COURSE DESCRIPTION

 

The primary goal of RWS 1302 is to develop students’ critical thinking skills in order to facilitate effective communication in all educational, professional, and social contexts. This effective communication is based on an awareness of and appreciation for discourse communities as well as knowledge specific to subject matter, genre, rhetorical strategy, and writing process.

The class presents an approach to communication that helps students determine the most effective strategies, arrangements, and media to use in different rhetorical contexts.  It teaches students a systematic approach for analyzing rhetorical situations and then producing a variety of documents and presentations while gaining more confidence and fluency in visual, oral, and written communication.  In addition, because communication is central to being an active and engaged member of society, the course also provides a space for informed advocacy.

This course is taught as a hybrid class--with one face-to-face meeting for lecture and discussion, and the rest of the course utilizing a management system such as Blackboard, a Wiki, or a class website depending on the instructor. Instructors will provide students with permanent access to the syllabus, supplemental reading materials, e-mail, and discussion groups. It is vital that students check and participate in the online environment consistently as it is an integral part of the course. On occasion, students will be asked to meet on the hybrid day to participate in library research, technology workshops, presentations, or other activities their instructor might need them to be physically present for. Please keep this time available for this class. Otherwise, students may

miss out on important information.

 

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, students will be able to: 

• Understand a theory of discourse communities;

• Engage as a community of writers who dialogue across texts, argue, and build on each other’s work;

• Draw on existing knowledge bases to create “new” or “transformed” knowledge;

• Develop a knowledge of genres as they are defined and within discourse communities;

• Address the specific, immediate rhetorical situations of individual communicative acts;

• Develop procedural knowledge of the writing task in its various phases.

• Engage reflection about their own learning.

 

 

Students will also have the opportunity to strengthen skills sets in the following areas:

• Think, read, and write critically;

• Formulate research questions and perform primary and secondary research to answer those questions;

• Become familiar with the contents of the UTEP Library, in a variety of forms and areas of professional study (e.g. the arts, humanities, sciences, nursing, social sciences, business, engineering, and education);

• Analyze and synthesize material from outside sources;

• Develop a sensitivity to the significance of data and how it can be rhetorically applied to various genres; and,

• As part of a research process, apply research to various genres; receive instruction in the logic and form of documentation within a discipline (APA); learn writing strategies for integrating source material into your own prose (quoted, paraphrased, and summarized material); write analytical and argumentative papers appropriate to genres and larger discourse communities. 

 

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS

Topic Proposal for Semester: Students will write a proposal to identify the subject/issue/topic they will be working with for the semester.  This will be submitted to, approved, and graded by the instructor. 20 pts.

 

Genre Analysis: Students will identify two texts on the same subject, but in different genres, to write a comparative analysis. This will be submitted to, and graded by, the instructor. 100 pts.

 

Online Opinion Piece:  Students will write an online opinion piece on some aspect of the topic of their Literature Review/Primary Research Report in order to advocate for a policy change. This will be submitted to, and graded by, the instructor. 100 pts. 

  

Research Questions/Citation Analysis Matrix (Annotated Bibliography): Students will submit 3-4 research questions for approval and complete the citation analysis matrix as an activity assignment to begin work on the Literature Review/Primary Research Report. This will be submitted to, approved, and graded by the instructor. 50 pts.

 

Review of Literature: Students will conduct primary and secondary research on a social, political, or ethical issue to become well-informed experts on the issue. Students will then write a literature review of these sources to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of the research sources. This will be submitted to, and graded by, the instructor.  200 pts. 

 

Argumentative/Advocacy Outline Visual Project: Students will submit an outline to show the persuasive purpose and argumentative structure for the documentary film. This will be submitted to, and graded by, the instructor. 30 pts.

 

Visual Project:  Students will plan, write, film and edit a documentary film advocating a position on a current issue. Students will be provided with opportunities to become more familiar with this software throughout the semester. This will be uploaded on Vimeo or YouTube, and the link copied and pasted on a Word Document. This will be submitted (rough and final drafts) to, and graded by, the instructor. 100 pts.

 

Project Presentation: 100 pts

 

E-Portfolio or Advocacy Website:  Students will create, design, and maintain an academic profile in the form of an e-portfolio website that includes their semester’s work for the topic of their literature review/primary research report.  Students should copy and paste the finalized link to the “Write Submission” or “Comments” section of the assignment dropbox. This will be submitted to, and graded by, the instructor. 100 pts.  

 

Participation in Class:  Because this is a hybrid class, participation and attendance for in-class, face-to-face meetings is required. The activities included in this category ensure that students learn the material and help them to compose effective projects. This score will attendance, preparedness (reading course material prior to coming to class, etc.), attentive, courteous and effective in-class participation, in-class discussions, peer reviews, and other in-class work the instructor assigns. These points will be determined and distributed by the instructor. 100 pts.

 

Participation Online: This score will include online presence, posting weekly discussion questions, writing reflection blog entries, peer reviews, project submission, emails and other work the instructor assigns. These points will be determined and distributed by the instructor. 100 pts.

 

Grade Distribution (Students can earn a total of 1000 points for the course):

 

1000-900 = A

899-800 = B

799 -700 = C

699- 600 = D

599 and below = F

 

CALENDAR

 

Module 1 - Class intro: Rhetoric, Ontology and the World Around Us

Week One 

How do you “know what you know”?

-Syllabus

-Course outcomes

-E-portfolio (view in Bb folder)

-Question of the week (in discussion board)

 

Week Two

How do you “know what you know?,” cont.

-Respond to discussion question

-Venn Diagram

-Video

- Choosing a Semester handout

 

Module 2- Reviewing Rhetorical Appeals and Writing Process

Week Three

RWS Knowledge:

-Respond to discussion question

-“Rhetoric as Ontological”

• Rhetorical Situation  (audience and purpose)

• Rhetorical Appeals (Ethos, Pathos, Logos)

• Discourse Community

• Genre knowledge (medium [written, visual, spoken], language [formal/informal])

-Writing Process (view in Bb folder)

-APA format (view in Bb folder)

 

Module 3 - Who Writes History?: Media and Rhetorical Responsibility

 

Week Four

The Largest Protest in World History (that no one heard about)

Review in this order

-Listen to Bright Eyes “Old Soul Song”

-Watch, 15 February 2003: The day the world said no to war

-Read, “Cities jammed in worldwide protest of war in Iraq” ( CNN Feb 2003)

-Read, “Viewpoint: Why Was the Biggest Protest in World History Ignored?” (TIME Feb 2013)

 

Week Five

The Conquerors and the Conquered

-Read excerpts from Edward W. Said

-Post question of the week

-Draft Genre analysis

 

Module 4 - Opinion Piece: Writing through the eyes of the "other"

Week Six

Defending the unscrupulous: what is to be gained?

-Read all resources on Emmett Till (in order)

-Listen to Bob Dylan, “Death of Emmett Till”

 

Week Seven

Whose History is Right?

- Watch TED Talk, Chimamanda Adichie Ngozi “Danger of a Single Story”

 

Module 5 Conducting Research: Literature Review

Week Nine

Conducting Research

-Primary Research

-Composition (using your research)

-In-class workshops (one-on-one workshop and group peer-review of Lit. Review Matrix)

 

Week Ten

Who dictates your world view?

-Read Sri Lankan Conflict resources

-Read poem

 

Module 6 Rhetorically Reading Visual Culture: Visual Project

Week Eleven

Visual Propaganda, Satire and Reality:

-Read definitions

-View N. Korea visual polemic

-View American satire of N. Korea

-View the “reality” of N. Korea

 

Week Twelve

Visual Arts in a Mechanical Age: Are the visual arts worth anything?

-Marxism

-Walter Benjamin

 

Week Thirteen

The Art of Translation: Using sources

-Watch TED Talk

-Listen to song

 

Week Fourteen

-Conference style presentation of Visual Projects