WR 13100 - Fall 2016

Tu/Th 9:30-10:45 AM | Coleman-Morse 231

Professor: Arnaud Zimmern

Office Hours: Th/F 11-12:30 or happily by appt.

Email: azimmern@nd.edu

The Rhetoric of Fr. Hesburgh

COURSE DESCRIPTION

He was once asked by a baggage handler at the Dallas airport what on earth he was doing in an empty American Airlines office at 4:30 AM, dressed in a white robe, flickering candles reflected in the window pane.

        I'm offering Mass, he said.

Who for? the baggage handler inquired.

For the whole world.

More than a year into our mourning, Fr. Hesburgh lives on amongst us on the Notre Dame campus. His writings jump off their pages to greet us with the same smile, the same integrity, the same sense of global - indeed Catholic - urgency that they did when he first drafted them. This Writing and Rhetoric course aims to pay tribute to and mimic the intellectual spirit of one of Notre Dame’s unforgettable figures by posing two questions: (A) how did Fr. Hesburgh use rhetoric? and (B) how has Fr. Hesburgh become rhetoric?

Together, we will explore Fr. Hesburgh’s public and personal statements about issues as wide-ranging as civil rights, the role of the American university, nuclear proliferation, the liturgy in outer-space, and religious life in a secular age. Our goal will be to become aware of the ways in which Fr. Hesburgh united humor, style, and the three Aristotelian appeals (logos, pathos, and ethos) with one another, as well as in his own person, in order to better address his local and global audiences. Throughout the course, we will also pause to reflect on the choices Notre Dame has made in commemorating its president and, by extension, how it has implemented his personality to rhetorical ends through non-traditional texts that bear his signature (The Hesburgh Library, the Hesburgh Challenge, the Fr. Ted Talks, etc.).

This is a workshop course that will involve much reflection writing, a lot of revising, and some public speaking as we build towards archive-based research papers and, more importantly, as we try to answer the questions of our own inner baggage handlers: what on earth are we doing in a rhetoric class at Notre Dame and who are we doing it for?

COURSE GOALS

In this course, we will explore the practice and ethics of rhetoric in pursuit of the following goals:

1. To acquire a sophisticated vocabulary with which to speak of rhetoric and the process of writing.

2.  To nurture good, personal habits:

1. of writing, brainstorming, drafting, proof-reading, revising, sharing, collaborating, rewriting, and, yes, re-revising,
2.  of academic practice, i.e. researching, organizing data, summarizing, quoting, and citing responsibly,
3. of reading, especially reading for argument, structure, evidence, audience, logical coherence, rhetorical appeals, and unspoken assumptions,
4. of critiquing charitably and constructively, and of receiving critique reciprocally,
5. of looking and listening for rhetoric in non-traditional texts.

3. To develop a robust understanding of the ethical and social dimensions of rhetoric by studying the writings of Fr. Hesburgh and the use of Fr. Hesburgh's personality as a rhetorical appeal within university walls (figuratively and literally).

4. To study the nature and impact of the “rhetoric of success” that under-rides what we might coin the modern American "culture(s) of heroism" in professional, military, athletic, and academic environments, starting with our own.

COURSE STRUCTURE

Overview

This is a workshop course, divided into three units focusing on different processes of academic writing: Unit 1—Reading and Analyzing Fr. Hesburgh, Unit 2—Constructing Heroism, and Unit 3— Remembering and Forgetting. While we will devote a good portion of our class time to working through examples of argumentation and asking questions of ethics and responsibility in rational dialogue, we will spend most of our time and energy writing and talking about the writing produced in this class. 

Because this course is intent on building habits, we will hold regular peer-review/workshop sessions and meet periodically in instructor conferences as well as at the library. You will receive regular written and oral feedback on your writing, both from me and from your peers. Your final grade will be based heavily (40%) on a final portfolio of your best written work. (See “Evaluation and Grading” below.)

Required Texts and Materials

Please purchase:

• Strunk, William, and White, E. B. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. New York: Longman, 2000. Print. ISBN: 978-0205309023
• Hesburgh, Theodore Martin, and Reedy, Jerry. God, Country, Notre Dame. 1st ed. New York: Doubleday, 1990. Print. ISBN: 978-0268010386
• Optional: A journaling notebook (e.g. Moleskine, Rhodia, Composition)

Other texts will be drawn from various sources and will be made available on GDrive or via email.

Assignments

• Journal: You will keep a reading/writing journal for your weekly reading assignments and for in-class writing assignments. These journal entries will help you sound particular topics from our reading and discussions. I will pick them up periodically throughout the year. Be sure to bring yours to class every day.

• Rhetorical Analysis (4 pages) & Oral Presentation (8 minutes + 2 minutes for Q&A): For this assignment, you will locate a Hesburgh-themed artifact on or off campus, on or off-line. A list of suggested topics will be distributed on the day of the assignment - but feel free to think outside the box. At the end of each week in Unit 1 of the course, two students will read aloud their papers. The goal is to assess the artifact’s rhetorical effect, purpose, and audience and to field further questions at the end. These presentations and papers will serve as the basis for our discussion in class, in conjunction with assigned reading from Fr. Hesburgh’s autobiography.

• Personal Narrative Essay (4 pages total): The art of writing good obituaries is a dying art. The art of writing good résumés and application letters, meanwhile, has become a vital skill for modern life. But how different are these genres really? Drawing on our readings and our discussions in class, you will compose three short pieces, the first two being a one-page résumé and a one-page application letter for a summer job or travel abroad program that you are interested in, and the third being a two-page auto-obituary.

• Research Proposal (first draft ~10 pages, second draft maximum 140 characters, third draft 1 page): For this three-part assignment, you will practice two central virtues of classical rhetoric, copia and ekonomia. The exaggeratedly long first draft or copia is meant as an opportunity to stretch your research ideas as far as they will go, while the exaggeratedly short second draft or ekonomia is meant to sift out the ‘gold’ of the first draft into the briefest précis (or tweet) of your projected research paper. The third draft will serve as a first attempt at your paper’s introductory paragraph, to be refined in the course of the writing and research process.

• Annotated Bibliography (8-10 sources, 4-5 pages): You will construct the annotated bibliography as part of your groundwork for writing the research paper. MLA guidelines are to be observed attentively as covered in class discussion and in our visits to the archives.

• Research Paper (10-12 pages) & Oral Presentation of Research Project (8 minutes + 2 minutes Q&A): This paper and presentation combo is the culmination of the three-part proposal and the bibliography. The paper will be drafted in stages, with several class-visits to Hesburgh Library. It must present a sustained and complex argument related either to Fr. Hesburgh’s autobiography, his policies, or to the “culture of heroism” (or a mix). It has to engage intelligently with a number of other perspectives offered by texts addressing similar topics.

• Evaluation Argument Paper (4 pages): For this assignment, you will build on the skills gleaned from the rhetorical analysis and the research paper by establishing your own criteria with which to assess the rhetorical efficacy of any Hesburgh piece we have studied so far and that proved relevant to your research.

• Reflective Essay/Portfolio Cover Letter (2 pages): This assignment is an opportunity for you to reflect critically on the work you’ve done this semester. You will discern a trajectory of your work and argue for a particular reading of your portfolio as evidence of your development as a writer. While “development as a writer” is rarely a linear process, attempting to account for our own movements can make us more reflective writers.

Evaluation, Revisions, Portfolio, and Grading

This course uses a portfolio system for submission and evaluation of all major assignments. This approach provides opportunities for continuous revision and improvement prior to final and formal grades. I will respond to successive drafts of your written assignments as indicated on the semester schedule. At the end of the semester, having made final revisions to each of the major assignments, you will submit a final portfolio consisting of revised, expanded, polished drafts of the major assignments. In order to secure a satisfactory grade, you must be diligent throughout the semester in preparing the contents of the final portfolio. Waiting until the last weeks to complete or revise your work will be (to put it mildly) disastrous.

The Final Portfolio is due in electronic form on Dec. 8th, the last day of classes, at 5:00 PM.

There is no final exam for this class.

Your final grade for the course will be computed out of 110 points as follows:  

___________________________

 Participation | 10

Journal/Minor Writing Assignments |  5

Personal Narrative Essay |  5

 Evaluation Argument | 10

 Rhetorical Analysis & Oral Presentation | 10

 Research Proposal & Annotated Bibliography | 10

Research Paper & Oral Presentation | 20

 Final Portfolio | 40

___________________________

Total: 110

Point/Grade Scale

6 : A/A+        5 : A-                    4 : B                3 : C                 2 : D                1 : F          

A note: grades are assigned to your work, not to your personality, nor to your humanity. The 6-point system is borrowed from the Swiss university system and is designed to give me room as your instructor to round up your grade at the end of your semester’s worth of effort. A motivated student whose grade moves from roughly a 3.5 at midterm evaluations to roughly a 4.5 at final evaluations after significant revisions has strong chances of seeing that rounded up to a 5. Your score will never be rounded up or down until final evaluations, and every opportunity to account for your effort throughout the semester will be taken.

Using Notebook/Tablet Computers and Other Technology in Class

While it is certainly not required, you are welcome to bring a notebook or tablet computer to class with you for taking notes. Please use common sense about your use of the computer during class time. Checking e-mail, basketball scores, or a Facebook page when in class is the equivalent of teleporting to a virtual continent: it removes you from the work and the space at hand and bombards you with distracting thoughts that make your contribution in class less focused. Please be aware that I will frequently ask for all computers to be closed for a good, old-fashioned conversation and for good, old-fashioned, hand-written journaling. Be smart about your mobile phones as well—silence them and do not read or send text messages during our brief time together. 

Attendance & Deadline Policies

Regular attendance and participation in this course are required. Getting sufficient sleep before this course is therefore also a must. **If you miss more than two full class meetings on an un-excused basis, your final grade will be lowered by a point (from a 6 to a 5, a 5 to a 4) for each absence beyond those two.** Missing six or more class meetings total is grounds for failing the course. Missing a conference with me, if it is held in lieu of an excused absence; showing up without a draft for a conference or a peer workshop; and coming to class excessively late (more than 15 minutes) or frequently late (more than 3 times) without pre-approval, will also count as unexcused absences.

All assignments must be turned in during class or by the specified due date AND TIME, especially for electronically submitted assignments. Deadline extensions can never be given for drafts; that would prevent your peers from commenting on your drafts in class and would prevent me from giving you feedback in time for your revisions. Furthermore, each time workshops are scheduled, you are expected to bring in a new or substantially revised piece of writing; should you fail to do so, your final essay grade will reflect the failure as a problem with the revision process. Your final essay grade will be lowered a point for each day that a draft is late (i.e. from a 6 to a 5, a 5 to a 4, etc.).

**All assignments are due on the assigned dates, regardless of your attendance in class that day.**

Academic Virtues: Honesty and Integrity
All of the work that you submit for this course must be proudly and unabashedly your own. Plagiarism is - at this University and in the careers that await you - a serious affair, a matter of legal infringement, and an insult to human intelligence, to one’s own first and foremost. Notre Dame’s policy for academic dishonesty can be found at http://nd.edu/~hnrcode/index.htm. That said, it can be difficult to interpret at times. If you need any clarifications about the honor code, feel free to come speak to me and/or your first-year advisor.

RESOURCES

The Notre Dame Writing Center is, in a word, phenomenal. Its staff can assist with paper-writing at any stage of the process and with all levels of writing (from first-year students to professors). My experiences with them for my own papers have been very rewarding. They are particularly fond of and effective with rough drafts - and you will therefore be asked, for the satisfaction of your participation grade, **to make at least one appointment at the Writing Centre to review a draft of an essay.**

For MLA Documentation Reference and Writing Resources, your best friend and resource is: http://owl.english.purdue.edu. We will also talk about helpful reference managing software like Zotero and RefWorks with library staff at Hesburgh.

Disability Services

If you have a disability and need particular accommodations for the course, please contact Disability Services at http://disabilityservices.nd.edu. Once you have spoken with the Coordinator of Disability Services, please let me know what is needed and I will be more than happy to help.

Enjoy Fall Break!

Happy Thanksgiving!