Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Upon completion of this course students should be able to:

1. ADAPT: Apply rhetorical concepts to achieve writing goals within a given discourse community.
2. INQUIRE: Locate, critically evaluate, synthesize, and integrate multiple perspectives from a variety of sources.
3. CONNECT: Engage in research and writing as recursive and inquiry-based processes, participating in the communal and conversational nature of academic discourses.
4. REFLECT: Develop strategies for generating, drafting, revising, and editing texts based on feedback and reflection
5. REFLECT: Reflect on knowledge and skills developed in this and other courses and potential transfer to future contexts.
6. Enhances the experience of the traditional WR122 course by enabling students to enjoy an increased awareness of language by understanding the historical context of current principles of verbal and written discourse and through the use of classical and neo-classical rhetorical theory; comfortably and competently use the vocabulary of rhetoric theory and apply the terminology of rhetoric theory to current cultural phenomena and circumstances; use basic principles of psycho-and socio-linguistic self-defense as cued by the classical and neo-classical rhetoricians encountered; and enrich their lives through an understanding not only of the “how” of discourse, but also through an understanding of the “why” of discourse. 

Students will create a community enhanced by vocabulary and practices of classical rhetoric theory. For example, students will extend principles of dialectics to current inquiry-based research writing.
Students will become active in the academic community by presenting their works through class presentations, proposals submitted to conferences, and/or articles submitted to publications.

The instructor will assess students using the following:
• out-of-class writing
• responses to assigned texts
• class discussion
• in-class writing
• research tasks
• multiple drafts of academic essays
The instructor may assess students using the following:
• study questions
• reading journal
• presentations

General composition concerns, such as:
• audience
• purpose
• process:
o invention
o arrangement
o style
o memory
o delivery
General rhetorical concerns, such as:
• dialectics
• topoi
• situation of discourse or argument
• forensic discourse
• deliberative discourse
• epideictic discourse
• ethos, pathos, logos
• imitatio
• burden of proof, presumption of favor
• belletrism
• appeals to various psychological faculties
• awareness of the academic community
Elements of argument, such as:
• inquiry
• persuasion
• issues
• assumptions
• fallacies
• claims
• evidence
• thesis
• logic
Elements of research, such as:
• validity of sources
• library resources
• internet/electronic resources
• plagiarism
• paraphrase/summary/quotation
• inference/analysis/synthesis
• awareness of publications
Elements of style, such as:
• diction
• syntax
• tone
• figurative language
• sexist language
• usage levels