RHE 306 Course Description 2008-2009

This course is grounded in the rhetorical analysis of "controversies," broadly defined. "Controversies," for our purposes, need neither be huge nor particularly public: whether or not to put a family pet to sleep could work as well as whether or not same-sex partners should get insurance benefits in Texas—though the former would require a different approach to research.

Instructors will select a controversy from this year’s First Year Forum book, The Blind Side, to use as a model for class discussion and informal assignments, supplementing the text with essays or articles that expose the various "sides" of the controversy in question (and there are always more than two sides). To get you started, a handful of current articles on controversies raised in The Blind Side will be collected ahead of time and provided for you online at the CWRL site—you’ll receive information on this over the summer. This pre-selected controversy, however, will serve as a model only: students must locate a controversy of their own to adopt for the semester. It may be tempting to allow students to select any controversy whatsoever, but there are good reasons for offering students an array of pre-approved controversies from which to choose; that approach, while not required, is strongly encouraged. Topics must be substantial, not trivial.

The course is divided into three units, each one requiring some sort of outside research. The first two units are devoted to rhetorical analysis and so are mostly descriptive analyses. In these units, the students' own positions are beside the point, and that will be a difficult concept for some students to grasp—they'll feel compelled to argue rather than analyze, or to argue while they analyze. So instructors should be prepared to discuss, frequently, the differences between analysis and argument. The third unit is devoted to advocacy and so requires, for the first time, that students take a position within the controversy and produce an informed argument for that position.

Unit 1: Describing a controversy and mapping the various positions within it

In this unit, students detail the history of their controversy, map out the central positions held in regard to it, examine the stakes of each position, and explore the ways in which the positions are interrelated (dependent on one another). Students are to discern

• what "events" turned this issue into a controversy in the first place
• who this controversy affects
• how the outcome of the controversy might affect that population
• why it's important to others (why should anyone else care?)

Students will need to read broadly enough to determine the greatest concerns for each position, what if anything the various positions hold in common, and how the arguments made by one position influence those made by another. The major assignment for this unit requires analysis and description, not evaluation or argumentation.

Unit 2: Analyzing a position within a controversy

In this unit, students will analyze a specific position within their chosen controversy. Selecting a single text that advocates this position in a representative way, students will summarize what the writer says, noting the central claims and key evidence, and then analyze how the argument is put together as well as why the writer has made specific rhetorical choices. Students will discern and describe, for example,

• the reasons offered in support of this position
• any persuasive maneuvers not directly linked to "logical reasons" (appeals to emotion or the author's credibility, etc.)
• common rhetorical figures (metaphors, metonymies, analogies, etc.) utilized in making the persuasive case
• what's at stake in upholding this position (who are the winners and losers—including any secret beneficiaries? What will be won or lost? etc.)

Students may also discover and describe significant disagreements among others who advocate this same position. The major assignment for this unit requires analysis and description, not evaluation or argumentation.

Unit 3: Advocating a position within a controversy

In this unit, students situate themselves within the "map" of the controversy that they have constructed and produce an argument that advocates a particular position using the persuasive strategies analyzed and studied throughout the semester.