Argumentative Writing
English 425
Professor
Alisse Theodore
Winter 2000
The course information and schedule of assignments for
this
course are now available at
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~alisse/ENGL425w00.html.
Please note that the course description below is a slightly revised (and
more accurate)
description than the one provided in the on-line guide
by
the English
Department.
Hello. If you are here, you are probably considering taking this
section of "Argumentative Writing" in the winter term. Although I won't
have a schedule of assignments ready until December, you might get a
sense of my teaching philosophy by
looking at the website for the section of English
484 that I am teaching currently, a class called "Rhetoric and the Achievement
of Woman's Rights."
If you have questions, feel free to email me.
Good luck with the rest of your fall term.
Course Description for English 425, Winter 2000
**Note: This course description is slightly modified from the description
published by the English Department.**
The signers of the United States Constitution declared our freedom of
expression the most important right of United States citizens. Susan B.
Anthony and dozens of other women used the only power they had, the power
of language, to ensure women their right to vote in the United States.
And the persuasive eloquence of Martin Luther King, Jr., changed this
nation's consciousness. These were ordinary people doing extraordinary
things with language. What about you? Do you aspire to extraordinary
things, or do you simply hope to land a great job or appeal a parking
ticket? Either way, you'll need to use persuasive writing. This
semester, we will increase our awareness of, respect for, and facility
with persuasive writing. But our enthusiasm for and understanding of
argumentative writing can grow only if we care about what we're doing (and
even have some fun), so usually you will choose your own topics as we play
with, analyze, and practice argumentative writing. To guide us in these
challenging but rewarding enterprises, we'll use a textbook, Ancient
Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. We'll write almost daily, in the
form of short exercises, rhetorical analyses, and longer essays; plan on
lots of informal writing and three formal essays of 3-6 pages
each.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~alisse