Theoretical and practical instruction prepare students to vocally address diverse audiences in a variety of situations across multiple media.

Rhetoric has long been concerned with what a speaker must know in order to persuade others to think, feel, or act. Some elements of concern have remained fairly constant across time, such as knowledge of one’s audience, occasion, and purpose. Others have come into view more recently, such as one’s medium of communication. Regardless, the idea that the effectiveness of language relates to a wider context—commonly referred to as the rhetorical situation—has been a useful tool. This course considers the problematic of the standard rhetorical situation, including its many implications: that speakers are predictable, stable entities; that audiences are demographically predictable; that purposes are fixed and unchanging; that each medium, properly managed, is a neutral amplifier for communication content. 21st-century technological changes have made apparent that the one-directional, sender/receiver model embedded within the rhetorical situation cannot be easily adapted for predictive use in the dynamic, multi-directional exchanges of today. They have also exposed long-standing sociocultural and institutional exclusions within American culture (and more widely), and transformed the capacity of marginalized individuals to lay claim to their own images and voices for personal and political ends. Today, speaking up, being seen and heard, is possible anywhere, anytime. As such, we will reconsider how people go about the practice of engaging each other. We will practice the rhetorical situation, and we will also rethink it, exploring further factors that more subtly inform our occasions to speak (and listen). Public discourse is dynamic activity; its elements change while we speak, including who we address, how we do so, our goals and exigencies, and even who we are. Facing the rhetorical situation’s unpredictability, we will practice being responsive within rhetorical ecologies, acknowledging historical, cultural, technical, and biological influences upon successful human speech—and life—together. The two-fold goal of this course is that students will a) become conversant in theoretical questions relating to the practice of contemporary public self-expression, and b) cultivate their own speaking style while developing strengths in skillful communication. Course activities include in-class discussions and oral presentations, collaborative reading, peer/group workshops, multimedia communication, and training in basic performance skills. Together, students will augment their ability to recognize and adapt to differences across social and media contexts, and to acknowledge and enter into diverse cultural circumstances aware of how their self-presentation affects the lives around them.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.