Rhetoric I: The First-Year Experience "The Quest for Knowledge"  (ENGL 101H)  Fall 2002  Time and Place: MWF 10-10:50, Mickle 110 David Havird http://personal.centenary.edu/~dhavird/ dhavird@centenary.edu Office: Jackson Hall 311, 869-5085 Office Hours: MW 2-4 and by appointment

• Plato.  The Republic.  Trans. Benjamin Jowett.  Dover, 2000.
• O Brother, Where Art Thou?  Dir. Joel Coen.  Videocassette.  Touchstone, 2000.
• Homer.  The Odyssey.  Trans. Robert Fagles.  Penguin, 1997.
• Shakespeare, William.  The Tragedy of Macbeth.  Washington Square Press New Folger ed.  Washington Square Press, 1992.
• Hurston, Zora Neale.  Their Eyes Were Watching God.  HarperPerennial, 1998.
• Boland, Eavan.  Outside History: Selected Poems 1980-1990.  Norton, 2001.
• Spiegelman, Art.  Maus: A Survivor's Tale I [My Father Bleeds History] and II [And Here My Troubles Began].  Pantheon, 1986 and 1991.
• MacLaverty, Bernard.  Cal.  Norton, 1995.

• Ebest, Sally Barr, et al.  Writing from A to Z.  3rd ed.  Mayfield, 2000.
• Random House Webster's College Dictionary.  Random House, 2000.

This course will acquaint you with works in a variety of genres from the ancient world to the contemporary.  These works, all of which address the theme of forbidden knowledge, include a philosophical dialogue, a folk epic, a Hollywood film (with a folk musical soundtrack), a verse play, a novel in dialect, lyric poems, and a memoir-as-comic-book.  They will allow us to examine a number of rhetorical devices, including dialogue, allegory, narrative, description, analysis, argumentation, and various figures of speech--the list is almost endless.  In-class discussions, interaction on the computer, and out-of-class events will encourage you to wrestle with challenging ideas and so to develop your critical skills.  Those ideas will provide a context for written assignments of an analytical nature.  Some of them may require research and formal documentation.  Apply yourself conscientiously to the work of the course, and by the end of the semester you should be able

• to analyze a text and to recognize how its rhetorical techniques convey a stance toward the subject matter;
• to draw connections among our various texts and between them and other cultural elements;
• to discover and develop arguments of your own;
• to present those arguments in convincing written form;
• to demonstrate mastery of basic grammar, mechanics, and usage; and
• to conduct and document elementary research.

• Reading quizzes (20%).  There will be daily reading quizzes consisting of 2-5 objective questions.  (An objective question has only one answer.)  These quizzes will come at the beginning of the period.  If you are late for class, you will miss the quiz.  You may make up a reading quiz only if you are absent because of your required participation in a College-sponsored off-campus event, and then you may submit, on the day of your return to class, five objective questions and answers about the assignment that was due when you were absent.
• Reflections on events (15%).  There are five events that you must attend as if they were class meetings.  You will find these with dates in the FYE brochure and on our calendar of assignments: 1) the President's Convocation, 2) a "Greek Week" film, 3) a Shenandoah Shakespeare Express performance of Macbeth, 4) the presentation of the Corrington Award to Eavan Boland, and 5) the talk by Rose Van Thyn.  Except for the "Greek Week" film, these events may figure on reading quizzes, in computer-mediated discussions and essays, and on the final exam.  As for the film, you must write (type out) a reflection of at least 300 words.  During the semester I will be bringing to your attention other on-campus cultural events.  You must attend four of these and submit a reflection of at least 300 words about each one.  You will be submitting five reflections in all.  These informal compositions should relate the events to a theme of the course.  If the event takes place on Friday or Saturday, the reflection is due on Monday.  Otherwise, it's due at the second class meeting after the event.
• Four 750-word essays (50%)--on topics to be announced, due Wednesday, 4 September; Monday, 23 September; Friday, 18 October; and Monday, 4 November.  Submit them unfolded and either loose or stapled in the upper left-hand corner.  Be certain to have written and signed the Honor Code.  Late essays will be penalized by at least a letter grade.  You must submit all four essays in order to pass the course.  These are the features that I will be evaluating:
• Thesis and introduction: Is the thesis contestable?  Is it substantial enough to merit at least 750 words of development?  Is the thesis, along with the introduction of which it is a part, specific to the essay at hand, or is it merely a generic one that could be pasted onto any other essay on the general subject?
• Overall structure (macro-organization): Do the paragraphs have topic sentences that relate to the thesis?  Is the arrangement, the order, of the paragraphs sensible and effective?  How well do the paragraphs cohere one with another?  Are there transitions, signposts, that smooth the reader's journey from one topic to another?
• Micro-organization: Do the individual paragraphs have unity, order, coherence?
• Content: Is there ample evidence to elucidate or otherwise demonstrate the validity of the topic ideas?  What is the quality of that evidence?  To what degree does it display a depth or an originality of thought on the part of the author, or the thoroughness of his or her research?  Has the author employed appropriate rhetorical modes?
• Style: Is the expression of the ideas clear?  Does the syntax flow?  Is the tone appropriate to the subject?  Are there errors in grammar, diction or usage, spelling, or mechanics that impede effective communication?  (Especially serious are "sentence level" errors: comma splices, sentence fragments, and fused sentences.)
• Final exam (15%)--1-4 PM, Thursday, 12 December.
• Regular attendance.  To be present, you must be on time to class; you must have the assigned text with you; and you must stay awake. Miss more than nine classes for whatever reason and you will fail the course.

• Reading Quizzes (20%)
• Reflections on Events (15%)
• Essays (50%)
• Final Exam (15%)