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Aristotle defines rhetoric as the faculty
of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. In turn, this
course will teach you to identify the rhetorical strategies available in select
discursive genres. Although this course will focus on the mode of
argumentative writing, the impetus behind this choice of genre is to help you
build your skills in analytic and inductive reasoning, utilize university
resources, document evidence to support your reasoning, and hone your research
methods.
A large part of this class will encourage
you to actively participate in a research community. As such, as the class
progresses, your research questions and your research interests will take part
in shaping the class. To warm up to this, we will begin the class by focusing
on different modules. In the film module, we will explore the medium of
film and animation through rhetorical analysis to build audience awareness and
writing structure. For example, in the film module, we will practice
writing film reviews directed toward a movie-going audience. In another
module, we will explore the genre of games, their ethics, and legality.
As the class progresses, students will take part in shaping their research
interests, and in the final module, students will have the opportunity to
pursue research projects as part of a research community.
The majority of the grade for this class
will be based on four major assignments: a film review in the first module, an
argumentative research paper in the second module based on the course readings,
an argumentative research in the third module on a topic to be decided by the
students, and a research paper at the end of the semester based on the
student's own research interests. Through these four assignments,
students will complete the hallmarks of the written communication foundation by
familiarizing students with composition methods, strategies for finding
academic sources, and familiarizing students with the resources of the UH Manoa
Library. Since a large part of research is based on reading
comprehension, there will be some additional evaluative methods as well,
including online postings to a course website hosted through Laulima.
Required Texts:
- The Craft
of Research by Wayne Booth (Third Edition). ISBN-13: 978-0226065663 (available
through online retailers like Amazon)
- A reader (TBA).
- Select online texts.
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