RHETORIC 102 SECTIONS

All Rhetoric 102 sections are designed primarily to teach students to use language clearly and effectively in order to analyze texts, to argue logically, and to use research methods and materials, and all sections require that students write a minimum of 7500 words in essays, including two research papers. However, professors use a variety of readings and thematic focuses to accomplish these goals. We offer below course descriptions to the various sections of Rhetoric 102 available this semester so as to give students extra information as they choose a section in which to enroll. Students are not in any way obliged to remain with their Rhetoric 101 professor; instead they should select a section of Rhetoric 102 that piques their interest. All sections of Rhetoric 102 are limited to a fourteen-student maximum enrollment.

RHETORIC 102-01               M 1:30 p.m. – 2:20 p.m.               PROF. C. VARHOLY
                                                 TR 12:30 p.m. – 1:20 p.m.           PROF. C. VARHOLY

In this course, we will examine a selection of texts that depict courtrooms, including Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose and Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman.  As we consider strategies for improving our argumentative prose, we'll also consider some of the following questions: How does a courtroom scene allow for the representation of controversial issues?  Why is it useful to depict an issue through a single representative case?  How does the courtroom situation generate opposing arguments?  What makes a given argument convincing?  We’ll think about how writers use the courtroom as a setting for their own arguments, and we’ll generate our own persuasive prose.

RHETORIC 102-02              MW 2:30 p.m. – 3:50 p.m.                PROF. K. WEESE

In this section of Rhetoric 102, we’ll read Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel In Cold Blood, view the film adaptation of the novel, and also view the biographical film Capote, which explores the author’s obsession with the subject matter of his nonfiction novel and the impact of writing In Cold Blood on his career.  These three works will serve as the basis for several argumentative/interpretive essays, as well as providing the springboard for researched essays on topics of students’ own choosing.  Possibilities include, but are not limited to, investigating the non fiction novel, and new journalism, the mode of writing with which Capote’s In Cold Blood is identified; exploring the “true crime” genre; analyzing, with research, another nonfiction novel or “true crime” novel; writing a researched analysis of a film adaptation of another literary work; and perhaps, within some strict parameters for acceptable topics, writing a researched biographical essay.  Capote is a master stylist, so his work will serve also as a means for us to study effective rhetorical style; we will use it in conjunction with Martha Kolln’s book, Rhetorical Grammar, and lessons in style from both Capote and Kolln will inform students’ own writing.

RHETORIC 102-03              MWF 8:30 a.m. – 9:20 a.m.           PROF.  S. NOWLIN

The goal of our class will be to help you acquire skill in rhetoric—that is, learn to communicate your ideas with a sense audience, purpose, argument, and design.  Our jumping-off point will be American popular culture, with a particular focus on modern American masculinity.  We will examine and discuss contemporary trends in music, advertising, television, film, fiction, journalism, and fashion with a special focus on how media in these categories represent the American male.  We will also take a look at examples from the past in an effort to understand how we arrived at the notions of masculinity we currently hold.  In addition to contributing regularly to lively class discussion, students should expect to complete six major papers, several shorter assignments, quizzes and exams, and an oral presentation.

RHETORIC 102-04              TWR 1:30 p.m. – 2:20 p.m.              PROF. K. OLAIYA

This section of 102 is focused on race and interaction. We will read Essays from Contemporary Culture, Katherine Anne Ackley’s book that deals with contact among different people. We will focus on how to help students develop the skills necessary for completing independent close readings of literature. In addition, students will acquire the skills needed to write comparative research essays. Students will write at least 7500 words during the semester, including two research papers longer than 1500 words (or five typed pages). In addition, students will write in-class essays that respond to questions about readings and discussions.

RHETORIC 102-05     MWF 11:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.    PROF. D. HIGGINBOTHAM
RHETORIC 102-06     MWF   8:30 a.m. – 9:20 a.m.      PROF. D. HIGGINBOTHAM

The Rhetoric of War
This section of Rhetoric 102 will investigate the rhetoric of war.  We’ll begin with nonfiction about the civil war, and move through the twentieth century.  We will analyze how the literature of war evolves with and changes our cultural perceptions of the conflicts.  Readings will focus on history, nonfiction, fiction and poetry.  Students will write analytical and persuasive prose.

RHETORIC 102-07              MWF 10:30 a.m. – 11:20 a.m.          PROF. K. WEISS
RHETORIC 102-14              MWF   9:30 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.          PROF. K. WEISS

According to a popular saying, the victors write history.  In the 1980’s, however, Vietnam veterans persuaded the American government to commemorate a war that failed.  The result was Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which currently stands in Washington D.C.  In this section of Rhetoric 102, we will study the political, economic, and social factors that influenced the creation of the memorial.  Moreover, we will ask what social purposes the memorial serves.  Examining this particular memorial will lead us to a broader discussion of public memory, and students may research other sites and histories if they choose.  As in other 102 courses, students will write several essays, including two researched arguments.

***  SPRING ’09 ONLY:  SPECIAL LINKED COURSE OFFERING ***

RHETORIC  102-08             MWF 12:30 p.m. – 1:20 p.m.           PROF. L. MOORE
WCUL           102-07             MWF 12:30 p.m. – 1:20 p.m.            PROF. P. WILSON

Students can take WC 102-07 and RHET 102-08 as linked courses in Spring 2009.  This is an exciting opportunity to take a Rhetoric course where readings, assignments, and papers are carefully coordinated with WCUL 102-07.  Both courses will focus on drafting and revising essays based on Western Cultures readings.  Since RHET 102-08 involves learning how to do research, for your research project, you’ll pick the topic you like best from your WCUL 102-07 readings and do research on that topic for your final paper. If you like argument and analysis, as well as the idea of picking your own paper topic—this Rhetoric linked course is for you.  These courses are co-requisites of each other, so enrolling in one course means enrolling in the other as well.

RHETORIC 102-09              TR 8:30 a.m. – 9:50 a.m.                     PROF. N. PERRY

Writing Life
In this section of Rhetoric 102 we will take a close look at what it is to write about a life – both one’s own life and that of another.  To do this we will look at books by Scott Russell Sanders, Nicholas Dawidoff, and James Galvin – which function either as traditional memoir (life-writing) or third-person biography/memoir.  We will also read plenty of additional essays and excerpts.  All of the reading (and thinking in class) will also take into account the importance of place when writing about these lives and those close to us.

RHETORIC 102-10            MWF 9:30 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.            PROF. L. FRYE          
In the book American Places, William Zinsser tells us that he is “looking for America” and that he hopes to find it—to understand it in a new way—by visiting a number of iconic American places, seeking “to enter into the intention of each place—to find out what it was trying to be, not what I might have wanted or expected it to be” (3). For Zinsser as for many other writers, there is a deep significance in our relationship to place.

In this section of Rhetoric 102 we will read and write about American places. Readings will include the Zinsser book as well as a handful of nineteenth- and twentieth-century essays and stories that contemplate our human relation to the places we inhabit.

Class discussions and essays, most requiring some research, will investigate the nature of place and of our connection to place. Students in the class may expect to write primarily analytical and persuasive prose. For the final research project, each student will construct a website that showcases all of our reading, research, and writing about American places

But of course the primary goal of my sections of Rhetoric 102, like all sections of Rhetoric 102, is the development and improvement of our writing, with special emphasis this semester on argument, voice and style, and research.

This course will analyze the cultural rhetoric behind what it means to “act like a man.”  We will read texts that argue why violence is so often wrapped up in complicated issues surrounding masculinity.  Students will be expected to develop original arguments that relate to the readings and topic.  In the third unit, students will pursue a research topic based on an area of inquiry in masculinity studies.  The fourth unit will be comprised of a sustained research essay in which students will employ numerous rhetorical strategies to create an engaging and compelling final essay.

RHETORIC 102-12            TR 10:00 a.m.-11:20 a.m.            PROF. S. ROBBINS
RHETORIC 102-13            M 1:30-2:20 p.m.                         PROF. S. ROBBINS
                                             TR 12:30 p.m.-1:20 p.m.

This course, like all Rhetoric courses, is based on a faculty resolution that states, “All Hampden-Sydney graduates will write competently.” This statement implies that students will know how to research topics and present their ideas and the evidence that they have gathered. In this Rhetoric class, we will make the assumption that the ancient poetry of Homer illuminates the reality of our modern existence in vital ways. We will use Homer as the stimulus for research projects. Students will write six short research papers of four-six pages each, with four sources, in addition to one longer research paper, all on topics that are derived from reading The Odyssey. Students may focus on the return of veterans, the effects of war on civilians, the history of weaponry, training for combat, military medicine, the nuclear arsenal and many other related subjects.

RHETORIC 102-15              TR 2:30 p.m.-3:50 p.m.                  PROF.  R. WOOD
RHETORIC 102-16              TR 10:00 a.m. 11:20 a.m.               PROF.  R. WOOD
RHETORIC 102-17              TR 8:30 a.m.-9:50 a.m.                   PROF.  R. WOOD

J. R. R. Tolkien is best known for his powerful epic, The Lord of the Rings. In addition, he wrote the children’s story, The Hobbit, that serves as an introduction to Middle-earth, an imagined world complete with its own geography, history, languages.  We will chart the unfolding of Middle-earth through history (Sauron and the Ring), mythology (orcs and Gandalf), as well as through psychological evolution (Bilbo).  We will examine the history of The Hobbit and Tolkien’s revisions to the text.  In addition, we will analyze visual rhetoric—propaganda, political ads, art and film, and photography.