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. Contemporary universities find themselves at the center of debates about file sharing and copyright in an information age, so we will focus on arguments associated with these controversies and the Open Source Movement. 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 published as an open source document on the Internet.

Required Texts,Images,Sounds: (All are available online)
A Rulebook for Argument
The Cathedral and the Bazaar
Open Sources: Voices From the Open Source Revolution
Nothing So Strange (Open Source Film)
Magnatune - Shareware Music
The Forest of Rhetoric
The Wiki!
Rhetoric Glossary
Slashdot
Constantly Mutating Syllabus
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.