Required Texts

Rhetoric for Radicals: A Handbook for 21st Century Activists – Jason Del Gandio (online)

The Rhetorical Act: Thinking, Speaking, and Writing – Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, Susan Schultz Huxman, and Thomas A. Burkholder.

“Rhetorical Arts 1000: Cengage MindTap.” Loyola Marymount University. University Core Curriculum, 2014. Web. Access code to come with text copy.

The Circle – David Eggers

Various online readings, audiofiles and videos as assigned.

Course Requirements
Grading
Your grade for the course will be calculated from a total of 200 points, awarded as follows:
Participation, including in-class writing and mini-speeches: 20 points
Regular and thoughtful Twitter posts: 20 points
Blog entries: 30 points (up to 5 per entry and 2 per comment)
Assignment 1 (written and oral) : 30 points
total
Assignment 2 (written and oral): 35 points

Semester long Annotated Bibliography: 25 points
Assignment 4: 40 points (oral project)

Grading
Your grade for the course will be calculated from a total of 200 points, awarded as follows:
Participation, including in-class writing and mini-speeches: 20 points
Regular and thoughtful Twitter posts: 20 points
Blog entries: 30 points (up to 5 per entry and 2 per comment)
Assignment 1 (written and oral) –Personal Exploration: 30 points 
total
Assignment 2 (written and oral) – Argumentation 35 points
Assignment 3 (revision)
Semester long Annotated Bibliography: 25 points
Assignment 4 (oral only) – Saving the World 40 points (group project)

A (100-93%) A- (92-90%)    B+ (89-87%)   B (86-83%)     B- (82-80%)    C+ (79-77%)
C (76-73%)    C- (72-70%)    D+ (69-67%) D (66-63%)     D- (62-60%)   F (59% and below)

Here’s what you’ll be required to do:

1. Show up and keep up (10% of your grade, and a prerequisite for the rest)

• Do the reading. If you don’t read, you won’t be able to participate meaningfully in class or to understand the writing and speaking assignments.
•   Participate. This doesn’t mean talking all the time in class. It means pulling your weight: engaging in active listening, speaking when you have something to say, and putting in the necessary work both in full-class sessions, in small-group workshops on the blog and on Twitter. If you are present, pull your weight in group work, and show me that you are keeping up with and thinking about the reading, you will get full points for in-class participation.

 

2. Online Rhetoric: Social Media (25%)
Much of the writing many of you are likely to do in your college and professional lives will be online. YouTube, Twitter’s social network and WordPress’s blogging platform are popular ways for individuals and businesses to maintain a web presence. Some of you will certainly have used them before.



3. Write and speak formally: major assignments (65%)
You will turn in four formal assignments in the class, each in a different writing genre.

• Assignment 1: personal exploration of your digital media practices

• Assignment 2: analytical response: summarizing and analyzing a course reading of your choice in written and oral form

• Assignment 3: persuasive communication: developing an argument

• Assignment 4: group project

Your grade for each assignment will account not only for the quality of what you have produced, but for your level of commitment to the process involved in producing it. This means that revising diligently, responding thoughtfully in workshops, and demonstrating improvement over the course of the semester can result in a better grade than turning in perfect work at the final due date.