Classical rhetoric and modern political discourse

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

"Rhetoric is the antistrophos* to dialectic." — Aristotle
* counterpart, correlative, coordinate, or converse

"Rhetoric is the ability to discover in each particular
case all the available means of persuasion." — Aristotle

"Whoever does not study rhetoric will be a victim of it"
— Ancient Greek wall inscription

This course is an introduction to the history, theory, practice, and implications of rhetoric, the art and craft of persuasion through

Through class discussions, presentations, and written assignments, you will get to practice your own rhetorical prowess. Through the readings, you'll also learn some ways to make yourself a more efficient reader, as you turn your analytical skills on the texts themselves. This combination of reading, speaking, and writing will help you succeed in:

The course work is primarily "front-loaded." One of the major projects is collaborative and you will develop the final large paper in a series of steps. These are further meant to help you enjoy and accomplish the course assignments. Most importantly, you should have fun in this course!

This semester, there will be two sets of rhetorical texts and speeches that will serve as the primary readings for the class. The first will consist of various articles taking specific positions on the current debate on health care reform. The second set of readings of will consist of three speeches by Abraham Lincoln.

There are several guidelines for using sources in your academic writing:

In sum, your essays should always be your own work. Your essays should always be your new work created specifically for this course.

This course requires your attendance, participation, and on-time submission of assignments:

Plagiarism — use of another's intellectual work without acknowledgement — is a serious offense. It is the policy of the Literature Faculty that students who plagiarize will receive an F in the subject, and that the instructor will forward the case to the Committee on Discipline. Full acknowledgement for all information obtained from sources outside the classroom must be clearly stated in all written work submitted. All ideas, arguments, and direct phrasings taken from someone else's work must be identified and properly footnoted. Quotations from other sources must be clearly marked as distinct from the student's own work. For further guidance on the proper forms of attribution, consult the style guides available at the Writing and Communication Center and the MIT Web site on Plagiarism.

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in Action & Figures of Style I

In-class Oral arguments

Eulogies and figures of speech II

In-class oral arguments

Plato's Gorgias & figures of style II

In-class oral arguments

Points at issue

In-class oral arguments

Figures of style and thought III

In-class oral arguments

Major paper 1 due one week after Ses #8

Major paper 2 due two weeks after Ses #8

Major paper 3 proposal due three weeks after Ses #8

Word proposal due 3 weeks two days after Ses #8

Major paper 3 draft due four weeks after Ses #8

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