This course examines rhetoric as the art of finding and analyzing all the choices involving language that a writer might make in a situation so that the text becomes meaningful, purposeful, and effective for readers. Through adaptation and emulation, we will seek to improve our own language.

You will become mature and sophisticated consumers and creators of a variety of texts.

This course is designed to help you write effectively and confidently in college courses, as well as in your professional and personal lives. You should expect to discuss some aspect of writing or the writing process every lesson.

For all essays, you will receive a rubric. This rubric expresses the goals of the activity and should be used as a guide to focus your essay.

Marked essays will have notations to guide you towards fixing problem areas. You are strongly encouraged to review these comments and use them to improve your writing. Occasionally, students will be given the opportunity to resubmit work that they have reviewed. As the tasks become more complex and more demanding, students who fail to self-reflect during the course will suffer academically.