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Course Descriptions
Language Studies Courses
RHE 101 Public Speaking
This course covers the fundamentals of rhetoric composition and delivery. Students research, compose, and deliver informative and persuasive speeches, and they lead a small group of their peers in a deliberative discussion. In addition, students learn and employ introductory principles of reasoning, argumentation, and rhetorical criticism. Finally, they analyze the videotape recordings of their speeches and learn to use electronic media in public presentations. This course is offered each semester.
Prerequisites: None.
Credits: 1
RHE 143 Political Debate
This course applies the principles of debate theory and practice to argumentation in the political realm. Students will learn valid forms of reasoning and argumentation, common fallacies, argument analysis, clash, and rebuttal and how to apply this knowledge in the debate format. Students also participate in parliamentary debate as a mechanism for learning foundational skills in oral argumentation. Students then engage in political argumentation and advocacy in both written and oral form. A specific international, national, or local political issue is discussed and students conduct research on the issue and its history. This course is offered in the first half of fall semester.
Prerequisites: None.
Credits: 1/2
RHE 145 Legal Debate
This course applies the principles of debate theory and practice to argumentation in the legal realm. Students will learn valid forms of reasoning and argumentation, common fallacies, argument analysis, clash, and rebuttal and how to apply this knowledge in the debate format. Students also participate in parliamentary debate as a mechanism for learning foundational skills in oral argumentation. Students then engage in legal argumentation and advocacy in both written and oral form. These debates follow the parameters and conventions of Moot Court style appellate oral argumentation. When possible, students will attend a live oral argument by the Indiana Court of Appeals or another appellate court. This course is offered in the first half of spring semesters.
Prerequisites: None.
Credits: 1/2
RHE 190 Special Topics—Language Studies
A variety of courses dealing with specific issues or sub-areas in the discipline.
Prerequisites: Vary with topic.
Credits: 1
RHE 201 Reasoning and Advocacy
RHE 201 focuses on the process of constructing, analyzing, and evaluating public arguments. This is a foundational rhetoric course because it focuses on the development and application of knowledge in critical thinking, argument analysis, reasoning, and advocacy. It emphasizes the nature and role of communication in public discussions and decision making. The course highlights the adaptation of logic and reasoning to human action in a democratic society. The class examines public argument in a variety of forms such as political debates, speeches, and editorials. Judicial argument is examined in the form of Supreme Court decisions. Finally, social argument is examined through an investigation of selected examples from popular culture. The course serves the purpose of exposing non-majors to the fundamentals of rhetoric and communication. It also prepares Rhetoric majors and minors for more advanced courses such as Classical Rhetoric and Contemporary Rhetorical Theory and Criticism. This course is typically offered once a year.
Prerequisites: None.
Credits: 1
RHE 220 Persuasion
Students study the theory and practice of persuasion as part of decision making in a free society. The focus is on the individual’s role as both persuadee and persuader with an examination of how to be critical, observant, responsible and ethical with regard to persuasive messages. The course examines persuasive language, propaganda, persuasive campaigns, and social movements. Students critically examine a variety of persuasive texts and participate in a campaign simulation.
Prerequisites: None.
Credits: 1
RHE 290 Special Topics—Language Studies
A variety of courses dealing with specific issues or sub-areas in the discipline are taught in a seminar setting.
Prerequisites: Vary with topic.
Credits: 1
RHE 387 Independent Study—Language Studies
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and the department chair.
Credits: 1 or 1/2
RHE 390 Special Topics—Language Studies
A variety of courses dealing with specific issues or sub-areas in the discipline are taught in a seminar setting.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing.
Credits: 1
Literature/Fine Arts Courses
RHE 240 Communication Theory
This course pursues five related goals. First, it gives students the background necessary for further study of communication issues in a variety of contexts. The central communicative issues highlighted in RHE 240 include language, meaning, information, interaction, and influence. Second, this course gives students a grounding in the two dominant perspectives that inform communication research: the humanistic and social scientific research paradigms. Third, the course introduces students to the parameters and chief areas of concern in the field of communication and its relationship to other disciplines such as English, Psychology, and Political Science. Fourth, the course discusses the philosophical assumptions that serve as the foundations for theories and the ethical issues that arise in the process of such scholarly endeavor. Finally, this course focuses on application and develops student competencies in using theories to analyze communicative events.
Prerequisites: None.
Credits: 1
RHE 270 Special Topics—Literature/Fine Arts
A variety of courses dealing with specific issues or sub-areas in the discipline are taught in a seminar setting.
Prerequisites: Vary with topic.
Credits: 1
RHE 320 Classical Rhetoric (CLA 220)
This course focuses on the origin and development of rhetoric and rhetorical theory during the classical period. The course begins in the pre-disciplinary stage of rhetoric in Greece, examining works by Homer, Gorgias, and Isocrates. The course then considers Plato’s critique of rhetoric in Gorgias and Phaedrus and the disciplinizing efforts of Aristotle’s Rhetoric. The course next moves to Rome, examining the efforts of Cicero (On Invention, Orator, and On the Orator) and Quintilian (Institutes of Oratory) to reunite philosophy and rhetoric and include ethics within the realm of rhetoric. Finally, the course examines the functions of speech and language in China, studying works by Confucius and Mencius. Throughout the course, students learn how rhetorical theories are generated out of the specific needs of particular political and social contexts. In addition, students examine the theory and practice of rhetoric in particular, the role of speech in the ancient world, the relationship between rhetoric and philosophy, and the relationships between rhetoric, citizenship, and politics. This course is offered in the spring semester.
Prerequisites: None.
Credits: 1
RHE 350 Contemporary Rhetorical Theory and Criticism
Contemporary studies in rhetoric have broadened the conception of rhetoric beyond a narrow focus on public address to include the study of all symbols—verbal, audio, and visual—in diverse media. No longer simply interested in questions of persuasive effectiveness, contemporary rhetorical studies examine the role symbols can play in constructing or reflecting such elements as ideology, motive, and gender. This writing-intensive course highlights the growing complexity of the field by helping students to understand, use, and evaluate several of the most well-known theories and methods of rhetoric. In the process, students will learn how to interpret artifacts in several different ways and even to generate and apply their own rhetorical method. Consequently, the class is a methodological precursor to the senior project and should, ideally, be taken during the junior year. This course is offered in the fall semesters.
Prerequisites: None.
Credits: 1
RHE 360 Gender and Communication
As a culture, we often we take gender for granted. Yet, we live in a culture where men and women are molded and shaped by communicative practices and mass-mediated representations that generate our ideals of masculinity and femininity. This class examines this process—providing a platform for students to reflect upon gender formation and develop a theoretical vocabulary for describing this process. By the end of the semester, class participants will develop a more sophisticated understanding of the manner in which gendered messages and practices have shaped perceptions of their symbolic universe.
Prerequisites: None.
Credits: 1
RHE 370 Special Topics—Literature/Fine Arts
A variety of courses dealing with specific issues or sub-areas in the discipline are taught in a seminar setting.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.
Credits: 1
RHE 375 Legal Rhetoric
Legal Rhetoric examines the ways in which the legal sphere exerts social control and power through an exploration of the forms and function of rhetoric in shaping the law. Working from the belief that a legal ruling is the beginning, rather than the end, of the social life of the law, the course is also concerned with the social repercussions that result from Court decisions. Beginning with an examination of the classical connections between rhetorical theory and the practice of law, the course proceeds to discuss approximately a dozen significant Supreme Court cases and subsequent rhetorical analyses of these decisions. Students will develop an essay and presentation concerning the background and social importance of one of the cases under study. Additionally, students will engage in a semester-long project that culminates in an extensive rhetorical analysis on a case of their own choosing.
Prerequisites: None.
Credits: 1
RHE 388 Independent Study—Literature/Fine Arts
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and the department chair.
Credits: 1 or 1/2
Capstone Course
RHE 497 Senior Seminar
The Senior Seminar is a capstone course for rhetoric majors. Rhetoric majors conduct an original and extended research project in a sub-area of the field. In the process, they read and discuss relevant texts and journal articles as a class. The course covers procedures for conducting each of the components of the project (i.e., discovery and refinement of a research question, selection of appropriate materials for study, selection of an appropriate method, literature review of appropriate scholarship, the analysis itself, and the preparation of the manuscript). This course also provides senior majors a forum for the investigation and discussion of the ethical issues and responsibilities they have as communicators. This course is offered in the fall semester.
Prerequisites: Students are encouraged to take RHE 320 and 350 prior to taking 497.
Credits: 1