English 323: Writing in the Rhetorical Tradition (3.

0 credit hours)
Spring 2013 - Section 001
Instructor: Lauren Clark (leclark2@ncsu.edu)
Course: MWF 10:15AM - 11:05AM. Tompkins G117.
Office: Ricks Hall Addition. (Between Tompkins and the DH Hill library.) No office
number; just cubicles in the building.
Course Description
English 323 is a writing course based on the study of rhetoric. Readings will include
topics such as the principles of invention, arrangement, and style; analysis of written
texts; writing of persuasive texts for a variety of audiences and purposes.
The class will also be heavily centered on discussion and group work as well. You will
often be asked to collaborate on in-class assignments and share your finished work with
the whole class. We will also have time for workshopping and peer reviewing for the
mid-term and final projects.
Required Texts
CrowIey, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students.
5th Ed.
Lanham, Richard. Analyzing Prose. 2nd Ed.
Course Assignments
Booklet of Rhetorical Exercises and Commonplaces (40%)
You will develop a booklet of rhetorical exercises and commonplaces that will be due at
the end of the semester. The booklet is both a personal reference text and a record of
weekly exercises in rhetorical styles and appeals related to the readings. You should
contribute to it semi-weekly, but I encourage you to keep it near you at all times, so you
can add new ideas, quotes, and forms of appeal whenever the occasion arises.
The booklet can be developed in any medium you wish. You may use a hardbound
journal or sketch book, which you can find at a bookstore or art supply store. You could
use a Microsoft Word document or loose-leaf paper. By the end of the semester, your
book will be full of commonplaces that you've written down or glued to a page,
explorations or specifics audiences and ethoi, and original writing representative of the
many styles and forms of appeal about which you'll be learning over the course of the
semester.
You can also start a blog via Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr, or another site that will
represent the same kinds of contributions that you'd add to a sketchbook. You can
embed video, audio, and links into your online booklet; you can use keywords to keep
track of your entries, and you can set your privacy settings as you wish (although I may
occasionally ask you to share a post with the class).
Finally, you will be evaluated for your hard work to expand your booklet using the ideas
we explore in class throughout the semester. As long as you show that you spent time
2+ times a week adding to your booklet, you will earn a high grade.
Mid-Term Project (20%)
Your first project will be 5-6 pages in length (double-spaced). You will also include a 2-
page preface that describes the rhetorical strategies that you enact in the project,
including a detailed analysis of the audience(s) to whom you were writing, and an
assessment of your successes or failures in the projects. This assignment will focus on
imitation and style.
Final Project (30%)
Your final project will be 8-10 pages in length (double-spaced). You will also include a
2-3 page preface that describes the rhetorical strategies that you enact in the project,
just as you did for the mid-term. The terms for this project are more open and will ask
you to make an argument based on the rhetorical strategies and commonplaces we've
discussed over the course of the semester.
In-Class Participation and Collaboration (10%)
I expect that you will come to class on time, have completed the readings and any
assignments due, and will participate in small-group and in-class discussion.
Please inform me of any known absences ahead of time. If you are absent more than 6
classes, your final grade will be lowered by 20%. Subsequent absences will lower the
grade another 20%, until resulting in a failing grade due to excessive absences.
Grading Scale
A+ 100-97 A 96-93 A- 92-90
B+ 89-87 B 86-83 B- 82-80
C+ 79-77 C 76-73 C- 72-70
D+ 69-67 D 66-63 D- 62-60
F 59 and below
Midterm Assignment Sheet
English 323 | Spring 2013 | Lauren Clark
Purpose: Every writer is influenced by other authors; perhaps youre a fan of
Hemingways paratactic structure or Jamess small-scale periodic style. For your
midterm, you will practice imitating very closely the style of an author (Wolfe)
while making the content your own. This assignment will provide significant
practice with one of the most common ancient practices of rhetoric: imitation.
This project will help you get into another authors skin, and learn new muscle
memory regarding the construction of prose.
Mission: For your project, you will work with Tom Wolfes essay The Saturday
Route, found in Lanhams Analyzing Prose. You will follow the structure as closely
as possible, while incorporating your own storyline. You will follow the tone of the
piece, Wolfes ethos (what do you think of him as an author? How does he
present himself?), and his rhetorical choices.
Context: Crowley and Hawhee write that proper procedure for [ancient]
imitation involved copying the model, studying it carefully, and imitating its
structures (p. 365). You will want to stay as true to Wolfes grammatical structure
as possible. However, you also want to copy his rhetorical style: when do you see
anaphora? Isocolon? Polysyndeton? Being able to recognize the figures and
tropes in Wolfes piece will allow you to recognize the complexities of his
structure in a very nuanced, informed way. Your imitation of his structure in your
own project will be that much more sophisticated.
Resources:
Use Crowley and Hawhees break down of imitation work that appears at
the end of chapter 10 in Ancient Rhetorics.
Use Lanhams analysis of The Saturday Route in Analyzing Prose, pages
137151.
Use examples on Moodle. They will help you start out, and help you to see
how, when imitation is done well, you wont not be able to hear Wolfes
structure coming across.
Requirements:
Your paper will be 5-6 double-spaced pages (at least 1,500 words). You
will not be able to imitate all of Wolfes essay, so when you get at least 5
full pages, you can stop anytime thereafter. (Finish the last paragraph that
you are imitating, though.)
You analysis will be 2-3 double-spaced pages (600 to 900 words). In the
analysis, you will tell me about your process, how you came to choose
your pairs (parallel to the New York/Georgia and art/religion dichotomies),
how you made sure to follow Wolfes style, and any problems or issues you
had with the project.
Your analysis is what will largely determine your grade on the midterm. If
you write a lovely essay, but your analysis doesnt tell me much about
your processes of changing content, working with the style, or what you
struggled with, then your grade will be lower. If you write a pretty good
essay and a fantastically clear, telling, comprehensible analysis, youll
receive a high grade.
Feel free to add bits of information, figures, or tropes to the structure. Try
not to take away or replace anything in the structure. Do whatever you
want with the content.
I suggest numbering your paragraphs as Lanham has done so you can
easily reference Wolfe's essay against your imitation.
Due date: Friday, March 1st

by 11:55 pm (end of the day). You will turn in your
paper and your analysis via Moodle. If Moodle goes down, email me the
document(s).
Final Project Assignment Sheet
English 323 | Spring 2013 | Lauren Clark
Purpose: This project is meant to serve as the culmination of everything you have
learned in 323. You will truly be writing in the rhetorical tradition.
Mission: Your goal for the final project is to write a rhetorical argument that is
based in the strategies we have learned over the course of the semester. You
may write about anything you wish; you can argue that the Occupy movement
is politically sound, or you can argue that you make the best chocolate cake in
the world. No matter what your topic, you must feel very passionate about it;
you do have to sustain the argument over at least 8 pages.
Of the five rhetorical canons (invention, arrangement, style, memory, delivery)
you are explicitly using the first three. (Refresh your memory on the definitions:
http://rhetoric.byu.edu/canons/Canons.htm)
Invention: Find the available means by which to present your argument.
What kind of inventional strategies do you need to implement? (chapter
4.) How will you incorporate logos, ethos, and pathos? How will you
compose those proofs? (chapters 5-7.)
Arrangement: In what order will you present your proofs or arguments? Do
you need an introduction or an insinuation? What should you focus on in
your peroration or conclusion? (chapter 9 and Analyzing Prose.)
Style: How will you support your argument, and your proofs, using tropes or
figurative language? Will you rely mostly on periodic style or running style?
Noun style or verb style? Parataxis or hypotaxis? (chapter 10 and
Analyzing Prose chapters 1-3.)
Context: This project is meant to get you to truly write in the rhetorical tradition.
You will thus construct a piece of written prose that is meant to persuade your
audience. Recall that Aristotle defined rhetoric as the art of persuasion. All of
the strategies we have discussed over the semester are means by which a
rhetor can persuade his or her audience. This project is your final accumulation
of all we have discussed over the past 12 weeks. You have consistently
completed rhetorical activities, progymnasmata, and analysis of
commonplaces during the semester. This project is now your opportunity to take
what you believe are the most persuasive means, the most compelling
rhetorical figures, and use them to make your very own rhetorical argument.
Resources:
Use Crowley and Hawhees Ancient Rhetorics
Use Lanhams Analyzing Prose
Use your class notes
Requirements:
8-10 pages, or around 2,200-3,000 words in length. (may go over. Don't
write more than 12 pages.)
3-4 page analysis (may go over. Don't write more than 5 pages.)
Use analysis to call my attention to the rhetorical strategies, schemes and
tropes, flowers (figures of language and thought) and any other elements
in your argument.
If you use outside sources, cite them using MLA formatting. Include a
Works Cited page.
Due Date: Thurs May 9th by 11:55 pm. You will turn in your paper and your
analysis via Moodle. If Moodle goes down, email me the document(s). You may
also turn in your final earlier than May 9th as well!