Rhetoric is the study and art of com­mu­ni­cat­ing well. In Rhetoric Writ­ing, we focus specif­i­cal­ly on writ­ten com­mu­ni­ca­tion using the 5 canons of rhetoric. 

Join Aman­da as she leads our stu­dents through the 5 canons of rhetoric and the art of writ­ten com­mu­ni­ca­tion in both for­mal and infor­mal set­tings. The pin­na­cle of the Rhetoric Writ­ing course is the senior the­sis, which stu­dents will explore and learn about in Spring semes­ter. Every les­son and class leads our stu­dents through the writ­ing process so that they are ful­ly equipped to han­dle what­ev­er writ­ing assign­ments they will encounter. 

Mod­ule 1 : Inven­tion : focus­ing on what to write. This is a more in-depth study of inven­tion than we take in the Dialec­tic Writ­ing course. The writ­ing focus here is on lit­er­ary analy­sis, cri­tique, and the per­sua­sive essay. 

Mod­ule 2 : Arrange­ment : focus­ing on how to com­mu­ni­cate in writ­ten form for a spe­cif­ic pur­pose. The writ­ing focus here is on non-essay forms of writing. 

Mod­ule 3 : Style : focus­ing on how to make our writ­ing inter­est­ing, clear, and engag­ing by using tropes, fig­ures of speech, and oth­er styl­is­tic tools. The writ­ing focus here is a com­bi­na­tion of essay and non-essay forms, high­light­ing how to styl­ize each type of composition. 

Mod­ule 4 : Mem­o­ry : focus­ing on mem­o­riz­ing our mate­r­i­al. Many oppor­tu­ni­ties for writ­ing require us to “pull mate­r­i­al from our head”. The writ­ing focus here is on impromp­tu writ­ing, like what you find on a stan­dard­ized test, or speak­ing, like in apolo­get­ics or Mars Hill speeches. 

Mod­ule 5 : Pre­sen­ta­tion : focus­ing on pre­sent­ing our writ­ten mate­r­i­al. The final canon in rhetoric is pre­sen­ta­tion. How­ev­er, this is not a pub­lic speak­ing course. The writ­ing focus here is on the the­sis. The the­sis paper requires a stu­dent to work through all 5 canons to cre­ate an orig­i­nal writ­ten work.