RHE - Rhetoric and Writing

Rhetoric and Writing: RHE

Lower-Division Courses

RHE X06. Rhetoric and Writing.

An introductory writing course that includes instruction in practical reasoning and the principles of rhetoric.

RHE X06Q. Rhetoric and Writing for Nonnative Speakers of English.

An introductory writing course that includes instruction in practical reasoning and the principles of rhetoric, as well as grammar and mechanics of standard American English.

RHE X09J. Topics in Writing.

Study and practice methods of rhetorical analysis within the contexts of disputed issues of academic, political, or cultural significance.

RHE X09J.1. Rhetoric of the Gospels.

Examine the gospels as rhetorical texts, applying historical method and literary analysis to gain an understanding of how the image of Jesus Christ has been shaped from early Christianity to the present day.

RHE X09J.2. Rhetoric of Animals.

Explore the ethical, political, philosophical, scientific, and artistic reasons humans have created representations of animals and the potential repercussions of these representations.

RHE X09J.3. Rhetoric of the Essay.

Explore the different structures and rhetorical poses authors have taken across five hundred years of the essay form's contemporary existence.

RHE X09S. Critical Reading and Persuasive Writing.

A writing course designed to teach advanced rhetorical analysis and advocacy on public issues.

RHE X10. Intermediate Expository Writing.

An intensive writing workshop, focusing on style and readability.

RHE X12. Writing in Digital Environments.

A writing course focused on using, interpreting, and analyzing traditional and emerging technologies. Taught using networked computers.

RHE X14. Computer Programming for the Humanities.

Introduction to the fundamentals of computer programming and practice in computation as a rhetorical activity.

RHE X15. Introduction to Visual Rhetoric.

A writing course designed to teach students to analyze and produce visual and nonverbal forms of rhetoric.

RHE X17. Technical Writing.

Reading and writing in professional and technological environments.

RHE X19S. Topics in Rhetoric and Writing.

This course is used to record credit the student earns while enrolled at another institution in a program administered by the University's Study Abroad Office. Credit is recorded as assigned by the study abroad adviser in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing. University credit is awarded for work in an exchange program; it may be counted as coursework taken in residence. Transfer credit is awarded for work in an affiliated studies program.

Upper-Division Courses

RHE X21. Principles of Rhetoric.

Examine major terms, issues, and approaches in the discipline of rhetoric and writing. Practice analysis and application.

RHE X25M. Advanced Writing.

An advanced course designed to improve and refine writing.

RHE X28. Topics in Professional and Technical Writing for Liberal Arts Majors.

Examine genres, processes, contexts, and practices of technical and professional communication.

RHE X28.1. Magazine Writing and Publishing.

Introduction to magazine writing, editing, and publishing, with an emphasis on the nonfiction article.

RHE X28.2. Writing for Nonprofits.

Studies the writing genres and rhetorical strategies that are routinely used in nonprofit organizations. Covers business reports, grant writing, and feature writing.

RHE X28.4. Writing for Entrepreneurs.

Studies the genres and rhetorical strategies that entrepreneurs use to persuade stakeholders, including heuristics for developing business models, market reports, and pitches.

RHE X28.5. Writing for Digital Media.

Examine the concepts, practices, and technologies associated with composing in digital spaces.

RHE X28.6. Technical Communication and Wicked Problems.

Examine the nature of wicked problems and the roles for technical communicators, including effective strategies for engaging public audiences and facilitating stakeholder dialogue.

RHE X28.7. Nature, Travel, and Environmental Writing.

Examine nature, travel, and environment through writing that centers on social, environmental, and ecological justice.

RHE X29S. Topics in Rhetoric and Writing.

RHE X30C. Advanced Topics in Digital Rhetoric.

Examine the role of information technologies in communication and culture.

RHE X30C.10. Access Designed.

An introduction to disability studies and accessible design by reading, discussing, designing, and practicing with the technologies and techniques that compose accessible writing and devices.

RHE X30C.11. Mobile Environments.

Examine the principles of user experience (UX) design, specifically the creation of low-fidelity mobile application solutions, which are designed to help users explore and create meaningful and personally relevant experiences within their environments.

RHE X30C.12. Information Design.

Examine the fundamental principles of document and information design that inform practical and theoretical skills related to desktop publishing, visual communication, and publication production.

RHE X30C.13. Rhetoric and Data Visualization.

Explore the principles for designing tables, graphs, and figures that are accessible and persuasive to readers and that are accountable to the data. Examine and critique visualizations from academic and popular media. Create visualizations from real-world data sets.

RHE X30C.14. Rhetorical Metrics.

Explore an introduction to text analytics with a focus on computational and statistical methods within rhetorical studies.

RHE X30C.15. Rhetoric, Risk, and Environmental Justice.

Explore the intersection of rhetoric, social justice, and environment through the theoretical lens of environmental justice.

RHE X30C.16. Rhetoric and Algorithms.

Explore the nature of Artificial Intelligence (AI), its current and possible roles in society, and the rhetoric about it.

RHE X30C.17. Podcasts and Paradigm Shifts.

Explore storytelling's influence on public perceptions and policies via podcasting.

RHE X30C.18. Text Mediation and Time Management.

Examine how texts mediate human activity and how they can be used to manage time, effectiveness, and productivity at individual and group levels.

RHE X30C.19. Environmental Media.

Explore the relationship between rhetoric, digital storytelling, documentary, and environment. Learn basic skills in documentary filmmaking and produce a short video suitable for broadcast.

RHE X30C.2. Designing Text Ecologies.

Explores the function and interaction of texts in the workplace. Emphasis on research, analysis, and design of the strategic, tactical, and operational aspects of texts.

RHE X30C.20. User Experience Design.

Introduction to user experience (UX) design. Apply concepts of UX and usability to design, research, and testing practices in digital interfaces.

RHE X30C.4. Writing and Photography.

Examination of issues in the history of photography and how images and words work in combination. Emphasis on improving skills in analysis, writing, and photography.

RHE X30C.5. Ethics and New Media.

Exploration of contemporary ethical dilemmas and principles arising with emergent technologies, and their impact on rhetoric and writing.

RHE X30C.6. Networked Writing.

Examines how writers present themselves and their arguments across a range of media and genres. Practices rhetorical skills within digital networks.

RHE X30C.7. Digital Storytelling.

Examines and practices the development of narrative through multiple media (audio, visual, video, et al).

RHE X30C.8. Writing with Sound.

Introduces sound studies and practices techniques for recording, editing, and publishing writing for and with sound.

RHE X30C.9. Digital Self and Rhetoric.

Examines the pervasiveness of digital culture and cultivates strategies for presenting one's digital self through academic, professional, and civic venues.

RHE X30D. Topics in History of Rhetoric.

Geographically and historically situate and examine figures, movements, traditions, and productions in rhetoric and public argument.

RHE X30D.1. Sophistry and the Invention of Rhetoric.

Examines the role of sophists and sophistry in the development and practice of rhetoric as an art, from antiquity to modern times.

RHE X30D.10. Arguing with Liberals.

A survey of liberal political theory from the late seventeenth through the twentieth centuries with special attention to theories and practices of public argumentation.

RHE X30D.11. Cicero, Rhetoric, and Ancient Rome.

An exploration of Marcus Tullius Cicero's writings on rhetoric, his major political speeches, and his philosophical dialogues in the context of the late Roman republic and the Roman Revolution (ca. 133-40 BCE).

RHE X30D.12. Women's Rhetorical Traditions.

Examine how popular rhetorical theories and pedagogies were adapted to fit specific social, cultural, and political contexts and thus shaped the communication practices of girls and women in 19th and early 20th century America. Consider why females were excluded from the rhetorical tradition and the challenges scholars face in writing historical accounts.

RHE X30D.13. Augustine and Christian Rhetoric.

Study Augustine's writings on language, rhetoric, and epistemology with attention paid to contemporary Roman and Greek philosophical and rhetorical movements, such as skepticism, Platonic idealism, the second sophistic, and the Christian homiletic tradition.

RHE X30D.14. Rhetoric of Latinx Social Movement.

Examine Latinx social movements and their rhetorical features in the Americas from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries.

RHE X30D.15. Feminist Rhetoric.

Explore the intersection between feminism and rhetoric with emphasis on historical figures.

RHE X30D.16. Transgender Rhetorics.

Examine rhetorics that (re)shape normative and transgressive conceptions of gender, emphasizing their effects on the lives of transgender people

RHE X30D.17. Arguing with Conservatives.

Explore American conservative political tradition with special attention to the 1964 Barry Goldwater presidential campaign.

RHE X30D.18. Medical Rhetorics, Race, and Gender.

Examine how health and illness are defined through rhetorics about and within medicine. Focus on race and gender, consider how communication and language shape understandings of health, access to health care, and experiences of illness and disability.

RHE X30D.19. 1960s Liberation Rhetoric.

Explore the rhetoric of liberation in the United States in the 1960s, looking in detail at the words and actions of activists in the Civil Rights movement, the anti-war/anti-imperialist movement, Black Power, women's liberation, gay liberation, the Chicano movement/el movimiento, and other noteworthy phenomena of the era.

RHE X30D.2. Kairos and the Rhetorical Situation.

Introduction to kairos, a key concept in rhetorical theory from ancient to modern times, that focuses attention on making a text appropriate for its historical situation. Explores why some writing succeeds at attracting attention and inspiring action, while some writing fails.

RHE X30D.3. Deliberating War.

Studies the recurrent means of making arguments for and against war, and the role of rhetoric in public deliberation.

RHE X30D.4. Rhetoric and Racism.

Explores theories of rhetoric by examining arguments about group identity, from Athenian discussions of "barbarism" in the fourth century BC to nineteenth-century arguments about citizenship.

RHE X30D.5. History of Public Argument.

A survey of the practice and theory of argumentation, with particular attention to its civic and political uses and implications.

RHE X30D.6. Classical to Modern Rhetoric.

Surveys the works of major rhetorical theorists and practitioners in the Western tradition from the ancient Greeks to the present.

RHE X30D.7. Rhetoric Invented, Revised, Retold.

Survey of figures, movements, and debates in the history of rhetoric and exploration of the rise of revisionist historiography and comparative rhetoric in the twenty-first century.

RHE X30D.8. Philosophy Versus Rhetoric.

Study of the co-emergence and subsequent split between rhetoric and philosophy in the classical period and their potential reunification in a contemporary context.

RHE X30D.9. Rhetoric in the English Renaissance.

Examination of how the art of rhetoric, developed in ancient times by the Greeks and Romans, was understood and debated during the European Renaissance, particularly in England.

RHE X30E. Topics in Rhetorical Theory and Analysis.

Critically explore contemporary rhetorical theories and their analytical applications.

RHE X30E.10. Peacemaking Rhetoric.

Examine the nature, features, exigences, and functions of peacemaking rhetoric.

RHE X30E.11. Film as Rhetoric.

Examine films as rhetorical acts that serve a powerful function in American society.

RHE X30E.12. Rhetoric and Narrative.

Examine features, exigences, and functions of different types of rhetorical narratives.

RHE X30E.13. Divine Persuasion in Biblical Times and Place.

Explore the use of persuasive strategies in an ancient and non-Western culture, that of the Hebrew Bible. Using rhetorical techniques, analyze three types of texts: narratives of interactions between ordinary people and God; interactions between people, God, and authorized prophets; and prayers in prose and poetry.

RHE X30E.14. Animal Rhetorics.

Examine research on the diverse rhetorical practices of nonhuman animals and its implications for rhetorical theory.

RHE X30E.15. Rhetoric, Feminism, and Science.

Explore the rhetorical dimensions and tensions between feminism and science, focusing on feminist and scientific inquiry, interventions, and ethics.

RHE X30E.16. Disability Rhetorics.

Explore the role of communication in constructing disability and challenging ableism.

RHE X30E.17. Publics and Counterpublics.

Examine how the concept of the "public sphere" informs discussions of the generation, negotiation, and control of information, power, and community values.

RHE X30E.2. Demagoguery.

Examines material produced by rhetors commonly considered demagogues and assesses the scholarly discussions of these individuals.

RHE X30E.3. Democracy and the Media.

Rhetorical analysis, with particular attention to the effects of technologies and journalistic institutions on public deliberation.

RHE X30E.4. Modern Rhetorical Criticism.

Use of contemporary critical methods to investigate, interpret, and explain rhetorical acts and artifacts.

RHE X30E.5. Comparative Rhetoric.

Examination of rhetorical concepts and practices in various rhetorical traditions, and how they underline the functions of rhetoric in their different historical and cultural contexts.

RHE X30E.6. Nonargumentative Rhetoric in Zen.

Exploration of unconventional uses of language including contradiction, negation, story, surprise, gesture, and silence are used in Zen training as resources for transformational change.

RHE X30E.7. Psychology of Writing and Persuasion.

RHE X30E.8. Pathos.

Examines the persuasive power of emotion in critical thinking and prudent judgment.

RHE X30E.9. Rhetoric and the Law.

Examine legal rhetoric and how gender, race, class, ability, and nationality constitute the law and subjects before the law.

RHE X60M. Rhetoric and Writing for Teachers of English.

An advanced course that examines theories of writing and writing pedagogy.

RHE X66. Internship in Rhetoric and Writing.

Research and staff experience working in an appropriate nonprofit, public-, or private-sector entity.

RHE X67R. Conference Course in Rhetoric and Writing.

Supervised work on specific projects in rhetoric and writing.

RHE X68C. Writing Center Internship.

Intensive reading, writing, and discussion in writing center theory and philosophy, tutoring methods, and writing pedagogy, as well as a review of standard American English usage and mechanics; followed by a supervised apprenticeship as a peer consultant in the University Writing Center.

RHE X68E. Topics in Editing for Publication.

Advanced instruction in revising and editing for publication.

RHE X68E.1. The Book: Prospectus to Proofs.

Designed to make students better writers and more careful editors, the course includes creation of a simulated book from proposal stage to editing of final page proofs.

RHE X68E.2. Grammar for Writers, Editors, and Teachers.

Examines the grammar of written English by assessing grammatical issues, handbooks, and controversies.

RHE X75. Topics in Capstone Seminars in Rhetoric.

Allows the student to integrate the knowledge gained in rhetoric and writing through a major independent project.

RHE X79C. Advanced Topics in Rhetoric and Writing.

An advanced course focused on specific theories or practices of rhetoric and writing.

RHE X79H. Honors Tutorial Course.

Research and development of a thesis/project topic and proposal followed by the writing and defense of an honors thesis or development and defense of an honors project.

Graduate Courses

RHE X80. Conference Course in Rhetoric and Writing.

Explore specialized subject areas in rhetoric and writing studies in an individualized format.

RHE X81. Research Methods in Rhetoric and Writing.

Examine fundamental assumptions and procedures for conducting research in rhetoric and writing studies, including the links between theory and methods, qualitative, quantitative, archival, critical approaches, assessment, and research ethics.

RHE X82. Rhetoric and Writing Theory.

Examine major theoretical movements in rhetorical studies, writing studies, and related areas.

RHE X83. Histories of Rhetoric and Writing.

Explore persuasive traditions, disciplinary histories, and historiographic considerations in rhetoric and writing studies.

RHE X84. Public Rhetorics.

Examine the theory, practice, and study of public rhetorics, including social movement rhetorics, community advocacy, and professional/technical communication.

RHE X85. Digital Writing and Research Studio.

Examine and apply the tools, techniques, and theories of digital research and pedagogy in an experiential format.

RHE X89E. Area Exam and Prospectus Hours.

Prepare for required Field and Prospectus examinations under the supervision of a faculty member.

RHE X89R. Master's Report.

Prepare a report to fulfill the requirement for the master's degree under the report option.