WRT 305 Rhetorical Theory

Fall

Crucial to the study of professional writing is rhetoric, the art of composing effective discourse. Students will be introduced to significant issues and figures in the academic discipline of rhetoric. Students will be asked to develop a working definition of rhetoric and to study significant texts from the history of rhetoric, including those written by figures such as the Sophists, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, St. Augustine, and Virginia Woolf. Questions concerning whether or not language shapes/defines reality and creates knowledge will be considered. Students will also be introduced to non-Western rhetorics. Prerequisite: FCO 105

3 credit hours