CAS 137H: Rhetoric and Civic Life I | Fall 2016
Instructor: Robin Kramer Office Hours: Monday 10:15—12:00
Email: Wednesday 10:15—12:00
Phone: 814-865-1684 (during office hours) Thursday 12:30—2:30
Office: 202 Sparks Building
Course Description
Rhetoric and Civic Life (RCL) is a year-long honors course that offers comprehensive training in oral, written, visual, and digital communication for the twenty-first century. It unites these various modes under the flexible art of rhetoric and uses rhetoric both to strengthen communication skills and to sharpen awareness of the challenges and advantages presented by oral, written, visual, and digital modes.
RCL I focuses particularly on two critical academic capacities: analyzing and contextualizing. In this semester, students learn to rigorously examine the rhetoric surrounding them, compelling present their findings in various modes, and thoughtfully contextualize their research.
Course Text and Resources
The Essential Guide to Rhetoric. Keith and Lundberg. ISBN: 9780312472399
The Hodges Harbrace Handbook. Glenn and Gray. IBSN: 9781337375214
Penn State Reads 2016-2017 Book: The Circle. Eggers. IBSN: 9780345807298
Additional Course Readings in PDF format will be housed in CANVAS Course Modules
Robin Kramer’s 2015-2016 RCL Course Website and Blog: http://sites.psu.edu/kramer1617rcl/
Penn State Undergraduate Writing Center: Located in Boucke Building, the Writing Center provides peer tutoring for essays. https://pennstatelearning.psu.edu/tutoring/writing
Public Speaking Center: The Penn State Undergraduate Speaking Center, located in 7C Sparks, provides one-on-one peer mentoring to support any phase of your presentation/speech development. Visit the website for more information: http://speakingcenter.la.psu.edu/
CANVAS: I’ll post pertinent course materials and send email from CANVAS. If you haven’t already changed your settings so that CANVAS emails go directly to your PSU Webmail (@psu.edu) account, you’ll find it prudent to do so.
Assignments
All assignments must be completed in order to pass this class. A passing grade in CAS 137H (RCL I) is required in order to take CAS 138T (RCL II) during the spring semester. Specific details on each of the following assignments will be available on the course website and discussed during class.
Unit One: Analyzing Rhetoric
To understand rhetoric, you have to learn to dig. Think of yourself as an archeologist seeking artifacts of rhetoric. As a rhetorical archeologist, youmust probe an artifact for the ideologies and commonplaces that shape its meaning, examine the rhetorical appeals that went into it, and research and reconstruct its origins and cultural content. Luckily, an artifact doesn’t necessarily have to be old to be rhetorically excavated. Indeed, you can analyze artifacts that you find today in your mailbox, on the walls of your classroom building, or on your computer screen. For the Unit One assignments, you’ll present your findings in two different modes: an oral presentation and a thesis-driven academic essay.
Unit Two: Conducting and Presenting Research
In some ways, artifacts can be frozen in their cultural moments, like rhetorical wooly mammoths, if you will. But ideologies never stay frozen. They shift and change with time and circumstance. In Unit Two we will research the mutability of ideologies and practices over time and present this research compellingly in two formats: a formal research paper which identifies, discusses, and analyzes a past or current paradigm shift; and a TED-style talk, which will be performed in front of the class and recorded.
Unit Three: Understanding and Presenting Controversy
In our final unit, we will explore what happens when thorny issues emerge and endure; when ideologies, values, and rights sometimescome – and stay – in contest. We’ll tell the story of acontroversy for this assignment, explaining how it came about, how it’s endured, what’s at stake, and what questions it continues to ask of our civic life. As a capstone project, this multi-media assignment will use media editing technology. In order to draw on the talents, creativity, and decision-making of classmates, it will be designed, composed, performed, and produced in small groups.
Blogs
Early in the semester, students will set up two distinct blogs – one as a Rhetoric and Civic Life (RCL) blog and the second as a Passion blog. These blogs, which will be due each Friday prior to class according to the course schedule, will be devoted to RCL and distinct from any other blogs that you keep. Blogs from this particular section will be aggregated so that we may easily find, read, and comment on each other’s posts. Students will be able to select and revise entries for inclusion in their final e-Portfolios in RCL II during the spring semester.
More information (ex: assignment specifications, grading standards, etc.) can be found in the “Blog Assignments” document on Robin Kramer’s course website under the Assignments tab.
Participation
Your engaged contributions are considered central to the success of the class. Given this, class participation includes but entails more than attendance. If you attend class daily but do not regularly participate, you will not receive full credit for class participation. Additionally, if you consistently arrive late to class, you will not receive full credit for class participation. The following descriptions suggest what a solid A in class participation looks like:
· Adhere to the attendance policy (see page 3 in syllabus)
· Arrive to class on time
· Demonstrate knowledge of assigned readings
· Join in class discussion, contribute thoughtful comments, and ask relevant questions
· Engage in individual and group classroom activities
· Make eye contact with instructor during lectures; exhibit critical listening skills
· Contribute thoughtful, constructive feedback during workshop sessions and after presentations
· Recognize when it is time for other students to contribute
· Avoid undesirable classroom behavior such as sleeping, texting, etc.
Grading
Unit 1: Civic Life Speech 12.5%
Unit 1: Rhetorical Analysis Essay 12.5%
Unit 2: Paradigm Shift Essay 15%
Unit 2: Paradigm Shift TED Talk 15%
Unit 3: History of a Controversy 20%
Blogging Completion and Quality 20%
Participation and Attendance 5%
An Important Note on Grading:
The quality of your work in this class is very important. You earn grades in this class. What this means is that you do not, in this course, begin with 125 points on your first speech or essay and lose points as you make mistakes. Instead, you build upward toward a base grade of C and add points as you exceed expectations and requirements.
Please note that work that meets the basic assignment requirements given in class is “C” level (70-79) work. “D” level (60-69) and “F” level (0-59) work fails to meet these basic requirements. You can expect to earn grades in the “B” level range (80-89) by not only meeting the basic requirements of the assignment, but by also going beyond the assignment requirements in terms of research, presentation, analysis, and preparation. You can earn grades in the “A” level range (90-100) by completing exceptional work. Nothing less earns grades in this range. Assignments should be virtually error-free, presented or written very well, explained thoughtfully and thoroughly, focused, and should demonstrate clear and advanced critical thinking and analysis.
Course Policies
Attendance and Lateness
Attendance is required and vital to your success in this course. It will be taken during each class. Because situations do occur that make attendance in class impossible, you are permitted three absences without a grade penalty. Each absence in excess of three will result in a one percent deduction off your final grade (independent of grades received on course work). Additionally, your participation grade can be affectedwith each absence beyond the allotted three.
It is expected that you will arrive to class on time and prepared with the day’s reading materials and assignments completed. Students who arrive late or attend class without the necessary materials or completed assignments may be counted absent as well. You are responsible for obtaining assignments, notes, and/or schedule changes that are made during missed classes. To learn more about the University’s attendance policy (Faculty Senate Policy 42-27) and procedures for obtainingclass excuses, please consult the Class Excuses page provided by University Health Services.
If you participate in university extracurricular activities that require you to travel, please notify me in advance to missing any classes and provide supporting documentation. In the unfortunate event that you face an emergency, please call Student & Family Services at 814-863-2020. This hotline is available 24 hours a day, and it will notify your professors of your absence and when you will return to class.
Academic Integrity
Penn State defines academic integrity as the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and responsible manner. All students should act with personal integrity, respect other students’ dignity, rights and property, and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their efforts (Faculty Senate Policy 49-20).
Dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated in this course. Dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarizing, fabricating information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students. Students who are found to be dishonest will receive academic sanctions and will be reported to the University’s Judicial Affairs office for possible further disciplinary sanctions.
Assignment Submission Guidelines
· Assignments must be submitted by the beginning of class the day that they are due. Barring legitimate emergencies, even if you are absent on the day that an assignment is due it is your responsibility to submit the assignment to me on time via email.
· Late work will be penalized at the rate of one letter grade per day, and only if prior arrangements have been made with the instructor. Late work for which no such arrangements have been made will not be accepted for a grade.
· If you are scheduled to present on a particular day and miss your presentation slot, you will receive a zero for the assignment. In other words, if you are on the docket to speak first and are not present when presentations begin, you will not receive credit for the assignment.
· All assignments should be typed using a standard font, such as Times New Roman. Please use one- inch margins and a standard font size (11-12 point). Handwritten work is never accepted.
· Staple all work that is more than one page. (No paper clips or folding over, please.)
· Submissions should include your name, the course name (CAS 137H), and the date as a heading on the first page.
· Carefully proofread all assignments before submitting to ensure your best possible work.
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Course Schedule
Date / Content / Due(M) 8-22 / Welcome and Introduction to Course!
(W) 8-24 / Introducing Unit One: Civic Artifacts and Rhetorical Analysis
Discussion of Readings: What does it mean to be civic? / Read: Unit 1 Assignment Sheets (posted on Robin Kramer’s Course Website under Assignments tab)
Read: Schudson: “How People Learn to be Civic” (posted on CANVAS in “Additional Readings” module)
(F) 8-26 / Introduction to Blogging
Blogging Session: Setting Up Blogs / Read: “Blog Assignments” (posted on Robin Kramer’s Course Website under Assignments tab)
Brainstorm: Possible topics for passion blogs
(M) 8-29 / Discussion of readings and Unit One Assignments / Read: Crowley and Hawhee: “Ancient Rhetorics” (posted on CANVAS in “Additional Readings” module)
Prepare to Discuss: Questions #1-4 from Crowley and Hawhee chapter
Read: Keith and Lundberg’s Essential Guide Chapter 1
Submit: If you haven’t already, please remember to add your RCL Blog URL to the emailed Google doc
(W) 8-31 / Discussion of readings and Unit One Assignments (continued)
(F) 9-2 / Blogging Session
Troubleshooting Blogs / Post: RCL Blog 1: Describe two potential topics for your
Passion Blog to receive class feedback on your ideas.
(M) 9-5 / No Class – Labor Day
(W) 9-7 / Discussion of readings
Aristotle’s Modes of Persuasion: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos / Read: Keith and Lundberg’s Essential Guide Chapters 2, 3, and 4
Submit: Please remember to add your Passion Blog title and URL to the emailed Google doc
(F) 9-9 / Blogging Session / Post: Passion Blog 1
Read and Post: RCL Blog 2: Based on your reading of The Circle up to page 71, respond to the first Circle blog prompt. (Prompts are posted under the “Assignments” tab in our course blog.)
(M) 9-12 / A Sense of Timing: Kairos / Read: Crawley and Hawhee: “Kairos and the Rhetorical Situation: Seizing the Moment” (posted on CANVAS in “Additional Readings” module)
Prepare to Discuss: Question #1 from Crawley and Hawhee chapter
(W) 9-14 / Rhetorical Analysis:
What is it? How do you do it? / Read: Faigley and Selzer: “Analyzing Written Arguments” (posted on CANVAS in “Additional Readings” module)
Read: Silko: “The Border Patrol” (posted on CANVAS in “Additional Readings” module)
Bring: 100-word typed response explaining your understanding of the differences between textual and contextual analysis.
(F) 9-16 / Blogging Session / Post: Passion Blog 2
Read and Post: RCL Blog 3: Based on your reading of The Circle up to page 197, respond to the second Circle prompt. (Posted under the “Assignments” tab in our course blog.)
(M) 9-19 / Classical Canons of Rhetoric: Invention, Arrangement, Style, Memory, Delivery
(W) 9-21 / Classical Canons of Rhetoric
(continued) / Draft: Preliminary (yet solid) outline of your Unit 1 Speech should be complete. Be prepared to discuss your approach if time permits.
(F) 9-23 / Blogging Session / Post: Passion Blog 3
Read and Post: RCL Blog 4: Based on your reading of The Circle up to page 306, respond to the third Circle prompt. (Posted under the “Assignments” tab in our course blog.)
(M) 9-26 / Unit One Speeches (1-6)
(W) 9-28 / Unit One Speeches (7-12)
(F) 9-30 / Unit One Speeches (13-18) / Post: Passion Blog 4
Comment: Since we will not have time to blog during class, please comment on 4-5 blogs by the end of the day.
(M) 10-3 / Unit One Speeches (19-24)
(W) 10-5 / Workshop: Rhetorical Analysis Essay / Bring: Complete typed draft of Rhetorical Analysis Essay
(F) 10-7 / Blogging Session / Post: Passion Blog 5
Read and Post: RCL Blog 5: Based on your reading of The Circle up to page 395, respond to the fourth Circle prompt. (Posted under the “Assignments” tab in our course blog.)