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University of Texas at Dallas

School of Arts and Humanities
Rhetoric 1302-006
Spring 2006
MWF 10:00-10:50 am, JO 4.306

Instructor: Nina Serebrianik

Office: JO 4.114 Phone: 972-883-2035

Office Hours: W 11am – 12pm and by appointment E-mail: nas023000@utdallas.edu
UTD Rhetoric Program Website: http://lingua.utdallas.edu/rhetoric
Class Blog: http://pony.motime.com

This syllabus is subject to change at the instructor’s discretion.

Students will be notified of all of the changes to this syllabus.

Course Description
This course focuses on critical thinking by using an integrated approach to writing that teaches
various rhetorical strategies for reading and constructing arguments, both written and visual. You
will learn to read texts critically according to key components in argumentative discourse (i.e.,
claims, grounds, explicit and implicit assumptions, fallacies, etc.) and to recognize the different
purposes of argument. You will write and revise three papers based on issues and controversies
raised in the various texts read during the semester. The assignments will give you extensive practice
in reading critically and writing according to the rhetorical conventions of an argumentative essay.

Required Texts and Supplies

Everything’s an Argument by Andrea Lunsford, John Ruszkiewicz, and Keith Walters, 3rd ed.

Geoffrey Chaucer “The Clerk’s Tale” (From The Canterbury Tales). Available through the UTD
library, public libraries, and online at http://www.canterburytales.org

The Essay Connection. Ed. Lynn Z. Bloom. 7th ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
Available on reserve in the UTD library (see the circulation desk).

Attendance Policy
If you have three or more unexcused absences, your grade will be negatively affected and/or you
may be encouraged to drop the class. Certain absences and tardies may be excused, depending on
the circumstances! Two tardies will count as one absence. Chronic tardiness is unacceptable, as are
coming to class unprepared, doing work that is not for this course during class, sleeping in class, or
using the computers or other personal electronic devices for personal messaging, research, or
entertainment. Please turn off cellular/mobile phones, pagers, and other personal electronic devices
during class.

Drop Policy
See here for details on deadlines and procedures for dropping:
http://www.utdallas.edu/student/registrar/lookup/dropadd.html
E-mail Policy
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IMPORTANT NOTICE TO UTD STUDENTS: As of August 1, 2004, all email correspondence

with students will be sent ONLY to the student's U.T. Dallas email address. U.T. Dallas provides
each student with a free email account that is to be used in all communication with university
personnel. This allows the university to maintain a high degree of confidence in the identity of all
individuals corresponding and the security of the transmitted information. The Department of
Information Resources at U.T. Dallas provides a method for students to forward email from other
accounts to their U.T. Dallas address and have their U.T. Dallas mail sent on to other accounts.
Students may go to the following URL to establish or maintain their official U.T. Dallas computer
account: http://netid.utdallas.edu/

Grading Policy
Because this course is concerned with your development as a critical reader and writer, the grading
strategy will track and monitor that development. Your assignments will not receive individual
grades, but will receive individual attention from your classmates and me. Your mid-term and final
grades will be based on your portfolio of written observations and your work samples, and you will
argue for your grade by summarizing your learning and evaluating your performance based on the
evidence of your learning. Each component of the course is vital to a quality body of work: your
attendance, participation, promptness, level of writing. effective arguments, creativity, collaboration,
sound rhetorical skills, competent use of technology.

The following grade criteria describe very general indicators that both you and I may take into
consideration when assessing your work and progress in the course:

A: Represents outstanding participation in all course activities (including attendance and

promptness); all assigned work completed on time, with very high quality in all work produced
for the course. Evidence of significant and sustained development across the five dimensions of
learning and five course strands.

B: Represents excellent participation in all course activities (including attendance and

promptness); all assigned work completed on time, with consistently high quality in course work.
Evidence of marked and above average development across the five dimensions of learning and
five course strands.

C: Represents good (but average) participation in all course activities; all assigned work
completed on time, with generally good quality overall in course work. Evidence of some
development across the five dimensions of learning and five course strands.

D: Represents uneven participation in course activities; some gaps in assigned work completed,
with inconsistent quality in course work. Evidence of development across the five dimensions of
learning and five course strands is partial or unclear.

F: Represents minimal participation in course activities; serious gaps in assigned work

completed, or very low quality in course work. Evidence of development is not available.
UTD Grading scale
(http://www.utdallas.edu/student/catalog/undergrad02/progress.html#Grading%20Scale)

Plagiarism Policy
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Plagiarism is the representation of another person’s work as your own, whether you mean to or not.
For example, copying or paraphrasing passages from another writer’s work without acknowledging
that you’ve done so is plagiarism. Allowing another writer to write any part of your essay is
plagiarism. Copying or purchasing a paper from any source is plagiarism.
Plagiarism is a serious offense. The possible consequences range from failing the assignment to
failing the course, or worse. Each incident of plagiarism at UTD must be reported to the
administration. If you are not sure how to properly cite a quoted or paraphrased source, or if you
need help with the format of a citation, check with the New Century Handbook and/or with your
teacher. Although you can (and, in fact, should) seek help and advice from friends, classmates, tutors,
and others, be sure that your written work is your own.
See the Undergraduate Catalog for information about the consequences of Scholastic Dishonesty, or
view the policy here (which is also a link on the Rhetoric Program website):
http://www.utdallas.edu/student/slife/dishonesty.html.

Disability Policy

Students needing academic accommodations for a disability must contact the Office of
Disability Services (972-883-2098), to verify the disability and establish eligibility for
accommodations. Students with disabilities are responsible to make their disabilities known and
to meet all course expectations, including attendance, participation, performance, and work
standards.

Major Writing Assignments

First Essay: An essay that presents a definition argument using the principles and criteria in
Everything’s an Argument (Chapter 9).

Second Essay: An essay that presents a proposal argument using the principles and criteria in
Everything’s an Argument (Chapter 12).

Third Essay: An integrated textual and visual essay that examines and analyzes the argument of
a visual image (or images) using the criteria in Chapter 14 of Everything’s an Argument.

Observations: Weekly informal messages and comments posted on the class blog. Students are
free to choose the topics of their observations. Each observation should demonstrate critical
thinking and clear reasoning. Students should post at least one observation or comment on at least
one of their classmates’ observations each week.

ALL ASSIGNMENTS SHOULD BE COMPLETED USING THE MLA FORMAT.

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PLEASE SAVE ALL OF YOUR WORK EITHER IN HARD COPY OR

ELECTRONICALLY AND PRESENT IT TO ME ON THE LAST DAY OF CLASS.
LOST OR MISSING ASSIGNMENTS WILL AFFECT YOUR FINAL GRADE.

ALL ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CLASS ON THE DATE
INDICATED IN THE SYLLABUS. NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED, UNLESS
AN EXTENSION WAS GRANTED.

ALL EXTENSIONS AND EXCUSED ABSENCES AND TARDIES SHOULD BE

DISCUSSED WITH ME NOT LATER THAN TWO CLASS MEETINGS AFTER THE
DATE OF THE ASSIGNMENT (CLASS MEETING) IN QUESTION.

SYLLABUS ITENERARY (subject to change)

M 01/09/06 Introduction to the course and each other.

W 01/11/06 Send me an e-mail from your UTD address; read Chapter 1 and Tannen “How to
Turn Debate into Dialogue (Pocket Reader p. 114). In class: Argumentative writing; types of
arguments.

F 01/13/06 Read Chapters 2 and 3. In class: Reading and writing arguments; audience and
context

W 01/18/06 Post an observation; read Chapter 4; bring a magazine to class. In class:

Arguments based on emotional appeals.

F 01/20/06 Read Chapter 5; Scalia “God’s Justice and Ours” (p.816); Khan “The Veil in My
Handbag” (p.823). In class: Arguments based on values.

M 01/23/06 The writing style assessment is due today; read Chapters 6 and 7; find an example of a
published effective argument based on character and/or facts and reason and be prepared to discuss
it. In class: Arguments based on character; arguments based on facts and reason.

W 01/25/06 Post an observation; read Chapter 8 and Prager “Divinity and Pornography” (p.519).
In class: Structuring arguments; Toulmin analysis.

F 01/27/06 Read Chapter 9; Loconte “Hospice, Not Hemlock” (p.660), Girsh “Should Physician-
Assisted Suicide Be Legalized? Yes!” (p.654), Kazin “A Patriotic Left” (p.846), and Bennett “A
Nation Worth Defending” (p.854). In class: Arguments of definition.

M 01/30/06 Read Chapters 10, 21, and 22. In class: Evaluation arguments; finding and using
sources.
W 02/01/06 Post an observation; read Chapter 19; Dorfman “If Only We All Spoke Two
Languages” (p.704);Tan “Mother Tongue” (p.712); find an example of a successful evaluation
argument and one of a flawed argument and be prepared to discuss it. In class: Fallacies of argument.
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F 02/03/06 Read Nadler “Fat” (on reserve, p.265); Asayesh “Shrouded in Contradiction” (on
reserve, p.327); Khan “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Fairest of Them All?” (on reserve,
p.330). In class: analyzing definition and evaluation arguments.

M 02/06/06 Read Chapters 18 and 20. In class: documenting sources; plagiarism.

W 02/08/06 Post an observation; work on your essay. In class: group work on Essay I.

F 02/10/06 First draft of Essay 1 is due today. In class: peer reviews; conference sign-up.

M 02/13/06 Individual conferences.

W 02/15/06 Individual conferences; post an observation.

F 02/17/06 Final draft of Essay 1 is due today; read Chapter 11. In class: Causal arguments.

M 02/20/06 Read King “I Have a Dream” (p.811) and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (Pocket
Reader p. 71).

W 02/22/06 Post an observation; read Chapter 12. In class: Proposals.

F 02/24/06 Read Swift “A Modest Proposal” (Pocket Reader p. 63), MonDesire “Stripped of
More than My Clothes” (p.525); Marino “Me? Apologize for Slavery?” (p.806); “Veterans Against
the Iraq War” (p.867). In class: analyzing proposal arguments.

M 02/27/06 Come up with one example of an effective proposal argument and one of an
ineffective one and be prepared to discuss them; read Innerarity “Code Blue: The Process” (on
reserve, p.376); Verghese “Code Blue: The Story” (on reserve, p.381). In class: Researching
proposals.

W 03/1/06 Post an observation; come up with a topic for Essay 2 and be prepared to discuss it
in detail. In class: Discussion of the topics for Essay 2; finding solutions to the campus issues.

F 03/03/06 Mid-term grade arguments are due today.

M 03/06/06 SPRING BREAK

W 03/08/06 SPRING BREAK

F 03/10/06 SPRING BREAK

M 03/13/06 Post an observation; first draft of Essay 2 is due today. In class: Peer reviews;
conference sign-up.

W 03/15/06 Post an observation; individual conferences.

F 03/17/06 Individual conferences.

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M 03/20/06 Final draft of Essay 2 is due today; read Mann “Who Will Own Your Next Good
Idea?” (p.675); Goodman “One Picture Is Worth a Thousand Diets” (p.466). In class: Stereotypes
in arguments.

W 03/22/06 Read Brady “Why I Want a Wife” (Pocket Reader p.15); post an observation. In
class: Gender roles and gender stereotypes.

F 03/24/06 Start reading Chaucer “The Clerk’s Tale.”

M 03/27/06 Finish reading “The Clerk’s Tale.”

W 03/29/06 Post an observation; be prepared for the roleplay. In class: Chaucer roleplay.

F 03/31/06 Read Chapter 15; find an example of an effective visual argument, bring it to class,
and be prepared to discuss it. In class: Introduction to visual rhetoric.

M 04/03/06 Find images that would further enhance your second essay, bring them to class,
and be prepared to discuss them. In class: Discussion of the images.

W 04/05/06 Post an observation; come up with a topic for your visual essay and be prepared to
discuss it. In class: Discussion of the topics.

F 04/07/06 Find an effective comic strip, bring it to class, and be prepared to discuss it. In
class: Group work on comics.

M 04/10/06 First draft of the visual essay is due today. In class: Peer reviews; conference sign-
up.

W 04/12/06 Post an observation; individual conferences.

F 04/14/06 Individual conferences.

M 04/17/06 Final draft of the visual essay is due today. In class: Presentations of visual essays.

W 04/19/06 Post an observation. Prepare a list of recommendations (readings, alternative

assignments, etc.) to improve the class. In class: Presentations continue; recommendations.
F 04/21/06 Final grade arguments are due today.

M 04/24/06 The complete portfolio (all the semester’s work) is due today.