Rhetoric, Writing, and Public Discourse 230: Introduction to Rhetoric and Public Culture

This course gives students the basic tools for analyzing the ways that symbols shape the world, informing peoples’ fundamental ideas about reality, contributing to our sense of community, and letting us make decisions about urgent matters of common concern. We will examine rhetorical artifacts from presidential speeches and policy documents to film, television, and socially mediated discourse. Rhetorical artifacts are shaped by the identity and social position of those who compose them, the rhetorical situations to which they respond, the audiences they attempt to reach, and the cultural ideologies and power dynamics that underpin them. We will consider the impact of media form (whether a rhetorical artifact is written, spoken, audio-visually mediated) on its composition and reception, and explore some of the major theories of how symbols affect people’s lives, from public memory and body rhetoric to theories of rhetorical performance and representation. Students will write several short papers that critically examine different rhetorical artifacts, and will also write, workshop, and present a longer research project. Students will practice critical writing, academic research, and use of evidence and citation as they develop their projects over the course of the semester.