today's PPT

1. August 28, 2014

2. Today
1) Icebreaker
2) Activity– the basics of rhetoric
3) Announcements/focal topic
proposal
4) The Meme Assignment
5) Examples

3. Today’s IceBreaker:
what was your first job?

4. Your readings for today gave you the
very tip of the iceberg in terms of
rhetoric. We will be working over the
next few weeks to build a robust
definition of what rhetoric is.
For now, who wants to share YOUR
definition? (remember, I have cards if no one wants to talk)

5. Aristotle called rhetoric
persuasion using “all of the
available means” at a person’s
disposal. Then he drew
triangles everywhere with
ethos, pathos, and logos.

6. Quintilian said that rhetoric
was “a good man speaking
well.”
Sexist, much, Quintilian? But we still
love you. It was a different time.

7. Plato said rhetoric was “the art
of ruling the minds of men.”
Hey, Plato, Debbie Downer called. She wants
her gimmick back. Also… sexist much again?

8. Andrea Lunsford said
rhetoric was “the art,
practice and study of human
communication.”

9. As you can see, rhetoric is a
“moving target.” Defining it is
difficult. Almost as difficult as
mastering it.

10. Partner up.
In your pair, I want you to go over the
readings and discuss them, picking as a pair
the ONE critical element of rhetoric you
pulled from the homework. You will then
email it to me and share it with all of us.
I’m still alexanp3 at miami OH dot edu 

11. You have an email from me. It
tells you that HabitRPG made
me a fool. But we’re back! Join
the guild “Dr. Phill’s Redhawks”
and check out my recovery!

12. Also, by Monday night, I want you to propose a focal
research topic for your research blog. Remember,
this can be any topic you like, as long as you focus it
specifically.
You can see some of what other students have done
under “research” on the blogroll here:
phillalexander.com/s224
Note: some of those are not the best examples–
that’s’ a full class, good and bad. But all the topics
themselves are great.

13. Now to discuss the Meme
assignment. Please join me on
the website under
“assignments.”

14. For Tuesday:
Don’t forget to email your focal topic proposal!
Read: McCloskey and Bollin Carroll (on Niihka)
and Porter (linked from assignment page)
Start on your memes!
See you then!