ENGL 206 A: Rhetoric in Everyday Life

M/W 9:30-11:20 | Loew 101

Zoom link  

Course Description

Welcome to ENGL 206: Rhetoric in Everyday Life! This course offers students an introduction to the art and practice of rhetoric. We will examine the strategic use of and means through which images, texts, objects, and symbols inform, persuade, and shape social practices in various contexts.

The course presumes that our world is richly rhetorical—that is, that the world works by way of persuasion. It contends that texts (be they textual, auditory, visual, digital, or material) enormously inform the world and that skillfully producing and analyzing persuasive texts is a crucial means of taking part in global society. 

Rhetoric is central in understanding the features of civic life and the responsibility we have as social actors. Its connection to a host of different concepts and issues such as science, law, labor, and social relations renders it integral to civic and professional life.  Through the study and practice of rhetoric, we will learn to critique historical and contemporary public discourse and consider the stylistic and persuasive devices that make particular pieces of rhetoric effective. Additionally, we will develop skills in written and oral composition, learning to craft messages that account for specific audiences in specific rhetorical situations. Additionally, we will reflect on the larger implications of rhetoric, considering the relationship between discourse and reality, the cultural and ethical power dynamics of communication, and the ways that any public discourse reflects its historical and social contexts.

The course is designed to critically immerse learners in the contemporary rhetorical practices of a variety of political, cultural, and professional situations. As learners, you will be:

• provided with a set of interpretive tools and strategies
• become a more adept reader of contemporary public discourse
• develop effective argumentation skills for a variety of
  public contexts
• engage with the kinds of discourses that proliferate in the world

Because rhetoric is boring if studied in a vacuum, we will turn our critical attention to a site familiar to all of us. After an initial overview of rhetoric and an examination of its role in civic life, we will explore the university as a site of rhetorical production. This class takes as a given that universities are richly rhetorical spaces. But how are they rhetorical? How do universities--their spaces, their administrations, their students, their professors--act on us or persuade us in certain ways? How do we talk about higher education in everyday life? And how do counter-rhetorics emerge that propose alternatives to the contemporary university? These will be the questions this class asks; with some curiosity and thoughtful engagement, we will examine these questions together.

Course Objectives

1. Practice critical reading skills that include the ability to critically analyze instances of rhetoric and other texts within their specific social, historical, academic, and cultural contexts. 
2. Engage in collaborative, intellectual, generative discussions with other writers, rhetors, and scholars about topics related to rhetoric. 
3. Form complex, analytical claims supported with textual evidence in writing about theories of rhetoric. 
4. Apply these theories of rhetoric to real-world contexts to achieve generative action in the democratic process or other civic capacities
   

Course Readings

All readings will be posted on Canvas or, occasionally, printed and passed out.

Instructor

 Jonathan Isaac  

 Assistant Teaching Professor

 Email: jisaac3@uw.edu

 Office: Padelford A-019

 Office Hours: Thursday 11:30am-1pm (Zoom)

How will I learn?

I have tried my best to make each week's readings linked thematically. These readings and related activities contain a combination of the following elements:

• Informal and formal writing assignments
• Reading responses
• Peer review & group work

Successful course completion requires access to and reading the current course resources and materials, actively participating in discussions, group projects, and completing all assignments.

What are the writing and learning expectations?

Canvas. All coursework will be completed via the course canvas page. Please plan to log into Canvas daily.

Communicating with the instructor Please reach out to me via Canvas or UW email. Avoid using your personal mail for coursework purposes.

Collaboration. Working with others is a hallmark of civic engagement. Learn and apply strategies for successful teamwork and collaboration, such as:

• responding constructively to peers’ work
• soliciting and using peer feedback effectively
• managing team goals and conflicts constructively

Research. Understand and use various research methods and sources to produce quality documents, including:

• analyzing historical and contemporary contexts
• locating, evaluating, and using print and online information selectively for particular audiences and purposes
• triangulating sources of evidence

Writing in Context. Analyze cultures, social contexts, and audiences to determine how they shape the various purposes and forms of writing, such as persuasion, organizational communication, and public discourse, with an emphasis on:

• writing for a range of defined audiences and stakeholders
• negotiating the ethical dimensions of rhetorical action

Assessment and Grading 

Reading Annotations (20%) 

For each assigned reading you will have an annotation assignment using Hypothesis in Canvas. The full details of the annotation assignment will be in each assignment page, but essentially you will need to complete a certain amount of annotations for each reading to receive credit. These will be graded for completion only.

Group Presentation (10%) 

As opposed to simple group presentations, you and some groupmates will be in charge of more or less "teaching" assigned material to your peers, providing discussion questions tied to homework readings, and leading this discussion as though you were the instructors or formal researchers.  Your classmates will be in charge of providing additional questions or comments in response to the presentation to help contribute to this conversation. 

Paper 1 / Paper 2 (25% each) 

During the quarter, you will compose two independent essays that will ask you to write your own rhetorical analysis or develop a rhetorical artifact on a specific topic. In doing so, you will apply what we have read in class in these essays. These will also likely include peer review sessions.

Participation (20%) 

My ethos regarding participation stems from one central question: Are you–through your in-person/online presence, verbal and written contributions, and thoughtful question-asking–contributing to the development, growth, and intellectual journey of our classroom community? Participation is fundamental to this class, and there are a variety of ways in which participation manifests itself.

• Participation during in-class discussions – Speaking in class is the most important way for you to participate in class. Your willingness to enhance the class discussion with thoughtful questions and comments is as important as anything else in this class—the primary determiner in your participation grade is what you bring to each class every day. Not only is it a way to demonstrate your completion of our readings, but is also an opportunity to try out ideas that can be developed into future papers. While this is the most effective way to earn a participation grade, please also realize that the size of the class means that not everyone can or is expected to participate in every single class. The goal here is to be an active participant in the class, but I am not looking for anyone to attempt to dominate the class discussion. 

• On-task communication during group work – Occasionally we will make use of smaller, independent group discussions before our whole-class discussions of material. A failure to achieve assigned tasks in group discussions or a consistent lack of contribution will also be a problem for your participation grade

• Coherent attendance – Just showing up for the class is the lowest possible bar for participation, and merely being a presence will not do much for your participation grade. An inability to stay coherent during class will adversely impact your participation grade, as you are both inattentive and distracting. 

A failure to achieve these roles asked of you in the classroom will negatively impact your overall participation grade. If you are a naturally quiet student, there are other opportunities to buffer the impact on your participation grade, but nothing can replace making your voice heard in class. It’s what I want to hear the most (rather than mine), and I will encourage all of you to use my class as a place to conquer your fears of speaking in a respectful, supportive environment—one which may be difficult to find in other classrooms and other places in your life. More than anything, think of participation as a reward for your contribution, not something that you must compete with other students over to get a good grade. 

≥ 95% = 4.0   88 = 3.3 81 = 2.6   74 = 1.9   67 = 1.2  

94 = 3.9   87 = 3.2   80 = 2.5   73 = 1.8   66 = 1.1  

93 = 3.8   86 = 3.1   79 = 2.4 72 = 1.7   65 = 1.0  

92 = 3.7   85 = 3.0   78 = 2.3 71 = 1.6   64 = .9  

91 = 3.6   84 = 2.9   77 = 2.2 70 = 1.5   63 = .8  

90 = 3.5   83 = 2.8   76 = 2.1 69 = 1.4   62 = .7  

89 = 3.4   82 = 2.7   75 = 2.0 68 = 1.3  

Submitting Assignments to Canvas

Assignments are considered to be submitted when they are fully uploaded to Canvas. On Canvas, the due time is 11:59 pm. Do not wait until the last minute to submit an assignment, because uploads may take some time and you might miss the submission deadline.

If you cannot submit an assignment to the Canvas dropbox because it is locked, please DO NOT email the assignment to me or submit it as an attachment to a comment. While I can read these, I cannot offer feedback on assignments submitted in this way or use any associated grading rubric, and thus the assignment WILL NOT be graded.

Attendance and Late Work Policy

This class is conducted in person. You are expected to attend class to fully benefit from course activities and meet the course’s learning objectives. You should only register for this class if you are able to attend in person. If you 1) miss class activities often, 2) do not notify me of absences in advance, and 3) fail to meet course deadlines due to not requesting extensions, I may consider giving you an incomplete grade or recommend you contact your academic advisor to consider a hardship withdrawal (known as a Registrar Drop).

It is important that you complete your assigned work on time since it affects both your progress and the progress of others in the course. If you are not able to finish an assignment on time for a compelling reason, please request an extension from me at least 24 hours before the assignment deadline. 

The request for extension should be sent in the form of an email from the Canvas inbox or student’s UW email account and includes: (1) a rationale for the request (i.e. why the student is not able to submit on time) and the specific assignment the student is requesting to make up. The final decision associated with the assignments and deadlines is at the discretion of the instructor.

Academic Integrity

The University of Washington Student Conduct Code (WAC 478-121) defines prohibited academic and behavioral conduct and describes how the University holds students accountable as they pursue their academic goals. Allegations of misconduct by students may be referred to the appropriate campus office for investigation and resolution. More information can be found online at https://www.washington.edu/studentconduct/

Here's what you can do to cover yourself against plagiarism or collusion:

• At any stage of your writing, keep your drafts, notes, papers, and research materials. If a question of plagiarism arises, you'll have a paper trail ( paper trails protect you in a variety of academic, public, and work-related contexts)
• If you need additional help with your writing, contact the University Writing Center, UW Writes, where trained professionals are there to help you without colluding in plagiarism.
• Last but not least, ask me if you have any questions about honesty.

AI Policy 

Writing is integral to thinking and growing intellectually. It is also hard work, and it atrophies without consistent practice. Decades of writing research back this up. 

The advent of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have demonstrated them to be useful tools for helping us improve our writing, research and find sources, and stimulate our thinking. At the same time, you need to be aware of their limitations: 

• Errors: LLMs make mistakes. Don't believe anything that an LLM tells you. If it provides a number or a fact, assume the output is incorrect unless you check the claims with reliable sources. You will be held accountable for any mistakes the tool produces. LLMs fabricate or "hallucinate" seemingly credible data all the time. 

• Bias: LLM output may reflect biases because the data they are trained on reflects bias and likely does not include sufficient data from underrepresented or minoritized groups. While some safeguards have been put in place, the type of information that LLMs “learn” from reflect the dominant culture and its biases and prejudices. 

• Citation: These tools use existing sources without citation, and they cite sources that don’t exist. Therefore, using their outputs puts you at risk of plagiarism.  

Further, the environmental costs of LLMs have been well-documented and are only growing. This leads to ethical concerns about LLM’s contribution to the climate crisis.  

You may use an LLM for the following: 

• Research & Learning: Use AI to gather info, summarize research, and explain topics. 

• Brainstorming: AI can help generate ideas in the pre-drafting stage.

• Evaluative Feedback: You can ask LLMs for evaluative feedback on your writing, though peer feedback is often better and attuned to your work. I have found LLMs to be so-so at this task. The final content must be original. 

The following are ways that AI usage is prohibited from use in this course: 

• Completion: Submitting LLM-generated work as your own, including discussion posts and projects, is prohibited. Presenting LLM-generated ideas or analysis as your own is considered academic dishonesty. 

• You may not have an app write a draft (either rough or final) of an assignment for you. 

• Using entire sentences or paragraphs of LLM-generated content in your papers. 

• Rephrasing or paraphrasing sources using LLMs without proper citation. 

You are responsible for all content (ideas, facts, citations) that appears in the work you submit for the class. If I suspect that you have used an LLM in ways that extend beyond the approved usage listed above, I will ask you to meet with me to discuss your thinking and writing process. If, after our conversation, I conclude it’s more likely than not that you did not complete an assignment you submitted under your name in the spirit of this policy, I will refer you to your college provost for further conversation.   

Be mindful that different courses and instructors will have different policies regarding the use of LLM tools and services for academic purposes. It is your responsibility to follow the LLM policies for each of the courses in which you are enrolled. 

Access and Accommodations

Your experience in this class is important to me. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please communicate your approved accommodations to me at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course. If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), you are welcome to contact DRS at 206-543-8924 or uwdrs@uw.edu or disability.uw.edu. DRS offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities and/or temporary health conditions.  Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and DRS.  It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law. 

Religious Accommodations

“Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy.  Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form.

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