This class has a specific question at its heart: how powerful is language? Other questions follow from that central question: what difference does language make? what kinds of power does language have to write--or right--our worlds? how does language work to persuade people or to bring about change? to build community? to empower or disempower people? To engage these questions and others that we'll develop as we proceed, we'll read some theories about the rhetorical dimensions of discourse, and we'll examine a range of public texts in a variety of media, including but not limited to speeches, essays, letters, advertisements, movies, television shows, and songs.

I will not make any adjustments to the class roster (i.e., oversubscribe or drop students) until after the second class meeting. At that point, I will automatically drop any student who has not attended both of the first two classes. After the second class, if there are spaces available I will authorize students who who have been attending class to register for the course until the course has again met its maximum capacity. Please do not email me requesting exceptions to this policy.