Rhetoric Ancient and New
Seminar in Professional Writing
English 654
Summer 1997
Dr. Nancy Barta-Smith 
x2360
Office Hours: M & W 1:00PM-2:00PM
and by appointment
Seminar in Professional Writing (English 654) provides an in depth study of practices applicable in a variety of professional writing situations. Students learn to evaluate the writing requirements of various working environments and strategies for adjusting to those environments through readings in rhetorical theory and rhetoric in the academic professions, business, and the public sphere, as well as through analysis of professional documents produced in these venues. Through readings, discussions, and an extended seminar paper or writing project, students explore the role of writing as a tool for professional communication, social cohesion, and change. The course includes instruction in computer literacy at a level that ensures understanding of the uses of computers in professional writing and how to generate documents that meet professional standards in content and appearance.
Course Goals:
To understand the basic concepts of rhetorical theory as they relate to professional documents
To create and analyze documents professional in content and appearance
To increase awareness of the distinctions between communicating through professional writing in the disciplines and outside academe
To acquire literacy in electronic writing
To understand visual rhetoric and the rhetoric of electronic culture
To explore rhetoric in the professions in the context of controversies surrounding the future of public education and the role of the public intellectual
Requirements:
Students will meet to discuss course readings, looking closely at content and rhetoric, and prepare short responses that make connections among the readings and consider their relevance to the course project chosen.
Students will submit a final paper of approximately 30 pages which applies the readings and discussions to a project approved by the instructor
Readings:
Aristotle, Book I, Section 1, The Metaphysics and The Rhetoric
Hekman, Susan, "Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited"
Kendrick, Michelle, "Cyberspace and the Technological Real"
Kostelnick, Charles, "Visual Rhetoric: A Reader-Oriented Approach to Graphics and Designs"
Paradis, James, "Text and Action: The Operator's Manual in Contxt and in Court"
Plato, The Phaedrus
Turkle, Sherry, "The Triumph of Tinkering"
White, James Boyd, "Rhetoric and Law: The Arts of Cultural and Communal Life"
Needle in a CyberStack - the InfoFinder