What can you expect this quarter?

The purpose of this quarter is to support students in understanding the ways in which writers and speakers convey their ideas to an intended audience. You will analyze texts and media for advanced rhetorical strategies, fallacies, logic, and arrangement. You will then create assertions around national issues using rhetorical strategies and devices. You will evaluate your ability to achieve an intended effect through written and oral presentations.

Questions we will be discussing this quarter:

• How does a person's rhetorical ability create social awareness and affect change?
• How do rhetors purposefully manipulate ideas, language, and structure to achieve an intended effect?

Standards Focused On

• Standard 2: Reading for all Purposes Prepared Graduates: Seek feedback, self-assess, and reflect on personal learning while engaging with increasingly more difficult texts. Demonstrate comprehension of a variety of informational, literary, and persuasive texts. Interpret how the structure of written English contributes to the pronunciation and meaning of complex vocabulary.
• Standard 3: Writing and Composition Prepared Graduates: Write with a clear focus, coherent organization, sufficient elaboration, and detail. Apply standard English conventions to effectively communicate with written language.
• Standard 4: Research and Reasoning Prepared Graduates: Evaluate explicit and implicit viewpoints, values, attitudes, and assumptions concealed in speech, writing, and illustration. Discriminate and justify a position using traditional lines of rhetorical argument and reasoning.