English 4540: Persuasive Writing involves upper-level undergraduates in the complexities of how writers attempt to persuade their audiences to think/feel/believe/act a particular way. In this course, students will enhance their critical reading/writing abilities by using rhetorical methods for uncover persuasive strategies that may not be quite obvious to the unreflective reader. Likewise, students will use what they learn of rhetoric and persuasion to create persuasive texts of their own.

Although many academics work form the assumption that language is/should be the only way in which we argue or persuade others, more accurately, rhetors have much more than just language as part of their storehouse of appeals to convince their audiences to think/feel/believe/act a particular way. Therefore, this course will investigate both alphabetic and visual rhetorics, paying particular attention to how word and image work together to enact particular types of persuasion.

Students should bookmark the web address for this site, as the syllabus, schedule, and all assignments will be posted here. This site is, however, not a substitute for face-to-face (f2f) class time, so students are expected to be in class, on time, and prepared to do work with their peers and the teacher.

Likewise, my pedagogy for upper-division courses like this one centers on the assumption that students not only want to be in class and want to learn as much as possible in our short time together, but also want to active participants in their learning, leading class discussions and investigating new ideas as they emerge. Students who expect me-as-teacher to do all the work will find themselves rather miserable in this particular course.