Oakland University

College of Arts and Sciences

Department of Writing and Rhetoric
Fall 2011

WRT 360: Global Rhetorics, 4 credits
Partially Online
Dr. Dana Driscoll
Office: 309 ODowd Hall
Phone: 248-370-2742
Office Hrs: Mondays 1:30pm 2:30pm;
Wednesdays 8am 9am
Email: driscoll@oakland.edu

Why Global Rhetoric?
The need for multicultural perspectives in politics, everyday life, business,
professional writing, communication, and education has never been greater. An
understanding of global rhetorics is increasingly important within educational contexts as
we are seeing rising numbers of international students and 2nd language learners
entering primary, secondary, and higher education contexts. An understanding of
different cultural expectations is also crucial for individuals entering the workforce in 21st
century America.
Global Rhetorics examines historical and contemporary rhetoric of non-Western
cultures from around the world. In the first half of the course, we will trace the history of
rhetoric in a variety of contexts including evolutionary rhetorics, Native American
rhetorics, and Rhetoric in China, India, Africa, and the Middle East. Building upon in the
historical foundations in the first part of the course, the second half of the course will
consider contemporary rhetorical strategies and communicative contexts worldwide. In
the course we will examine a variety of contexts in international business, politics, and
education worldwide.
The course draws upon the fields of rhetoric, contrastive rhetoric, ESL/TESOL,
composition, professional communication, business communication, international
studies, and linguistics to present an interdisciplinary perspective to students. Class
activities will include: guest speakers from different cultures; a wide variety of student-
centered activities and projects; an examination of Global Rhetoric at work in various
films, books, and multimedia sources; and examination of current events and rhetorical
techniques as they unfold in the news.

Course (Catalog) Description: Traces the contemporary and historical uses of rhetoric
and written communication in non-Western cultures. Examines contemporary rhetorical
contexts worldwide, including in education, professional writing, and political discourse.
Prerequisite: completion of the university writing foundation requirement.
This class satisfies the General Education Requirement in Global Perspectives
and Writing Intensive.

Writing and Rhetoric Majors: WRT 360 can counts as an elective for Writing for the
Professions or Writing as a Discipline tracks.
Course Prerequisites: Completion of Writing Proficiency Requirement. Recommended:
A grade of 3.0 or better in WRT 160 or its equivalent.

General Education Learning Outcomes:

Global Perspectives
The student will demonstrate:
Students will gain knowledge of how different cultures communicate, persuade,
and engage in other forms of discourse from across the globe, with a special
emphasis on cross-cultural interaction.
Students will demonstrate knowledge of how cultural heritages, languages,
education systems, and values contribute to the means of persuasion that that a
society accepts and finds appropriate. Well examine rhetorical communication
in politics, business, and educational contexts and compare and contrast them
worldwide.
Students will be able to articulate differences between various cultures (including
western and non-western cultures) and develop a deeper understanding of
issues of politics, education, and business communication worldwide.

WRT360 Course Objectives
Students will be able to:
Analyze the evolutionary and cultural foundations of rhetoric across cultures
Compare and describe rhetorics from ancient cultures worldwide
Compare and describe rhetorics from contemporary cultures worldwide
Identify and explain issues related to global perspectives on the politics of
language, rhetoric, and culture
Identify and explain issues related to language, rhetoric and international
business communication
Explain and address issues relating to global rhetoric in educational contexts
Identify and address future challenges in global rhetoric

Cross-Cutting Capacities (General Education)
Effective Communication, Critical Thinking, Social Awareness, & Information Literacy.

Course Texts:
Kennedy, George A. Comparative Rhetoric: An Historical and Cross-Cultural
Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. 1998.

Additional Readings in PDF on Moodle (see schedule for complete list).


Course Policies:

Late Work
Late work is not accepted. If you are going to be absent on a day that a project is due,
please arrange to turn it in early. In extreme cases such as hospitalization or death in
the family, students may request an extension to their project due date to avoid late
work.

Attendance and Punctuality. All WRT classes adhere to the OU Excused Absence
Policy for OU events and activities. For absences not covered by the university policy,
students in writing and rhetoric courses are allowed a certain number of absences
without penalty: 3 for MWF classes, 2 for TR classes, or 1 for evening classes. This
includes absences due to illness, car trouble, or schedule conflict. Participation in online
activities counts as class attendance. For each absence beyond those allowed, the
student's final course grade will be lowered by 0.1 points on the 4.0 scale for MWF
classes, .15 for TTh classes, or .3 for evening and Saturday classes. Students who miss
more than three combined weeks of class are not eligible to receive a grade above 0.0.
If you are late to class or leave early, it counts as half an absence.

Academic Conduct Policy: Cheating on examinations, plagiarism, falsifying
reports/records, and unauthorized collaboration, access, or modifying of computer
programs are considered serious breaches of academic conduct. The Oakland
University policy on academic conduct will be strictly followed with no exceptions. See
catalog under Academic Policies and Procedures. Plagiarism includes copying and
pasting information from web sites without quoting the material, even if occasional words
are changed. Plagiarized papers or homework assignments will receive an automatic 0.0
and the student may receive a 0.0 for the course.

Appropriate Use of Sources: This is a 300-level, writing intensive course. As such,
students are expected to abide by rules for academic integrity and citing sources
properly (using APA format). Students are expected to use appropriate citation and
acknowledgement of sources in all coursework including homework assignments, forum
posts, and writing projects.

Special Needs Statement
I and the university will make every effort to accommodate special needs students.
Students with disabilities are strongly encouraged to register with OUs Disability
Support Services (DSS). If you require special accommodations and are registered with
DSS, please see me privately for accommodations

Add/Drops: The University add/drop policy will be explicitly followed. It is the students
responsibility to be aware of the University deadline dates for dropping the course.

Email Communications: I expect email communications to me to be professional and
clear. In the last few years, I have found that my students have abused being able to
send files though email. As such, I no longer accept files through email. You can submit
them online via Moodle or turn them in hardcopy to me.


Projects and Grading:

Course Grade Breakdown (500 points)
Mid-Term Synthesis - 10% (50 points)
Final Synthesis 15% (75 points)
Research-based Project 30% (150 points)
Festival of Writers 5% (25 points)
Student-led Discussion Activity 5% (25 points)
Participation, homework, and in-class activities 35% (average of all points)

Mid-Term & Final Course Synthesis: Students will be asked to write a synthesis at
midterm and at the end of the semester on the course content where they are asked to
apply knowledge from the course to a series of questions. Students will have one week
to write each synthesis.

Research Project and Project Proposal: Students will identify a topic of interest
related to the course content and propose a final project. Final projects may include any
of the following: a formal research paper on a topic related to global rhetoric; a body of
documents created to address the needs of a non-Western student or audience (lesson
plans, writing guides, professional documentation, etc); a profile or rhetorical analysis of
a non-western communication context; an article for publication in a reasonable journal.
Multimedia projects are acceptable. Project length for research papers should be 2500
words, unless journal requirements are different. Multimedia project lengths and scopes
will be negotiated with the instructor. All final projects should be in APA format (unless
you are submitting to a journal and the journal requires MLA). All final projects must be
approved by the instructor.

Student-Lead Discussion Activity: Each student will be asked to lead our class
discussion on a particular reading or topic. By the end of week two, students will sign up
for a topic listed on the course schedule and each student will be responsible for leading
our class discussion on the topic and assigned readings. Towards this end, students
must prepare a 2 page handout that includes a summary of the reading(s) for that day
and a list of at least 3 discussion questions. These discussion questions will be used as
a springboard for our class discussion of the material; the summary will be useful for
your reference during the mid-term and final synthesis activities. Students are graded
on the following: quality of handout, quality of questions, and ability to interact with other
students. Students must abide by appropriate APA citation style and in-text citation
guidelines for their handouts.



Extra Credit Opportunities (3):
1) Students can choose to submit to present their work at any professional conference,
including the Meeting of the Minds, which takes place in May (10 extra credit points)
2) Students can choose to refine and submit their course project for publication (10 extra
credit points).

Grading Scale for Assigning Course Grades
Percentage Point Grade
Approximate Letter
Grade
95% or higher 4.0 A
94% 3.9 A
93% 3.8 A
92% 3.7 A
91% 3.6 A
90% 3.6 A
89% 3.5 B
88% 3.4 B
87% 3.4 B
86% 3.3 B
85% 3.3 B
84% 3.2 B
83% 3.2 B
82% 3.1 B
81% 3.1 B
80% 3.0 B
79% 2.9 C
78% 2.8 C
77% 2.7 C
76% 2.6 C
75% 2.5 C
74% 2.4 C
73% 2.3 C
72% 2.2 C
71% 2.1 C
70% 2.0 C
69% 1.9 D
68% 1.8 D
67% 1.7 D
66% 1.6 D
65% 1.5 D
64% 1.4 D
63% 1.3 D
62% 1.2 D
61% 1.1 D
60% 1.0 D
59% 0.0 F