1. What is Rhetoric?
It’s a long story (“what is rhetoric? It’s about 20 lectures,” one of my teachers once said).
Rhetoric began 2500 years ago as the study of the forms of communication and argument essential to public, political and legal life in Ancient Greece. It has since evolved a rich and diverse body of research, texts, and pedagogies. I

2. “Rhetoric refers to the study and uses of written, spoken and visual language. It investigates how language is used to persuade, organize and maintain social groups, construct meanings and identities, coordinate behavior, mediate power, produce change, and create knowledge. Rhetoricians often assume that language is constitutive (we shape and are shaped by language), dialogic (it exists in the shared territory between self and other), closely connected to thought (mental activity as “inner speech”) and integrated with social, cultural and economic practices. Rhetorical study and written literacy are understood to be essential to civic, professional and academic life.”

3. In essence…
It’s about how language is used to get things done – persuasion, performance, positioning, power/hierarchy, construction of a perspective, building community, telling stories, etc.)
Theories of rhetoric make assumptions about humans – that we are persuaders, performers, “positioners,” moral/emotional beings, group- creators and joiners, embedded in power relationships, perspective-makers, and poetic (figuration is an important part of communication and cognition)

4. Herrick Suggests Rhetoric Is
Planned
Adapted to an audience
Reveals motives
Responsive (situated and dialogic)
Seeks persuasion
Focused on contingent issues
That is rather abstract. Let’s try to make sense of it with an example.

5. The Rhetoric of Arranging a Date

6. This text is planned, adapted to an audience, reveals motives, responsive, seeks persuasion, focused on contingent issues.
The character asks “rhetorical questions” - how does this language present me? What persona does it construct? What persuasive tactic will be most effective? What moves should I make, how will this make me seem? How should I think of my audience? What is my purpose? How do I avoid embarrassment (motive)?

7. Rhetorical Analysis Starts With
Moving from a focus on what texts say (content) to what they do and how they do it (rhetoric). Rhetorical self consciousness = achieving a kind of double vision – of looking “at” as well as through language.
We may start with questions such as “how do texts position us (and others), how do they persuade, and what perspective do they construct?
Consider these chewing gum ads:
Rhetorical self consciousness – understanding what texts do - is an important skill for students. Revealing the rhetorical moves that writers make, the strategies they draw on, is part of achieving academic literacy, and of acculturation into disciplinary communities. When you recognize the moves you not only understand the disciplinary conversation better, you are better equipped to join it.

9. “A WHITER SMILE GETS YOU NOTICED EVEN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE”

12. Rhetoric Is “Everywhere” & an “Everyday” Thing
When a politician tries to get you to vote for them, they are using rhetoric.
When a lawyer tries to move a jury, they are using rhetoric.
When a government produces propaganda, they are using rhetoric.
When an advertisement tries to get you to buy something, it is using rhetoric.
When the president gives a speech, he is using rhetoric.
But rhetoric can be much subtler (and quite positive) as well:
When someone writes an office memo, they are using rhetoric.
When a newspaper offers their depiction of what happened last night, they are using rhetoric.
When a scientist presents theories or results, they are using rhetoric.
When you write your mom or dad an , you are using rhetoric.
Thought itself is rhetorical - when you think, you engage in “inner argument,” or “inner persuasion” in order to reach a decision or act.

13. Everyday Expressions Can be Analyzed Rhetorically
“TO BE HONEST/FRANK/FRANKLY/TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH..”
"Parrhesia" or "sincere style.” Most common strategies:
To establish intimacy/insider status (because we are close, I can confide in you).
To signal seriousness. To signal shift to serious topic – politeness or performance is being set aside in favor of frankness
To establish emphasis. I want to really emphasize what comes next. E.g. Obama & “look” as emphasis marker. He’ll say to audiences, “Look, the reality is…” = I’m dropping out of performance mode and speaking to you plainly and seriously.
Confess to potentially unpopular position, and manage “face” - may effect other’s opinion of you (status-threatening) (“To be honest, I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000; “To be honest, I thought Paradise Lost was a bore.” "To tell you the truth, I'm not going to make the deadline.“
False sincerity (sales pitch)

14. Herrick suggests non-verbal texts can be analyzed rhetorically, including even monuments.
Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial generated considerable controversy because it refuses to celebrate the causes of war, and instead provides a place of grief, contemplation, and self-reflection. "Like an anti-monument, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial creates an alternative to the didactic monologue articulated by traditional built symbols of national identity.

15. Rhetorical Reading of the Vietnam War Memorial
The Vietnam war memorial is black
It is made of reflective black granite. When a visitor looks at the wall, she will see the engraved names and her own reflection
The monument is built along a pathway that requires people to move along the small corridor of space
Unlike many monuments, it lists all the names of U.S. soldiers who died, and it does so in chronological rather than alphabetic order (Lin has she wanted the wall to read “‘like an epic Greek poem’ and ‘return the vets to the time frame of the war’)
Information about rank, unit, and decorations are not given
The wall is V-shaped, with one side pointing to the Lincoln Memorial and the other to the Washington Monument. Lin's conception was to “create an opening or a wound in the earth to symbolize the gravity of the loss of the soldiers.”

16. Telemarketing Strategies Script
Pre-introduction: (Ask to speak to the decision-maker) Introduction: (Introduce yourself and the reason for your call) Attention Getter: (Mention the key features of the offer and qualify them for eligibility) Probing Questions: (Always ask for information that will be useful for rebuttals) Offer: (Explain the product/service and terms of commitment) Close: (ALWAYS ASK FOR THE SALE) Rebuttal (deal with objections) Sales Continuation: (Agree, use rebuttals, sell benefits, CLOSE) Up/down/cross-sell: (If there is another product of less-price this is the time to sell it.) Confirmation Close: (Review the terms of the offer to reduce buyer remorse) Final Close: (End on a positive note. Thank the customer and leave a dial free number for customer support)

17. Some Texts Reveal Their Own Rhetoric
Kotex advertisements So Obnoxious and “How Do I Feel About My Period?
Vince Parry, “Branding a Condition” (we will read later)

18. Everyday words, names, definitions, categories – how they are selected or constructed = rhetorical. Consider:
Cash advance (vs. high interest loan)
Second Mortgage vs. Home equity loan
“War on terror,” vs. “war against Islamic extremists,” vs. “fight against Al Queda” (scope, agents involved, action)
“The 1%,” “job creators”
Military contractors, mercenaries
“War on drugs”’ “Axis of Evil”;
“Body bags” vs. “transfer tubes”
“Doctor assisted suicide” vs. “death with dignity”
“Defense of marriage” vs. “marriage equality”
“French Fries/Freedom fries”
“Death Tax/Estate Tax”
“Habit forming” vs. “addictive”
“Erectile dysfunction” vs. “impotence”
“Halitosis” vs. “bad breath”
“Male pattern baldness” vs. “losing your hair”
“Viagra!”

19. When ads used a lot of logos

20. Today’s ads often use different appeals

21. Rhetorical/Cultural Analysis
What patterns can you identify in pictures that depict a particular situation, thing or event? What does this tell us about cultural attitudes
What absences can you identify?
Try reversing one of the roles in a picture and ask what difference this makes?
Engage in historical or cross cultural comparison – this may point to cultural shifts or reveal taken for granted cultural assumptions.

22. 1. Patterns

23. Cultural trends & shifting ideals for men

24. Ken: 1950 vs 1988

27. Why should it seem funny to see a picture of adult men striking a pose when the same pose seems normal or charming to us in pictures of adult women?

28. RWS 200 and the lower division writing program
We ask students to interpret, analyze, evaluate and produce written arguments because this is central to academic literacy, critical thinking, and civic life
- Lasch: “argument is the essence of education,” and “central to democratic culture”; - Norgaard: Universities are “houses of argument.” - Graff: “Argument literacy” is key to higher education.

29. RWS 200 and the lower division writing program
We want students to be able to identify claims, evaluate evidence and reasons, locate assumptions, identify argumentative moves, pose critical questions, produce sophisticated arguments, etc.
Not just because it’s good for their souls, critical thinking, ability to reason, deliberate, be engaged citizens, etc.
But because it’s key to their professional futures – every gateway requires it.

30. Why We Fight! (4 your right to write, argue & analyze well)
These skills are central to business, law, professional life, and to academic study (including graduate school).
Students tested for these skills in the WPA, the LSAT, GMAT, and GRE – all the gateways to professional life.
Consider the LSAT…

31. Sample LSAT Question
FIND THE MAIN CLAIM Pediatrician: “Some parents have decided not to have their children receive the MMR vaccine because they fear that it may cause autism. They cite a study that found a possible link between the vaccine and the disease. However, two other much larger studies have found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. These parents have, therefore, willfully put their own children and many others at risk of catching measles, mumps, and rubella, while failing to do anything to prevent their children from becoming autistic.” Which most accurately expresses the main claim of the pediatrician’s argument? (A) Parents should not pay attention to medical studies because they can’t understand them; instead, they should get advice from their pediatricians (B) The study that found a link between autism and the MMR vaccine was unsound because the doctor who conducted it was being paid by a group of trial lawyers who wanted him to find a connection so they could carry out a lawsuit (C) Public health needs require that parents have their kids vaccinated regardless of their fears about the procedure (D) Parents’ refusal to have their kids take the vaccine is both medically unjustified and dangerous, because the vaccine has known disease-preventing benefits and refusing it will have no effect on whether their kids become autistic (E) Despite the results of the two large studies, there is still some possibility that the MMR vaccine might cause autism.
I sometimes begin RWS100 with sample LSAT questions, have students do at start of semester, then again later, and they ace. Can use LSAT examples to intro rhetoric and argument, in first weeks. I have samples. Has led some students to consider law.

32. Analytical Writing Tasks
Present Your Views on an Issue (45 minutes, choice of 2 topics)
Analyze an Argument (30 minutes)
Each essay is scored on a 0-6 scale using holistic scoring
Two scores for each essay
GRE Website presents directions, actual topics, scoring guide, and sample essays for both the Issue and Argument tasks (
45 minutes = producing an argument, and 30 minutes analyzing an argument.

33. Why Focus on Argument?
In Wolfe’s 2010 study, assignments from a broad range of disciplines were collected and examined. Results? Argumentation is valued across the curriculum. “Argument is the key word for good writing and the absence of argument constitutes the central problem in students’ written work” (Wolfe, p. 50).
Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s Academically Adrift, a comprehensive review of undergraduate education – argument is key.

34. Main Texts
RWS 200 Reader (print copies at CalCopy. Also online). Contains main readings and some commonly used handouts, exercises and templates.
Short texts in the Reader and on the wiki: Kristof, Rifkin, Parry, etc. You can select your own, or use other short texts on the wiki. Use them to introduce the course/key concepts.

35. 100 and 200
RWS 100: Rhetorical analysis of argument with some attention to evaluation. RWS 200: Rhetorical analysis of argument with more focus on context, evaluation of strengths and weaknesses, and student contribution.

36. Assignment Sequence
Analyze and evaluate an author’s argument, claim, project, and assumptions, as well as the rhetorical strategies used to construct the text. (Confederate monuments texts)
“Lens” assignment - use concepts and arguments from one text as a context for understanding, writing about and evaluating another (Roberts Miller and Wallace/Students’ or your choice).
Advancing an Argument in the Contemporary Context. Using a group of texts in an ongoing public discussion, identify the contexts within which that discussion takes place, and how those texts are shaped by those contexts. Position yourself in relation to the texts in order to make an argument that enables you to “join the conversation.” (Short texts that discuss how, whether, or to what extent social media contributes to anger, outrage and incivility)

37. Other Work
Portfolio – homework, peer review, in-class writing, quick writes and reading responses and reflections. (15%)
Participation (15%)

38. (For full text see
page 10 of reader)