This is the course blog for Dr. Annemarie Pérez’s Rhetorical Arts courses at Loyola Marymount University, Spring 2015.
The Rhetorical Arts course fosters articulate expression, critical thinking, and moral reflection, enabling students to engage in written and oral public debate with persuasive force and stylistic excellence. This course emphasizes such rhetorical concepts as invention, arrangement, claims with supporting evidence, exigency, and audience. Emerging out of Renaissance humanism, Jesuit rhetoric (or Eloquentia Perfecta) developed the classical ideal of the good person writing and speaking well for the public good and promotes the teaching of eloquence combined with erudition and moral discernment. Developing this tradition in light of modern composition study and communication theory, the Rhetorical Arts course complements the other Foundation courses with topics such as ethics and communication, virtue and authority, or knowledge and social obligation. The Rhetorical Arts course furthers the development of essential skills in written and oral communication and information literacy, as well as providing opportunities for active engagement with essential components of the Jesuit and Marymount educational traditions.
In this class we’ll practice a range of writing and speaking genres, from personal essays, presentations, speeches and thesis-driven arguments to newer kinds of online communication (such as blogs, digital video and and Twitter) that have a huge influence in public life. Through classroom discussion, assignments, and online participatory learning, you will critically explore your personal experiences with digital media, while studying its history, power structures, and possible futures. Together, we will work through the rhetorical process to develop your ideas on these subjects from fleeting thoughts and opinions into persuasive, thoughtful arguments and analyses. The course doesn’t require or expect any technological know-how beyond email and Word to start. But you’re likely going to learn some additional skills.
This course is partly adapted from the Digital Literacies course taught by Dr. Alexis Lothian. Banner art is adapted from a photo by Erik Mallinson.