Analysis Course
Resume:
Elements of Rhetoric
General Education, Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 15
Prof. James Engell, Barker 162, *******@***.*******.***
Texts:
Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, 4th ed., ed. Edward P.J. Corbett and Robert J.
Connors (Oxford University Press) = CRMS
In Our Own Words: Extraordinary Speeches of the American Century, ed. Robert Torricelli and
Andrew Carroll (Kodansha) = IOOW
Elements of Rhetoric, ed. James Engell, Sourcebook in American Rhetorical Practice and
English-Speaking Rhetorical Theory = ER
The Art of Public Speaking, 9th ed., Stephen E. Lucas (McGraw-Hill) = APS
Articles and book excerpts on reserve = R
Laminated Sheets on grammar, punctuation, and usage (useful for all writing)
A Handbook for Public Speaking (optional, recommended)
Films: Course participants will watch and analyze films on reserve list. Watching one each
week is a guideline. Final course evaluation includes the films. Some screenings.
Important Note: Reading should be done in the exact order listed on this syllabus. Cues will be
given about specific texts to be covered in upcoming classes. When specific selections are
discussed in lecture or section, please have the selection in front of you. Not have the text will
disadvantage you, especially if you are asked about it.
Meetings, Aims, and Content:
The course meets twice weekly for lecture and Socratic questions, and once in section.
Attendance at none of these meetings is optional. It is also required to watch a number of films
(see above), which are on the reserves list.
This course teaches critical thinking, skills transferable to many professions and areas of
knowledge, and habits of ethical reflection embodied in language.
With application, you will become a better writer and speaker. You will improve
composition and communication skills and enhance your ability to form arguments, shape (and
question) your convictions, and then persuade others of them. This course moves at the
intersections of public policy, private values, and language. You will learn rhetorical strategies
and modes of analysis that underpin different kinds of discourse and different fields of
knowledge. The course stresses theory and practice as inseparable. Elements of Rhetoric is
also a short documentary history of selected aspects of American history and literature. Mr.
Engell s hours in Barker Center 162 will be announced and posted.
Evaluation:
Attendance/class participation = 20% Written (2-3 pp.)/Oral Exercises = 40%
Hour examination on October 23 = 15% Final Examination = 25%
Specific written (5) and oral assignments will be set approximately every two weeks with
instructions and due dates. Written assignments will be revised.
Part I The Nature of Rhetoric / A Long Struggle Sept. 16-25, Lectures 1-4
Nature and Purposes of Rhetoric; Original Five Canons; Three Kinds of Persuasive Discourse;
Importance of Rhetoric Today (CRMS 15-26)
Isaac Backus, Speech to Massachusetts Constitutional Convention (handout)
Frederick Douglass, Fifth of July Oration (ER)
Caleb Bingham, from The Columbian Orator (ER)
David Blight, Editor s Introduction to The Columbian Orator, The Peculiar Dialogue Between
Caleb Bingham and Frederick Douglass (R)
James Engell, from The Committed Word: Literature and Public Values, ch. 1, The Committed
Word (R 1-13)
Henry Clay on Slavery and Abolition (ER)
Abraham Lincoln, A House Divided (ER)
Douglas Wilson, from Honor's Voice, The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln (R 55-77)
W.E.B. DuBois on The Battle for Humanity (IOOW 17-20)
Thurgood Marshall, from Brown v. Board of Education (IOOW 198-99)
John Quincy Adams, from Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, Inaugural Oration; Lecture I,
General View of Rhetoric and Oratory (ER)
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail (CRMS 301-14) with analysis of
arrangements (CRMS 315-19), and analysis of style by Richard P. Fulkerson (CRMS 478-83)
King, Call to End Segregation-- I have a dream . . . (IOOW 234-37)
Thomas B. Farrell, An Ethically and Aesthetically Significant Art from Norms of Rhetorical
Culture (R 47-50); hereafter Norms
Lyndon Johnson, Address to Congress, Voting Rights Act of 1965 (IOOW 259-65)
Part II Thesis, Invention, Persuasion / Arguments Sept, 30-Oct. 16, Lectures 5-10
Oct. 15, Presidential Debate Event and Analysis, details TBA
The Thesis; Three Modes of Persuasion: logos, pathos, ethos (CRMS 27-84; APS 434-
60, 178-97); Looking for an Argument (CRMS 130-37; APS 93-106)
George Campbell, from The Philosophy of Rhetoric, 1, i, I, Eloquence (ER)
Delivery of Speeches (APS 78-81, 300-18)
Patrick Henry, Speech in Virginia Convention of Delegates (ER)
Thomas Paine, from Common Sense (ER)
Bernard Bailyn, from The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, ch. 1, The Literature
of Revolution (R 1-21)
Alan Heimert, from Religion and the American Mind (R 95-111, 154-58, 406-12)
Declaration of Independence (ER)
Pauline Maier, from American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, (R xvi-xxi,
50-59, 94-96, 123-43, 201-05, 235-41)
Aristotle, from Rhetoric (ER)
Rhetoric as ethical practice (APS 34-43; Norms [R] 61-83)
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1 (ER)
Madison, Federalist No. 10 (CRMS 214-20) and analysis by Mark Ashin (220-30)
James Madison, Federalist No. 37 (ER)
Henry, against the Constitution, Virginia Ratifying Convention (ER)
Madison, for the Constitution, Virginia Ratifying Convention (ER)
Part III Topics / Foreign Affairs Oct. 16-28, Lectures 10-11
Class Visit, Professor Wayne Fields, Oct. 21
Hour Exam, Oct. 23 on materials in Parts I and II
Topics (CRMS 84-120; also 209-14, Part V below); Special Topics (CRMS 120-30)
Woodrow Wilson Requests Declaration of War (IOOW 37-39)
F.D. Roosevelt on the four freedoms (IOOW 120-23)
J.F. Kennedy, Ich bin ein Berliner (IOOW 232-33)
J.Q. Adams, from Lecture II, Eloquence Considered (ER)
Shen Tong on Tiananmen Square (IOOW 385-88)
Elizabeth Linder and Connie Mack, Congressional Hearing (Norms [R] 304-08)
Rhetoric as a particular practice of civic virtue (Norms [R] 93-100)
Part IV Designing Arguments / Justice, Social Choice Oct. 30-Nov. 6, Lectures 12-14
Arrangement (Organization) and Parts (CRMS 256-92, APS 206-23, 228-49)
Rose Schneiderman on Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (IOOW 32-33)
Al Smith Assails William Randolph Hearst (IOOW 57-58)
John L. Lewis on Brutality and Oppression of Big Business (IOOW 112-14)
Susan B. Anthony on Women s Rights before a Congressional Committee (ER)
Phyllis Schlafly Opposes Women s Rights Movement (IOOW 329-35)
Hugh Blair, from Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Parts of a Discourse (ER)
Margaret Sanger Promotes Birth Control (IOOW 68-70)
Sarah Weddington, from Roe v. Wade (IOOW 302-04)
Mario Cuomo on abortion, an analysis (Norms [R] 213-24)
J.Q. Adams, from Lecture XI, Deliberative Oratory (ER)
George Campbell, from 1, i, V, Of Intuitive and Deductive Evidence (ER)
Clarence Darrow on sentencing of Leopold and Loeb (IOOW 76-78)
Sarah Brady on Gun Control (IOOW 424-26)
Charlton Heston on Second Amendment Rights (IOOW 426-31)
J. Robert Oppenheimer on Morality and Science (IOOW 151-53)
Rachel Carson on Exceeding Beauty of the Earth (IOOW 202-05)
Carson, The Obligation to Endure from Silent Spring (CRMS 185-90) and topical analysis
(CRMS 190-95)
Part V Style & Emphasis / Praise and Remembrance Nov. 13-18, Lectures 15-16
(Nov. 11 Veterans Day, no class)
Style (CRMS 337-69, 478-83; APS 272-82); review Delivery (APS 78-81, 300-18)
Jane Addams, Address to Union League Club on George Washington (IOOW 8-11)
Carl Sandburg, from Address to Congress on Abraham Lincoln (IOOW 212-15)
Martin Luther King, Jr., on Four Martyred Girls (IOOW 237-39)
J.Q. Adams, from Lecture XXVI, Perspicuity (ER)
George Campbell, 1, ii, VI, Of Perspicuity (ER)
The New Yorker Obituary for Katherine Sergeant White (CRMS 209-11) and analysis of the
topics in the obituary (CRMS 211-14)
Thomas Sheridan, from Elocution (ER)
Tragedy as Eulogy, Edward Kennedy on John Kennedy (Norms [R] 118-34)
Jay Heinrichs, How Harvard Destroyed Rhetoric in Harvard Magazine (R)
Part VI Who speaks? / Political Debate, Controversy Nov. 20-Dec. 2, Lectures 17-19
(Nov. 27 Thanksgiving, no class)
Benjamin Franklin, Speech at the Constitutional Convention (ER)
George Washington, from Farewell Address (ER)
J.Q. Adams, from Lecture XV, Qualities of an Orator
Joseph McCarthy, from a speech to honor Lincoln (IOOW 173-76)
Margaret Chase Smith, against hate and fear as political tactics (IOOW 176-79)
Rhetoric in the Army-McCarthy Hearings (Norms [R] 39-47)
Amy Gutmann, The Lure & Dangers of Extremist Rhetoric (R)
Dwight Eisenhower, from Farewell Address (IOOW 219-21)
Shirley Chisholm, on Government Spending (IOOW 279-82)
Barry Goldwater, accepting 1964 nomination (IOOW 249-52)
Barbara Jordan, 1973 Impeachment of Richard Nixon (IOOW 312-16)
Ronald Reagan, Make America Great Again, from speech accepting 1980 nomination (IOOW
341-45)
Mario Cuomo, from 1984 convention speech (IOOW 354-59)
Elie Wiesel to Reagan on planned visit to Bitburg Cemetery (IOOW 363-66)
The example of Bitburg, analysis (Norms [R] 291-93)
Part VII Figures & Metaphor / The Poetic and Our Polity Dec. 4, Lecture 20
Figures of Speech; the Value of Imitation, (CRMS 377-448; APS 282-88)
Daniel Webster, from Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, their Literary Character and Eloquence
(ER)
William Faulkner, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech (IOOW 179-80)
John Kennedy, tribute to Robert Frost (IOOW 242-44)
Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech (IOOW 327-29)
Part VIII A Brief History / Inaugurating Hope Dec. 9-11, Lectures 21-22
FDR, First Inaugural Address (IOOW 99-102) and analysis (Norms [R] 83-93)
JFK, Inaugural Address (CRMS 459-61) and analysis (CRMS 461-72)
Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address (ER)
David Zarefsky, Approaching Lincoln s Second Inaugural Address (R)
A Survey of Rhetoric (CRMS 489-543)
Part IX Study & Commitment / Remarks at a Dedication Dec. 16, Lecture 23
Engell, from The Committed Word, ch. 9, Lincoln's Language, and Ours, and ch. 10,
Recommitment (R 140-74)
Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (ER)
William Barton, from Lincoln at Gettysburg (R 126-29)
Contact this candidate