21W.011  Writing and Rhetoric: Rhetoric and Contemporary Issues

This course provides the opportunity for students -- as readers, viewers, writers and speakers --- to engage with social and ethical issues that they care deeply about. Over the course of the semester, through discussing the writing of authors such as Martin Luther King, Jr.,George Orwell, Marian Wright Edelman, Andrew Carnegie, Susan Sontag, Barbara Ehrenreich, Nicholas Kristof, Ezekiel Emanuel,  Susanna Kaysen,  Jean Kilbourne, Michael Pollan and Peter Singer, we will explore different perspectives on a range of contemporary issues such as the responsibilities of citizens in a democracy, freedom of expression, economic and social inequality, mental illness, the politics of food, the influence of popular media and the challenges of an aging society. Throughout the semester, we will discuss different rhetorical strategies that aim to increase awareness of social problems, to educate the public about different perspectives on contemporary issues, and to persuade readers of the value of particular positions on or solutions to social problems. In addition, we will analyze selected documentary photographs, as well as documentary films, that represent or dramatize social problems or issues. In major assignments, students will have the opportunity to write about social and ethical issues of their own choice. For the three major assignments, students will revise each piece. This course aims to help students to grow significantly in their ability to understand and compare arguments, to use different rhetorical strategies, to integrate secondary print and visual sources and to craft vibrant, well-reasoned and elegant essays and grant proposals. Students will also do regular homework assignments and give oral presentations. In class we will discuss assigned texts, explore strategies for successful academic writing, freewrite and respond to one another's writing.