




Faigley, Lester. The Brief Penguin Handbook. NY: Penguin, 2009.
Hansen, Kristine. Style Packet. BYU Publishing, 2008.
Perspectives on the Environment. BYU Academic Publishing, 2008.
Writing and Rhetoric. Ed. Brett C. McInelly & Dennis R. Perry. Plymouth, Michigan:
Hayden-McNeil, 2008. + Writing and Rhetoric: Supplemental Guide.
Other Required Materials



A pocket folder
a loose-leaf notebook for in-class writing
money for printing reserve readings and student papers for workshops
Course Purpose and Goals
English 150 prepares you to write more effectively in your personal, professional
(including academic), and public life. In this course you will progress in your rhetorical
literacy by reading texts from different perspectives and writing in various genres.
Through class instruction, assignments, discussion, reading, and activities you should







understand rhetoric and the rhetorical situations you and others inhabit;
write correctly, clearly, and compellingly for different audiences in different
situations;
develop a reflexive, personal writing process that includes invention, arrangement,
style, and revision;
analyze thoroughly the persuasive power of various texts using a rhetorical
vocabulary;
respond critically and constructively to the writing of others;
perform library and internet research competently; and,
understand how the principles of rhetoric can help us become ethical, wise, and
persuasive saints and public citizens.
2
Writing Assignments
Good writers are good rhetors (or persuasive communicators) who understand how to
make effective arguments for different audiences to achieve multiple purposes. For this
course you will have four main writing tasks, each posing a unique rhetorical challenge.
Below is a brief summary of each major writing assignment:
Opinion Editorial: Your first assignment will be to write a persuasive essay to the BYU
community about anything on your mind this semester. This assignment challenges you
to make a brief, compelling argument with a specific audience in mind.
Rhetorical Analysis: After you make your own argument, you will analyze someone
else’s using a rhetorical vocabulary we will develop in class. For this assignment your
audience is our class, a new collective of public intellectuals concerned about rhetoric
and public issues. Your job in the analysis is to evaluate an argument and tell the rest of
the class, in writing, whether the argument is convincing and why. This semester you
will select an article from Perspectives on the Environment to analyze.
Issues Paper: American philosopher John Dewey argued that one of the most pressing
public problems we face is the barrier between expert knowledge and effective
communication. In your third essay, you will attempt to correct that problem by writing
an argument backed by compelling evidence based on research. Sometime during the
semester we will decide as a class what issue we want to research and argue about.
Multimodal Argument: So much of what we read and write includes “modes” other
than alphabetic writing—video, audio, images, hyperlinks, infographics, animations,
charts, and graphs. For this last writing task you will work in a group to compose a
multimodal text made not only in words but in other modes as well.
In addition to these major projects, you will have minor writing assignments, like response
papers, both in and out of class. Some of these writing tasks you will turn in and some you
will keep as exercises for the major essays.
Course Policies, Procedures, and Exhortations
A syllabus functions as a contract that lays out some of my expectations. For my part, I
commit to provide activities, discussions, one-on-one conferences, and supporting
materials that will help you achieve class goals. Below you’ll find classroom policies,
procedures, and exhortations that will be binding for us this semester:
Attendance: Since we do in-class writing and peer-review workshopping, your
attendance is essential for your success. We need everyone, every day. However, I
know sometimes you’ll have to miss, so you each have two unexcused absences, no
questions asked. For every unexcused absence after that, your final grade will drop by
1/3. If you need to miss class, tell me in advance and then contact a classmate to see
what you’ve missed. If you must be absent on the day a paper is due, please arrange to
3
get the paper to me on time or earlier or I will consider it late and your score will be
reduced by 10 percent each day it is late. A skipped out-of-class conference with me
counts as an absence. Please be on time to class, too.
Class Conduct and Discussions: Please treat me and the other students with charity
and respect; together we constitute a new “public” with public problems and shared
interests. I believe the best learning takes place in environments free of hostility,
contempt, or ridicule. However, I hope we will have sincere and earnest disagreements
and debates about the issues we discuss in class—after all, this is a class on
argumentation. To encourage participation, I tend to call on students without warning
to comment on our reading assignments, so please be prepared each day. However, if
this approach makes you uncomfortable, please let me know as soon as possible.
Each of us should all be prepared to talk about readings and engage in rigorous
deliberation and inquiry. Please consider this class an open forum in which most issues
can be discussed and negotiated. A caveat about the reading: We will be reading texts in
class that argue specific political perspectives. These texts do not necessarily represent
my views on the subject. I encourage you to keep an open, generous, and critical (or in
other words, rhetorical) attitude about the texts we read. I encourage you to develop a
scholarly ethos—a character open to inquiry, argument, revision, and discussion.
Grades: You cannot receive a passing grade for the course unless you turn in all four of
the major writing assignments and attend the final. Trust me: anyone who attends class,
turns in all assignments, visits me in my office, listens attentively and takes notes
during class instruction, and works hard will receive far better than merely a passing
grade. In my experience, the only students who fail my class are the ones who stop
coming.
As you may already know, grading writing is not exactly scientific. When I evaluate your
work, I use my best judgment based on our goals and good teaching practices. I assign
grades not as a form of punishment but as a way to tell you how well you are doing,
what you need to do to improve, and where you stand compared to other writers at
your stage. (Grades suggest gradation—a comparative scale of accomplishment.) When
I return your final papers, please take them home and read all my marginal and endcomments carefully. If after you read my comments you believe you have been
evaluated unfairly, please come visit me and we’ll talk about it.
Workshops: Participating in peer review will enhance your ability to read and write
critically and to both give and receive feedback. Peer review makes the writing
experience a social exchange, and research has demonstrated that peer review leads to
lasting improvements in student writing. Several times this semester, I will organize
you into groups of three to exchange papers and provide each other feedback. Please
read the work of your peers with the same charity and rigor you would want in a
reviewer of your own work. When others give you feedback, listen carefully and take
notes; avoid counter-claiming or making defensive excuses. Ultimately, it will be you,
4
the writer, who will decide what feedback to incorporate, but others will provide you
with a sense of how your writing is being read.
Writing: Almost all the major writing tasks you do need to be formatted professionally
using the Modern Language Association Style Guidelines found in the Brief Penguin
(unless you want to use a different format for your discipline). Your final drafts should
be double-checked for errors before you turn them in. For the four major writing tasks,
you will give me a pocket folder containing previous drafts of the paper, previous
revision plans, the final draft, and a reflection on the rhetorical choices you made. (Get
in the habit of printing out earlier drafts or saving them as separate files on your
computer.) Writing assignments are due at the beginning of class on their due dates.
Each day a major paper is late, your score will drop by 10%, but I’ll let you turn in one
paper late without penalty.
Revision: We will spend time in class working on craft, style, and revision techniques
with drafts of your papers. I hope you can develop habits of revision that will stay with
you through your writing life. Please bring your drafts to class, even if you think they’re
not all that great. After I have commented on an early draft, you will write a revision
plan describing what you will do to prepare the final draft.
Also, if you turn in work that does not represent your best effort, you may revise it for a
better grade, as long as you (a) visit with me first, (b) write a memo describing how the
changes you made improved the paper, and (c) highlight the actual changes on the new
draft.
Office hours and conferences: Please plan to visit me during office hours at least once
when I do not require it. If you cannot make those hours, email me and we’ll arrange a
different time. Please think of me as your writing tutor (even though I have to assign
grades, unfortunately). As crazy as it sounds, I actually enjoy meeting with students and
working on student writing and helping you improve as a writer.
Please let me know if there is something more I can do to help you succeed as a writer.
If life’s difficulties make it hard for you to do your best in class, please talk to me about
how we can make adjustments in your learning.
Blackboard: Please check our Blackboard site for updates, discussions, supporting
documents, and class readings. I will also use Blackboard to post grades and arrange
peer review groups.
Plagiarism: Please be honest with your work. We are a community of integrity.
Familiarize yourselves with the Honor Code, which I uphold. When you use the ideas or
writing of others for research, please cite their work correctly. If you intentionally
plagiarize, you will receive a zero for the paper, possibly fail the course, and probably
be reported to the Honor Code office. You never need to do it. Come talk to me if you’re
falling behind, and we can work together to get you back to speed.
5
The Final: We will have a final for this class on the day our final is scheduled. To pass
the class, you must attend the final. The final for section 11 will be on Tues, Apr 20,
11am-2pm; section 60’s final will be held on Fri, Apr 16, 3pm-6pm.
Out-of-class help: BYU has excellent writing support that few students take advantage
of. If you feel you need more intensive help with your writing than I can give you, please
visit the Writing Center and make an appointment. The most successful writers use
additional resources like multiple peer readers, handbooks, online sources, and the
Writing Center.
Disabilities Accommodations: If you have a disability, please consult the Disabilities
webpage on the BYU home page and let me know how I can accommodate you this
semester.
Sexual Harassment: BYU’s policy against sexual harassment protects both employees
of the University as well as students. Under Title IX of the Education Amendments of
1972, students who encounter sexual harassment from other students are protected. If
you encounter unlawful sexual harassment or gender based discrimination, please talk
to your professor; contact the campus EEP office (422-5895), the 24 hour hotline (3675689), or the Honor Code Office (422-2847). As a good Christian rule of conduct, please
show sensitivity to the emotional needs and interests of those who differ from you in
gender, age, race, religion, background, opinion, or ability.
Point Breakdown and Grading
Opinion Editorial
Rhetorical Analysis
Issues Paper
Multimodal Argument
Minor Assignments
Final
Total points possible
100 pts
200 pts
300 pts
150 pts
150 pts
100 pts
1000 pts
To receive an A for the course, you must accumulate at least 900 points (950 and above =
A; 949-900 = A-); for a B, 800 points (899-870 = B+; 869-830 = B; 829-800 = B-); for a C,
700 points; and for a D, 600 points.
6
Daily Schedule*
Below is the daily schedule for the first two units of the semester. This schedule may
change as our needs change, so please stay tuned. Key to readings: BB = Blackboard (all
BB texts are numbered); PE = Perspectives on the Environment; PH = The Brief Penguin
Handbook; SG = Supplemental Guide; SP = Style Packet; W&R = Writing and Rhetoric.
Opinion Editorial Unit
Date
What we will discuss
-The syllabus
-What is rhetoric?
-the op. editorial
Rhetorical situations
What you need to read
-BB Syllabus (course
documents)
-WR ch. 1
-WR ch. 3
-SG pp. 3-10
-BB Obama’s Peace Prize
Remarks (external links)
T, Jan 12
Inventing effective
arguments
Th, Jan 14
Computer lab
-Writing effective
arguments
-grammar: the basics
-WR ch. 2 & 6
-BB (external links)
“Politics” (everyone)
“Obama” (group 1)
“Health Care” (group 2)
“Afghanistan” (group 3)
-SP ch. 1 & 3
-BB student examples 13 (course documents)
BB “How Brian
Responds” (course
documents)
SP pp. 69-79
PH pp. 393-404
T, Jan 5
Th, Jan 7
T, Jan 19
Conferences with Brian
Th, Jan 21
-Peer review
-effective sentences: the
basics
T, Jan 26
Introduction to
rhetorical analysis
PE pp.1-8, 21-22
What’s due
Start reading the Daily
Universe each day
Informal paper 1 (500
words): What was
Obama’s rhetorical
situation and how did he
respond?
Informal paper 2: Stasis
assessment of a possible
topic (WR p. 115)
-Bring a copy of the Daily
Universe to class
Op Ed draft 1 (posted to
BB before class)
-SP exercises
Op Ed draft 2
-SP exercises
-5 cool sentences
-Informal paper 3: Plan
for revision (due to BB
by midnight)
Opinion Editorial
Portfolio
Rhetorical Analysis Unit
T, Jan 26
Th, Jan 28
Computer lab
T, Feb 2
Introduction to
rhetorical analysis
-Approaches to
rhetorical analysis
-appeals to emotion and
character
PE 1-8, 21-22
-appeals to reason
-the power of the word
WR pp. 70-81 & ch. 5
PE pp. 23-36
SG pp. 15-25
WR pp. 55-70
PH pp. 55-66
PE pp. 71-82
Opinion Editorial
Portfolio
Informal paper 4 (coauthored, due at end of
class today): Two
examples of appeals to
emotion, two of appeals
to character
(Select text to analyze)
7
Th, Feb 4
T, Feb 9
Th, Feb 11
Computer lab
T, Feb 16
Monday instruction:
Conferences with Brian
Th, Feb 18
T, Feb 23
-summary vs. analysis
-writing a rhetorical
analysis (intros)
-analysis paragraphs
-arrangements,
conclusion
Punctuation Apocalypse
BB student examples 1, 2,
& 3 (course documents)
Informal paper 5: The
Lemon Squeezer
RA draft 1 (hardcopy
and posted on BB)
SP ch. 2
PH pp. 449-510
RA draft 2 (due at time
of conference)
Peer review
Informal paper 6: Plan
for revision (due to BB
by midnight)
Rhetorical Analysis
Introduction to the
issues paper
Issues Paper unit
Date
T, Feb 23
What we will discuss
Peer Review
Th, Feb 25
Computer lab
Evaluating sources,
narrowing topics
T, Mar 2
Library Instruction
Th, Mar 4
Library Instruction
What you need to read
Rhetorical analyses of
your group
BB “From Topics to
Questions”
Library SMART Quiz
(link on BB
announcements)
BB “From Questions to
Problems”
WR pp. 114-116
SG pp. 31-45
PH pp. 165-206
T, Mar 9
-Writing an argument
-MLA Works Cited
PH 252-281 (Bring
Penguin Handbook to
class)
Th, Mar 11
Computer lab
-Blending sources
-Arrangement
PH 213-233
T, Mar 16
To be determined by the
class
BB Student examples and
Th, Mar 18
No class
T, Mar 23
Th, Mar 25
Computer lab
What’s due
Feedback for your group
Rhetorical Analysis
-Bring a possible
research topic listed at
the top of a blank piece
of paper
Narrowed topic,
question, significance,
and 5 questions based on
stases
Summary of issue from
background sources
(500 words)
List of 5 possible sources
(in MLA style): main
point, authority,
relevance
Introduction and
possible outline (posted
on BB before class)
rubric
Draft of issues paper on
BB by noon on Saturday
Conferences with Brian
Writing with Style
TBA
8
Multimodal Argument unit
T, Mar 30
Th, Apr 1
Computer lab (B161
JFSB)
T, Apr 6
Computer lab (B161
JFSB)
Th, Apr 8
Computer lab (B161
JFSB)
T, Apr 13
T, Apr 20: Final
11am-2pm
Intro to the MM
argument & group work
Design principles
BB Multimodal
Group work
TBA
Group work
TBA
Our final: reflecting on
visual/digital rhetoric
Argument
PH 129-157
BB Design principles
Issues Paper
Group plan &
3 examples of good
design
Multimodal Argument