English 309A, Rhetoric: Principles and Practices 1; Fall, 1998
Tuesday and Thursday 10:00-11:30; Physics 313

Randy Harris

Hagey Hall 247, x5362
Home phone (Milton): (905) 876-3972
E-mail: raha@watarts
Hours: Wednesday & Thursday, 4:00-5:30, or whenever you can catch me
Course epitome
"A study of rhetorical theories from the Classical Period (Pre-Socratic to Augustine) with an emphasis on how these theories reflect changing attitudes towards language, reality, and the self."
We will be looking at the early history of rhetoric, from its invention as a discipline in quasi-democratic Greek antiquity to its absorption into authoritarian Christian ideology with the early Middle Ages. Primarily we will be focussing on the ideas of a few major figures, labelling theories via menâs names, and a few instrumental concepts. The governing theme throughout will be how we formulate and negotiate beliefs (including the really tough beliefs we call "knowledge") by our traffic in symbols, and their traffic in us.
 
Required texts
Murphy et al., A synoptic history of classical rhetoric
Covino, Elements of persuasion
 
Style guide
Aaron, McArthur, The Little, Brown Compact Handbook
 
 
Requirements
% Date
           Midterm  20% 29 October
           Final 30% 11 December 9-12;
AL 124
           Academic Essay OR 
          Change-the-world project 
30% 2 December
          Being Rhetorical  20% all the live-long day
 

Schedule 
 
Date
Topics
Readings
 
History Day
Concept Day
Murphy
Covino
15 Sept
Hello; how are you?
   
17 Sept
Hello; who are you?
   
22 Sept
Rhetoric
3-16
1-32, 159-162
24 Sept
Rhetoric
217-224
 
29 Sept
Protagoras and company
 
17-44
 
1 Oct
 
Metaphor
   
6 Oct
Plato
 
(22-26; 232-243)
33-158
8 Oct
 
Dialectic
   
13 Oct
Isocrates
 
44-50
 
15 Oct
 
Pathos
244-251
 
20 Oct
Aristotle
 
51-109
 
22 Oct
 
Enthymemes
   
27 Oct
Aristotle
     
29 Oct
MIDTERM 
   
3 Nov
Ad Herennium
 
111-127
 
5 Nov
 
Metonymy / Synecdoche
   
10 Nov
Cicero
 
264-290
 
12 Nov
 
Invention
   
17 Nov
Cicero
 
129-176
 
19 Nov
 
Diction
   
24 Nov
Quintilian
 
177-203
 
26 Nov
 
Ethos (and ethics)
   
1 Dec
Augustine
 
205-211
 
3 Dec
 
Irony
   
 

Midterm

You will have to know both "facts" and "ideas". The exam will test mostly the former, with multiple-choice, true-false, short-answer questions. It will cover material up to and including the 28 October class.
Final
More of the same, but with some essay questions thrown in to chart the "ideas" quotient of the course. It will cover the entire course.
Term Project
You can do either an academic essay OR a change-the-world project; see below for details.
An academic essay Start thinking about your essay immediately. Iâm not kidding. It will not have to be very long (1,500 - 2, 000 words), but it will have to be very good. This is a third-year RPW course. You can do a critical analysis, or a more strictly theoretical paper.

Critical. Start with a concept (logos, arrangement, opinion, contingency, metaphor, ...) and watch it develop through the course (and help it develop through the course; see "Being rhetorical" above). Do some outside reading on it (a.k.a. library research). Collect original data illustrating it (a.k.a. empirical research). Write a paper which shows (1) awareness of how that concept is rhetorical, especially in the terms of the ancients; and (2) original thought on how that notion operates in any given discursive universe.  Prototypical topics are "The Ethos of Jean Chretien's Hep-B Speeches--Ciceronian or Aristotelian?", "Kairos in Rink-Board Advertising", and "Pathos as Argument in The Sweet Hereafter". The analyses in Elements of Persuasion are good models.

Theoretical. Alternately, you might do a more purely theoretical paper,--say, comparing Isocrates and Augustine on the notions of value in discourse, or discussing the role of deliberative orations during the second sophistic. Again, you would need to demonstrate (1) awareness of the rhetorical dimensions of the concept under discussion, and (2) original thought on its function in the context you examine. But your focus should be on rhetorical theory or general practices, not on a specific body of practical discourse.

Evaluation

My evaluation will depend on the cogency, conceptual sophistication, and rhetorical appropriateness of the paper.
 
Change-the-world Project
Start thinking about your project immediately. Iâm not kidding.  Rhetoric is, at its heart, the use of symbols to make things different. The world is a big place?even the facets of it visible in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada?and symbols are very powerful little beasts. So there are lots of opportunities. But twelve weeks is not very much time. The problem (what you want to change).
Being rhetorical
Come to class, contribute to discussions, participate in the building and the development of the course.
 Ways to get a good grade: ask relevant questions, make salient observations, look for and point out connections in the material, complain about the unbelievable pressure of having to be rhetorical on demand, ...

Ways to get a mediocre grade: sit in your seat; avoid eye contact with the professor.

Ways to get a poor grade: stay away from class, make long irrelevant commentaries, treat your fellow students with extravagant disrespect, ...

Notes
Do the readings before the assigned class.

If you have any questions, please make sure you ask them.

Familiarize yourself with Policy #71, especially as to plagiarism and other forms of cheating.
 

Links
Douglass Project
Lady Rhetoric
Fallacies
RhetNet 
Figures
Figures Look up
Georgia Tech Server
Classics Server
Great Contemporary Speeches
Plato's Gorgias
Plato's Phaedrus