Contemporary students are exposed to unprecedented amounts of information, yet many struggle to organize that abundance into concepts and arguments that are either plausible or useful to audiences and users. This course will draw on rhetorical techniques both ancient and contemporary to help students analyze and understand the myriad and complex patterns of language, image and thought that inform nearly any field of inquiry. Students will become adept at a core set of argumentative techniques through which they can write critically and creatively in diverse contexts. Narrative - the organization of space and time through story - will be taught as a potent site of self experimentation as well as a means of expression and persuasion. Students will integrate the production, interpretation and alteration of images into a final research project to be electronically published on the burgeoning Internet.

Required Texts: (All texts are available online)
A Rulebook for Argument
The Forest of Rhetoric
Rhetoric Glossary

Assignments: There will be five papers of various lengths, including one revision. The final ( 15-20 page) paper will be worth forty percent of your final grade.

Attendance: Class attendance is integral to the course. After three unexcused absences, you will be docked ten percent for each additional unexcused absence.