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Syllabus


English 8170: Rhetoric and Composition 1

"Religion is believed by the common people to be true,
by the wise to be false,
and by the politicians to be useful,"
Seneca. Lucius Annaeus Seneca, aka Seneca the Younger, to be more precise, is quoted as saying this but where no one seems to know. I would, therefore, have been more accurate had I said, "Someone is said to have said", but that expression is awkward and therefore lacks authority: more accurate but less convincing, unrhetorical.
Swap religion for rhetoric and you can fit the history of rhetoric on a bumper sticker.

When & Where: Tuesdays, 9:30 PM - 12:00 PM, Sparks Hall Room: 420 -- Starts: 08/22/2022 Ends: 12/13/2022

Alcidamas was right

08/29/23
09/05/23
09/12/23
09/19/23
10/31/23

Instructions to readers

This website has layers. In addition to the words on the surface, like the words you are reading now, there are popups, images and footnotes like this one and internal and external links. The amount of information accessible from each screen can be overwhelming. It's easy to get lost. The best strategy, I think, is to read the surface text first, without hovering or clicking. Then reread hovering and clicking on links.

Introduction

When you look at a row of Doric columns, as you do when you look at what remains of the Parthanon in Athens Greece, you see a set of cylindrical columns projecting strength and unity. But the columns are not cylinders. If they were, because of their size and thus the distance from which you view them in real life, they would look thinner in the middle than on either end and would thus appear weak. By tapering the columns, the illusion of weakness is replaced with an illusion of strength. Knowledge of physics enables engineers to create columns that can withstand earthquakes. But it's knowledge of how perception shapes judgement that makes adding superfluous material potentially useful. The opposite strategy, removing or hiding material, is also potentially useful when trying to convince people to see something one way rather than another.

This act of visual rhetoric, called "entasis," is emblematic of rhetoric in general: altering perceptions to make people arrive at a preferred conclusion.

If "entasis" weakened the columns, it would be indisputably unethical. But if tapered columns are as strong as untapered columns, is disguising the reality unethical? Before you answer any question, question the question: how are the key terms defined, are those definitions shared, what motivates the question, what's at stake? Then and only then consider the possible answers. Once you have the slate of all possible answers, rank them in terms of efficacy given the situation and its participants with an eye towards whether or not what you say can be broadcast. Learn how to do this and you have become a rhetorician (one who teaches the art of rhetoric). Learn how to do it on the fly and you can become a rhetor (politician, lawyer, or a district manager).

In the simplest possible terms, rhetoric is the art the Greeks used the word techne, a noun that can be translated as "art" or "craft". In fact "craft" would be the more apt translation because it carries the connotation of guile but techne has more often been translated as "art", perhaps because the later seems more impressive, less home-spun as well as less dodgy. of public speaking.

Instruction in the art of rhetoric traditionally encompasses five disciplines (aka the canons):

  1. invention, discovering what to say
  2. arrangement, choosing the order to say things in
  3. style, selecting the words, metaphors, and figures of speech that best represent who you wishe to seemIn rhetoric, seeming matters and being doesn't unless it is what it seems to be.
  4. memory, so to speak as if spontaneously, from the heart instead of the head, concealing all premeditation, guile, and calculation
  5. delivery, how to dress, stand, move, gesture, enunciate, emote, and win. Today, I'm told, we might say riz. (?)

The kind of public speaking rhetoric has in mind evolved in 5th century Athens, an independent city-state that experimented with direct democracy. Basically any citizen Any property owning male over the age of majority who had two parents of Athenian birth and enough time and money to spend hanging around the public forum instead of working. Not all citizens, in other words, and certainly not all residents. We will get to the rhetoric of "direct democracy" shortly. could propose legislation and after speeches for and against, all citizens would vote. Thus persuasive speaking was a source of power. Moreover, any citizen could charge any other citizen with a crime. There were no prosecutors, no police and, because there were also no lawyers, each citizen had to be prepared to defend himself in court. The inarticulate were at risk. Unscrupulous citizens would extort tongue-tied citizens with threats of (false) prosecution. These predators were called sycophants, literally informers. Others, known as logographers or speech writers, would provide the inarticulate with a defense, for a fee, of course, which the hapless soul could memorize and recite.

Because effective public speaking (rhetoric) was a source of power, teachers of rhetoric (rhetoricians) could claim to empower their students. Even if a potential student was ambivalent about power, he certainly didn't want to be victimized. Thus whether for power or protection, the rhetoricians appeared to sell something worth buying. Over time rhetorical instruction became the Greek's most successfully exported commodity. By the time of the Roman empire, rhetoric was synonamous with education in all four corners of the "known world" . See here for the source of that map and a splendid overview of Roman expansion over time. Rhetoric remained the goal of eduction up until the Englightenment and it is from rhetoric that composition descends.

This class is about the art, the practice, the theory, and the history of rhetoric, from all of which contemporary composition studies have descended. On subsequent screens I will go over all of what you just read in much greater detail and you will have opportunities to ponder in writing and outloud what you make of rhetoric.

Assignments

Outcomes

8170 is a course in the early development of rhetoric in the (largely) Western tradition. If you are successful in this class you will have learned what Plato and Aristotle, as well as a number of their predecessors and successors, had to say on the subject of public discourse in the context of their culture and how their work influences today's understandings of rhetoric and composition.

Books

Required

  • Kennedy, George A. Aristotle on Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. (pdf) New York: Oxford UP, 1991.
  • Plato. Gorgias (pdf), and Phaedrus. Edition and translation do not matter much for our purposes; however, I believe those published by Hackett are superior. There are digital (free) versions as well.
  • Other texts for this class can be found under Resources/Texts on the menu bar above. There are more there than we will have time to read so don't worry when you see how long the list is.

    • Not Required

  • Much of what I have to say about rhetoric and dialectic can be found in Persuasion: History, Theory, and Practice. I'm not requiring it for this class. You can read it for free online from our library and you can read most of it on Google books.

    Examination Policy

    A list of key terms and people. Define each. You will get the list a couple weeks before the final day of class, although if you have been paying attention during the semester the list won't surprise you. Total contribution toward final grade: 50%.

    Policies

    According to The GSU Student Handbook

    Your professor expects you to:

    • Be informed about instructors' policies, which are presented in the course syllabus, as well as the policies of the Georgia State University on-campus Student Handbook.
    • Attend all classes, except when emergencies arise. If health and weather allow, your instructor will be present and on time for every scheduled class meeting. You should be, too.
    • Be an active participant in class, taking notes and asking appropriate questions. Your involvement will benefit you and your classmates.
    • Treat the instructor and fellow students with courtesy. Refrain from any behaviors that may distract others. You expect to be treated with tolerance and respect and to enjoy a learning environment free of unnecessary distractions. Your classmates deserve the same.
    • Cultivate effective study strategies. Being an effective student is not instinctive. Use your study time wisely, seek help from the instructor when you need it, and avail yourself of resources provided by the university.
    • Study course material routinely after each meeting. Stick to a regular study schedule and avoid cramming. Submit finished assignments on time and do not postpone working on them.
    • Accept the challenge of collegiate studying, thinking, and learning. Anticipate that the level and quantity of work in some courses will exceed your prior experiences. If you have significant responsibilities besides your studies, such as work and family, set realistic academic goals and schedules for yourself. Select an academic load whose work demands do not exceed your available time and energy.
    • Let no temptation cause you to surrender your integrity.

    AI Text Generators

    Because this class is largely about your personal reaction to what we read, I think it is safe to assume that you won't ask Claude or ChatGPT to write your weekly journal entries. You could ask it to write your exam for you, but you would need to know the definitions of the terms well enough to know if the AI got them right. So you might as well write it yourself. If you walk with a crutch when you don't need one, soon you will. For more on AI. We could spend a great deal of time pondering the effect of AI on rhetoric, but we don't have much time for it in this class. I'm sure the topic will come up from time to time. AI is intertwined with the history of rhetoric going forward.

    COVID

    The university is concerned for everyone's health. Masks are not required but advised. If you do not feel well, stay home. If you have COVID symptoms, get tested. If you have to miss class due to illness, submit your documentation (Dr.'s notes, test results, etc.) to The Dean of Students. For more on GSU and COVID

    Disclaimer

    This syllabus represents only a plan; deviation may be necessary. Changes will be reflected in this electronic syllabus, especially on the calendar pages. Check the site on a regular basis and remember always to hit refresh, to ensure that you are reading the most current version.

    About Motivation

    This section is intended as a brief on motivation theory in general rather than as an effort to motivate you to do well in this class. Ultimately motivation comes from within, so if you want to do well, you will need to self-motivate. From a rhetorical perspective, if you need to motivate long-term behavioral change, in yourself or someone else, the information below will prove useful.

    If you are going to succeed at learning something that takes time and effort to learn (the guitar, long distance running, Go or Chess, rhetoric or philosophy or a second or third language), where time is measured either in months of intense effort or years of sustained, high-level effort, you need 7 things: Desire, conviction, persistence, opportunity, sacrifice, a coach, and a plan.

    1) Desire: you have to want it. Typically desire comes from identity and identification. If you think you were born to run marathons or read Homer in the original, success will be a more natural path because you will be affirming your identity by pursuing your goal. You will practice for hours on your own because doing so makes you feel more yourself than anything else does. In addition to feeling like a butterfly at larval stage, you need to have a vivid image of what kind of butterfly you desire to become. You need to identify with someone who already is: a hero, a mentor, a close family member. If you have no role model, you won't have a clear sense of how to be what it is you want to become, and thus your learning will lack focus down range. So get a role model. If you don't know one personally, imagine you do while you look around for a real one. Your imaginary role model might be a famous person who you want to meet and maybe even compete with some day.

    2) Sacrifice: If you have a casual interest in something and you meet with immediate success, you may imagine you are "naturally" good at it and since being good at something is pleasant, you will likely continue, thinking that you have found your way to be. Early success, however, can be misleading. When you don't understand how something is done it looks easier than it is. Novices often confuse luck with skill and mistake a success for talent. The transition from novice to expert takes a long time, even for the gifted. Inevitably joy becomes work. Performance plateaus exist. Once you cease to improve, once you experience your first loss or setback, you have to decide whether to embrace the pain and frustration and the fear of failure or cut your losses and move on. You are more likely to embrace the pain if you can't imagine alternative ways of being. Thus, oddly enough, a lack of imagination, a one-track mind, can be crucial to success. But tunnel vision doesn't guarantee success. For every success there are many couldbes and wannabes toiling forever on the precipice. I think this existential dilemma, should I stay or should I go, is why so many people are content with good enough. To become great so often means giving up too much while risking getting nothing in return.

    3) Conviction: you have to want to succeed, but you also have to believe you can succeed. Identity is critical here as well. If your identity is wrapped up in the pursuit of success, and your identity isn't fragile, you will focus intensely and test yourself without fear or hesitation because you fervently believe you will succeed in the end. A role model who seems to have come from circumstances like your own helps. "They did it; so can I." This is (partially) why entering the family business is a time honored form of education. And why poverty is so often inherited.

    4) Persistence: for every person who succeeds at something difficult there are many who showed equal promise and desire who failed. You have to overcome performance plateaus, adversity, boredom, and compelling distractions. Don't confuse smart with quick. Learn to embrace tedium, frustration. Learn to question each apparent accomplishment and then raise the bar. Never settle. Never rest. Keep putting yourself out there. Fall, get up, fall again.

    5) Opportunity: Among those who don't succeed are also the merely unlucky. Luck plays a far greater role in success than we care to believe. It isn't enough to be good; you need the opportunity to show someone whose attention matters how good you might get given the necessary resources and support. As someone once said, "no one remembers your name just for working hard."

    6) A plan: low initial bar, measurable outcomes, near-term incremental goals on an unbounded path. If you wake up one day and your jeans don't fit and you say, I'm going to get fit, chances are you won't because the goal is vague (what's fit really mean?) and you don't have a plan (what do you do to get fit?). Even if you set a specific goal, lose 5 pounds, you still need a plan, a path to the goal. You will succeed if as you suck in your tummy and pull at your jeans you say, "Today I'm going to walk up three flights of stairs." If you do, and the next day you say, "I'm going to make a healthy low-call lunch and eat that instead of going out," and you also walk up three flights of stairs, you are on your way. Fewer calories, a few more flights, day by day. Drop a few pounds; get a bit stronger (5 flights of stairs). Once your jeans fit, set a new measurable goal that will help keep your jeans fitting.

    7) A coach: timely, vivid feedback. A good coach won't let you fail but won't let you luxuriate in success either. He or she will always be encouraging and correcting you. Eventually you may internalize a restlessness, a deeply felt need for continual improvement. For high achievers, good is never good enough. Happy high achievers are inspired by that drive. Miserable high achievers are plagued by it. Focus on the process of improvement and let the outcome be what it will be.

    Take aways