A study of rhetorical effects in many types of discourse.
Students learn a substantial vocabulary for figures of speech and rhetorical schemes.
Through writing rhetorical analyses and invention exercises which use the figures and schemes, students become more sophisticated readers and versatile writers. Focuses on the writer's audience, on how a writer adjusts his voice to be more effective with various readers and how one creates the reader within the text. A study of the argumentative essay as an evolving form for political, social, and personal discussion. Emphasis on the writer's choice of topic, strategy, structure, evidence, and style during different historic periods. Writers range from Aristotle to George Will, and topics from civil disobedience to genetic engineering.