ENGL 101B W23 Van de Kemp

ENGL 101B

W23 Van de Kemp

Contact Information

Instructor: Dr. Jessica Van de Kemp (aka Dr. V)
Virtual Office/Hours: By appointment only (email Dr. V to schedule an MS Teams video call)
Email: jvandekemp@uwaterloo.ca (Replies within 24–48 hours during weekdays)
Technical Support: If you experience technical difficulties with LEARN, email learnhelp@uwaterloo.ca

Course Description

This class seeks to introduce students to the essential concepts, frameworks, and controversies in the history and theory of rhetoric by analyzing key selections from foundational texts, both ancient and contemporary. In addition to demonstrating the relevance of rhetorical theory and criticism to a variety of social, intellectual, and cultural fields (e.g. law, politics, philosophy, literature, advertising, etc), the class also explores emerging forms of rhetorical practice made possible by new media technologies, such as propaganda, computational gaming, and information warfare. Students will leave the class with a firm grasp of basic concepts of rhetorical theory, a sense of the history of rhetoric, and a deeper appreciation for rhetoric as an inventive, critical, multimodal, and multidisciplinary enterprise—what Quintilian calls an “encompassing art” (ars circumcurrens). Note that this online course is asynchronous, meaning that you engage in learning at your own pace (with strict due dates), and have access to most of the course materials (e.g. required readings, lecture slides, study notes, etc) from the start. It also means that we all engage in the course at different times and from different locations. For that reason, there are no meetings or set office hours.

Learning and Course Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:

• Define basic rhetorical concepts;
• Describe the historical scope of rhetoric;
• Read texts critically;
• Analyze artifacts rhetorically; and
• Appreciate rhetoric as an inventive, critical, multimodal, and interdisciplinary enterprise.

Materials and Resources

There is no textbook to purchase for this course. Most required readings are available for download, in PDF form, from the Course Schedule and the Content Modules. The only exception is the required (Cixous) and optional (Ede, Glenn, and Lunsford) readings in Week 6, which can be accessed by clicking the UW Library links provided in the schedule/module and logging-in with your WatIAM credentials.

Course Requirements and Assessments

In this course, a passing grade is 50%. Students must complete all of the following required assessments: the weekly reading responses, the essay assignment, and the final examination, which is just a “take- home assessment.” All of the assessments will be submitted, and feedback provided, through LEARN (i.e. no email submissions). This course has no midterm. In regard to grading style, the essay and exam rubrics are marked fairly, and mostly holistically (i.e. you will not receive a one-mark deduction per mistake [yikes!] but, rather, an overall score in each section of a rubric based on where the instructor thinks your level is at in that skill: does not meet expectations, approaches expectations, meets expectations, or exceeds expectations). Note that the instructor will not ‘negotiate’ your grades with you (unless an actual miscalculation is made in adding-up rubric section scores).

Assesment	Due Date	Weighting
Introduce yourself discussion post	January 15	Ungraded
Reading Responses	Weekly	30%
Essay Assignment	April 6	40%
Final Examination (Take home Assessment)	April 18	30%
Total		100%

Reading Responses (30%) – DUE: Weekly, on Thursdays, by 11:55PM (ET)

You will write a 500–600 word response on one of the readings that you are required to do for each week. For example, you need to do both of the required readings in Week 2, but must choose which one to write your response on (i.e. either Gorgias’ “The Encomium of Helen” or Aristotle’s “Rhetoric”). Each response should be comprised of four paragraphs: two in which you analyze the reading and two in which you discuss what you learned from the lectures. Follow MLA style when formatting your paper and mention the word count at the bottom of the page. Remember to a) submit your reading response to the dropbox, b) post it in the discussion forum, and c) comment on at least one of your peers’ posts in the discussion forum to facilitate a class discussion. The weekly reading responses are marked for completion and you will receive a brief comment from the instructor on some or all of them; no late submissions will be accepted unless there is an ‘extenuating circumstance.’ Learning outcomes include reading texts critically and analyzing artifacts rhetorically.

Essay Assignment (40%) – DUE: Thursday, April 6th, 2023 by 11:55PM (ET)

For this major assignment, you will write an essay that is a minimum of 1,500 words before your Works Cited page in which you compare and contrast any 2 course readings. The essay prompt is: “How do these two course readings address the same term, theme, or topic, and what does this mean for the rhetorical field?” Your essay should contain an introduction paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph; download the resource file on the assignment page (click Content > Activities and Assessments > Essay Assignment ) to see the essay template, which you should closely follow, and the assignment rubric. Remember to follow MLA style when formatting your paper and use quotes from peer-reviewed journal articles to support your claims. The essay assignment is due into the dropbox on April 6th. Late essays will be penalized 5 marks per day. The last day to submit a late essay to the dropbox is April 10th to allow for sufficient grading time; failure to submit your essay by that cutoff will result in a grade of zero on that assessment (as per the Late Policy). The essay assignment is marked fairly and holistically using a rubric. Learning outcomes include reading texts critically and analyzing artifacts rhetorically.

Final Examination (“Take-Home Assessment”) (30%) – DUE: Tuesday, April 18th, 2023 by 11:55PM (ET)

The final examination is just an open-book “take-home assessment,” meaning that you will have 3 days to work on it at your own pace, and can look at all of the course materials during the exam (i.e. no study aids beyond the course materials are permitted). The exam will be posted in a course announcement on April 16th and is due into the dropbox by April 18th, no exceptions or extensions (i.e. requests for an accommodation due to severe illness must be accompanied by a completed Verification of Illness form and emailed to the instructor within 48 hours of the exam due date [i.e. by April 20th] to request a short extension); failure to submit your final exam by April 18th (unless accommodated) will result in a grade of zero on that assessment (as per the Final Exam Submission Policy). The Final Exam Dropbox is 'hidden from view' until you achieve 100% on the Confidentiality Agreement and Statement of Honesty Quiz (which you can do by answering 'agree,' after careful consideration, to each quiz question and then typing-in your student name and number); the quiz will be available between April 16th and 18th. The final exam is marked fairly and mostly holistically using a rubric. Learning outcomes include defining basic rhetorical concepts, describing the historical scope of rhetoric, and appreciating rhetoric as an inventive, critical, multimodal, and interdisciplinary enterprise.

Course Schedule

Week	Required Readings	Activities and Assessments	Due Date	Weight
Week 1: Introduction		Introduce Yourself discussion post	Sunday, January 15, 2023 at 11:55 PM	Ungraded
Week 2: Classical Rhetoric	Gorgias, “The Encomium of Helen” Aristotle, “Rhetoric”	Week 2 Reading Response	Thursday, January 19, 2023 at 11:55 PM	3%
Week 3: Rhetoric and Drama	Shakespeare, Othello	Week 3 Reading Response	Thursday, January 26, 2023 at 11:55 PM	3%
Week 4: The Rhetorical Field	Kennedy, “A Hoot in the Dark: The Evolution of General Rhetoric” Fish, “Rhetoric”	Week 4 Reading Response	Thursday, February 2, 2023 at 11:55 PM	3%
Week 5: Rhetoric and Philosophy	Nietzsche, “On Truth and Lying in an Extra-Moral Sense” Burke, “Terministic Screens”	Week 5 Reading Response	Thursday, February 9, 2023 at 11:55 PM	3%
Week 6: Rhetoric, Gender, and Feminism	Cixous, “The Laugh of the Medusa” (*UW Library Access) (Optional) Ede, Glenn, and Lunsford, “Border Crossings: Intersections of Rhetoric and Feminism” (*UW Library Access)	Week 6 Reading Response	Thursday, February 16, 2023 at 11:55 PM	3%
HAPPY READING WEEK (FEBRUARY 18–26)!
Week 7: Rhetoric and Propaganda	Ellul, “The Characteristics of Propaganda” Hitler, “Mein Kampf”	Week 7 Reading Response	Thursday, March 2, 2023 at 11:55 PM	3%
Week 8: Rhetoric and Information Warfare	Szafranski, "Neocortical Warfare? The Acme of Skill"	Week 8 Reading Response	Thursday, March 9, 2023 at 11:55 PM	3%
Week 9: Rhetoric and Advertising	McQuarrie and Mick, “Figures of Rhetoric in Advertising Language” Scott, “Images in Advertising”	Week 9 Reading Response	Thursday, March 16, 2023 at 11:55 PM	3%
Week 10: Rhetoric, Semiotics, and Popular Culture	Barthes,  "Excerpts"	Week 10 Reading Response	Thursday, March 23, 2023 at 11:55 PM	3%
Week 11: Rhetoric and New Media	Bogost, “The Rhetoric of Video Games"	Week 11 Reading Response	Thursday, March 30, 2023 at 11:55 PM	3%
Week 12: Review	Study for the Final Exam by listening to the ‘Review’ lectures in the Week 12 content module	Essay Assignment	Thursday, April 6, 2023at 11:55 PM	40%
		Course Evaluation (log-in here: https://perceptions.uwaterloo.ca)	Monday, April 10, 2023 at 11:59 PM	Ungraded
		Final Examination: April 16th: Exam Posted in LEARN April 16th to 18th: Quiz Available April 18th: Exam Due	Tuesday, April 18, 2023 at 11:55 PM	30%

Course Policies

Late Policy: Late weekly reading responses will not be counted toward your grade unless there is a

documented illness, tech glitch, or other ‘extenuating circumstance’ (in which case, email the instructor for help). For late essays, the instructor reserves the right to subtract 5 marks per day from the assignment grade. Email the instructor for help submitting a late essay. Note that the cutoff date/time for late essay assignment submissions is Monday, April 10th, 2023 at 11:55PM (ET) to allow for sufficient grading time; failure to submit your essay by that cutoff will result in a grade of zero on that assessment.

Final Exam Submission Policy: The Final Exam Dropbox is 'hidden from view' until you achieve 100% on the Confidentiality Agreement and Statement of Honesty Quiz (which you can do by answering 'agree,' after careful consideration, to each quiz question and then typing-in your student name and number). The Final Exam Dropbox will close to submissions after the deadline specified in the Course Schedule (i.e. Tuesday, April 18th, 2023 at 11:55PM (ET)), which means that you must submit your final exam on time - no exceptions or extensions (i.e. requests for an accommodation due to severe illness must be accompanied by a completed Verification of Illness form and emailed to the instructor within 48 hours of the exam due date [i.e. by April 20th] to request a short extension). Note that failure to submit your final exam by April 18th (unless accommodated) will result in a grade of zero on that assessment.

Grading Policy: The instructor will grade your Weekly Reading Responses for completion only. The instructor will grade both your essay assignment and final examination ("take-home assessment") fairly and mostly holistically using rubrics and will, therefore, not 'negotiate' your grades with you

(unless an actual miscalculation is made in adding-up rubric section scores). Note that the instructor will leave an overall comment on your essay assignment so that you understand its strengths and weaknesses, but your final exam might not receive (as much or any) feedback.

Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. See the Office of Academic Integrity webpage for more information.

Academic integrity

In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.

Academic Integrity website (Arts):

http://arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts/ugrad/academic_responsibility.html

Discipline

A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offences, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about rules for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When misconduct has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penal- ties will be imposed under Policy 71 - Student Discipline. For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student Discipline. For typical penalties check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties (https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat-general-counsel/policies- procedures-guidelines/guidelines/guidelines-assessment-penalties).

Grievance

A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt, please contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.

Appeals

Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72 - Student Appeals.

Chosen/Preferred First Name: Do you want professors and interviewers to call you by a different first name? Take a minute now to verify or tell us your chosen/preferred first name by logging into WatIAM. Why? Starting in Winter 2020, your chosen/preferred first name listed in WatIAM will be used broadly across campus (e.g. LEARN, Quest, WaterlooWorks, WatCard, etc). Note: Your legal first name will always be used on certain official documents. For more details, visit Updating Personal Information.

Important notes: If you included a preferred name on your OUAC application, it will be used as your

chosen/preferred name unless you make a change now. And, if you don’t provide a chosen/preferred name, your legal first name will continue to be used.

Mental Health Support: All of us need a support system. The faculty and staff in Arts encourage students to seek out mental health support if needed.

On-Campus

• Counselling Services: Counselling services provided to UW students currently registered or on a co-op term. To book an appointment, call: 519-888-4096
• MATES: One-to-one peer support program offered by the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) and Counselling Services

Off-Campus, 24/7

• • Good2Talk: Free confidential help line for post-secondary students. Call: 1-866-925-5454
  • Grand River Hospital: Emergency care for mental health crises. Call: 519-749-4300 ext. 6880
  • Here 24/7: Mental Health and Crisis Service Team. Call: 1-844-437-3247
  • OK2BME: Set of support services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or questioning teens in Waterloo. Call: 519-884-0000 ext. 213

Full details can be found online on the Faculty of Arts website. Download the UWaterloo and regional mental health resources (PDF).

Download the WatSafe app to your smartphone to quickly access mental health support information.

Academic Freedom: Policy 33, Ethical Behaviour states, as one of its general principles (Section 1), that “the University supports academic freedom for all members of the University community. Academic freedom carries with it the duty to use that freedom in a manner consistent with the scholarly obligation to base teaching and research on an honest and ethical quest for knowledge. In the context of this policy, 'academic freedom' refers to academic activities, including teaching and scholarship, as is articulated in the principles set out in the Memorandum of Agreement between the FAUW and the University of Waterloo, 1998 (Article 6). The academic environment which fosters free debate may from time to time include the presentation or discussion of unpopular opinions or controversial material.

Such material shall be dealt with as openly, respectfully, and sensitively as possible.” This definition is repeated in Policies 70 and 71, and in the Memorandum of Agreement, Section 6.

The Writing and Communication Centre: The WCC offers individualized support for students working on assignments/presentations at any stage (e.g. brainstorming, writing, revising, etc). This is not an editing service, but students can receive one-on-one feedback on their drafts to improve their communication skills and revision strategies. Consider booking an appointment with a writing advisor or signing up for email tutoring.

The Student Success Office: Students interested in developing and strengthening their leadership skills can complete the Student Leadership Program offered by the SSO to earn a UW Certificate in Leadership Development signed by UW President and Vice-Chancellor Vivek Goel. The program requirements, at the time of writing this note, include completing: six free workshops, a minimum of ten hours of paid or volunteer on-campus leadership roles/activities, and composing a (written, PowerPoint, video, or ePortfolio) reflection.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Statement: The instructor is committed to creating an equitable and inclusive learning environment where diversity (of ability, age, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, sexuality, etc) is respected and welcomed. They value your contributions to the class, will strive to create a climate that is safe (i.e. free of discrimination and harassment), and encourage feedback on how to improve this online course to better support you.

Territorial Acknowledgement: The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is centralized within the Office of Indigenous Relations. For more information about the purpose of territorial acknowledgements, please see the CAUT Guide to Acknowledging Traditional Territory.