RCL Summer and Autumn Course Offerings
Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy Studies is offering numerous classes summer and autumn quarters.
Offerings for summer include: English 269: Digital Media Composing; English 305: Technical Writing; English 880: Seminar in Composition.
Offerings for autumn include: English 269: Digital Media Composing; English 276: Introduction to Rhetoric; English 305: Technical Writing; English 405: Writing about Science; English 467: Writing and Learning, Peer Writing Consulting; and English 569: Digital Media and English Studies; English 573.01: Rhetorical Theory and the Analysis of Discourse; English 593: Human Rights Law and Literature; English 694: Election 2008: Presidential Rhetoric from the Campaign Trail to the Bully Pulpit; English 779.0: Introduction to Rhetoric from Classical to Early Renaissance; English 780: Current Theory and Practice in the Teaching of Writing; English 789: Introduction to Digital Media Studies; English 883: Studies in Literacy.
Image: Books and Pamphlets from the Tarver Collection
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SUMMER
English 880: Seminar in Composition:
History, Historiography, and the Emergence of Composition Studies
Professor Kay Halasek
2nd Term: MTWR 9:30-11:18
Description
This course will engage students in exploring and critiquing the history and historiographic methods of composition studies as a discipline and as constructed through some its most notable texts. In doing so, students will analyze the dominant historiographic trends in the discipline, most notably the "rise and fall" and "kings and battles" narratives in an effort to understand the consequences of those historiographic structures on the discipline itself. Students will also be among the first to access the new Tarver Collection in rhetoric and oratory now housed in OSU's Rare Books Collection.
Texts
Berlin, Rhetoric and Reality
Berlin, Writing Instruction in Nineteenth-Century American Colleges
Brereton, The Origins of Composition Studies in American Colleges (selections)
Crowley, Composition in the University (selections)
Harris, A Teaching Subject (selections)
Masters, Practicing Writing (selections)
Miller, Textual Carnivals (selections)
North, The Making of Knowledge in Composition (selections)
Additional selections (as assigned) by other historians of the discipline, including Connors, Crowley, Gere, Halloran, Johnson, Kates, et al.
Requirements
Reading responses (20%)
Archival exercise (20%)
Final Paper and Presentation (60%)
AUTUMN
English 276: Introduction to RhetoricProfessor Jim Fredal
MW 3:30-5:18
How does a relatively young black man with an unfortunate name and little political experience take the lead in the Democraticprimary, inspiring the fervid devotion of millions of Americans?
How did a southern black preacher change the face of race relations in America and jump start the civil rights movement?
How does the first female candidate for president become the 'front runner' despite a husband with baggage and the ire of the rig?
English 276 is designed to introduce students to rhetorical theory, criticism, and practice as it has been studied and taught in the western tradition from Ancient Greece to the present day. Students will read short selections of rhetorical theory from ancient and modern texts, learn principles of rhetorical analysis, and examine samples of rhetoric from speeches, editorials, letters, advertisements, public relations and propaganda campaigns, fiction, and film. Our goal will be to discover how persuasive words and images shape our world, our lives, our society, and ourselves. We'll read samples of rhetorical from the likes of Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, Nietszche, Burke, Booth, Arendt, Goffmann, Foucault, and DeCerteau; and we'll examine rhetorical artifacts from, for example, Lysias, Cicero, Lincoln, Nixon, Obama, Liberty National Mortgage, Exxon, Afga, Pfizer, Francis Ford Coppola, Ann Coulter, Garry Trudeau, The American Enterprise Institute, Steven Colbert, Michael Moore, and Tom Tomorrow.
English 467: Writing and Learning: Peer Writing Consulting
Professor Beverly J. Moss
MW 1:30-3:18
English 467, “Writing and Learning,” focuses on theories and practices in tutoring and writing. The aim of this course is to explore the writing-learning connections and to prepare 467 students to work as writing consultants/tutors for small writing groups. Each person enrolled in this course will be required to tutor approximately two hours per week (possibly less), in addition to our regularly scheduled class time. This course will be useful to in helping you understand your own writing processes and will be particularly useful those of you who are planning careers as teachers. You will read and discuss current research on the writing process, basic writing, and theories and practices in tutoring writing. In addition, to tutoring responsibilities, you will complete a variety of writing assignments, collaborate with one another on small group projects, and contribute to class discussion. Finally, this course counts as an elective for the College of Humanities Minor in Professional Writing and is a great class for those interested in English education.
Tentative Writing Assignments: Literacy Narrative (5-7 pages), Research Project (10-12 pages), Tutor Journal
Possible required texts may include: Gillsespie and Lerner, The Longman Guide to Peer Tutoring (2nd ed.); Moss, Highberg, and Nicolas, Writing Groups Inside and Outside the Classroom; a packet of reading posted on Carmen
English 567: Composing Digital Documentaries
Professor Cynthia Selfe
TR 5:30-7:18
In this course, students compose documentary assignments on a topic of their own choosing. Depending on the topic, students may decide to complete a photographic documentary (10 photographs and curatorial commentary), an audio documentary (5 minutes), or a video documentary (5-10 minutes). Students will also complete several minor assignments such as defining documentary, looking at/listening to documentaries, analyzing short documentary texts, reflecting on their own texts, reading about documentary as a medium of social activism.
The course begins with readings about documentary as a genre. Students will also look at/listen to a range of short sample documentaries, identifying what makes a “good” documentary topic and characterizing the elements that contribute to a compelling documentary text. Participants in the class will learn how to use digital audio recorders, digital still cameras, and digital video cameras, as well as various editing software (probably iMovie, Audacity, Photoshop).
This class will meet in the Digital Media Studio (Denney 343) A good portion of the course will involve studio sessions during which students will work on their documentary texts and present them, in various stages of completion, to other class members for review.
Students need no previous experience with digital media to enroll in this course; all students, however, be prepared to learn new software applications.
English 694: Election 2008: Presidential Rhetoric from the Campaign Trail to the Bully Pulpit
Professor Roger Cherry
MW 1:30-3:18
Course Description: This year's election could be one of the most important in the last 50 years. And, as always, rhetoric will be at the center of the contest. English 694 will take a careful look at the rhetoric employed by the candidates, their surrogates, and the media pundits as the campaign plays out. After the election in early November, the course will examine the rhetoric of the U.S. Presidency in broader terms, looking at significant moments in presidential oratory throughout history.
We will start off with a look at basic principles in rhetorical theory (no prior coursework assumed) and then use these principles to analyze campaign rhetoric and significant presidential speeches.
Open to both undergraduate and graduate students.
Requirements: Two rhetorical analysis papers; one presentation.
Probable Text: Political Communication: Rhetoric, Government, and Citizens, Dan F. Hahn
English 780: Current Theory and Practice in the Teaching of Writing
Professor Wendy S. Hesford (hesford.1@osu.edu)
TR 11:30-1:18
Brief Statement of Objectives:
English 780 introduces students to various political, rhetorical, and pedagogical issues surrounding the discipline. As such, it familiarizes students with both the 19th and 20th century history of composition studies and on-going theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological debates in the field.
Course Requirements: Weekly reading response papers (posted to Carmen), team-teaching presentation, visualization project, and final course paper or multi-media project.
Required Texts: (Tentative list)
Berlin, James. Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900-1985.
Brown, Stephen Gilbert and Sidney I. Dobrin, eds. Ethnography Unbound: From Theory Shock to Critical Praxis
Ede, Lisa. Situating Composition: Composition Studies and the Politics of Location.
Gilyard, Keith, ed. Race, Rhetoric, and Composition.
Horner, Bruce. Terms of Work for Composition: A Materialist Critique.
Jarratt, Susan, and Lynn Worsham, eds. Feminism and Composition Studies.
Lunsford, Andrea and Lahoucine Ouzgane, eds. Crossing Borderlands: Composition and Postcolonial Studies
Malinowitz, Harriet. Textual Orientations: Lesbian & Gay Students and the Making of Discourse Communities
Reynolds, Nedra. Geographies of Writing: Inhabiting Places and Encountering Difference
