This article describes an assignment piloted in spring of 2008 called the Rhetorical Analysis Project, which required students to analyze three different texts addressing a common issue, compose an argument about the representation of that issue as illustrated by those texts, and revise that argument to match a rhetorical model they chose from…

Knowledge of classical rhetoric is still useful to writing teachers.

This paper demonstrates the compatability of Aristotle's Four Causes (material, formal, efficient, and final) and George Campbell's Four Forms of Discourse (description, narration, exposition, and argumentation) and synthesizes them to form an ordered yet flexible writing model that can be used in composition instruction. Within the context of…

In teaching the principles of rational discourse in advanced expository writing, it is necessary to clarify the similarities and differences between the logic and rhetoric of Aristotle and to identify a common ground between the two. The study of logic within rhetoric focuses on the inductive standards used to support two kinds of argument: the…

Argues that assignments to write about literature can help teach rhetoric" only if administered with emphasis on the special rhetorical problems they pose." (Author/RD)

Describes techniques for the analysis of the rhetoric of cereal boxes. (DD)

Analyzes the logical and stylistic flaws in George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s "Politics and the American Language," suggesting a new approach to the study of public language. (DD)

This study related selected principles of rhetorical analysis to teaching as it actually occurs in the classroom. The Aristotelian definition of rhetoric as the means of discovering all the available means of persuasion is central to teaching, in that the entire endeavor of education rests upon the premise that children, as they grow, need and…

Argues that English departments should be concerned with critical reading and writing of all kinds of texts. Suggests that the same kind of careful criticism used in the study of advertising should be used to evaluate literature, music, movies, and the other arts, with the immediate goal being a more self-conscious awareness of verbal and…

Argues that the use of evidentials illuminates differences between arguments written by experienced academic writers and those written by student writers. Reveals differences in the epistemological stance underlying both groups. Analyzes discursive examples by both groups. (HB)

Offers several reasons why English teachers should set aside the notion of literature and center teaching around the related but distinct notion of textuality. Discusses why the study of textuality should play a major role in a full curriculum aimed toward the development of alert, aware citizens. (JD)

Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" speech is presented in this paper and shown to be an effective vehicle for helping students discover the power of language and of literature. The paper first discusses the potentially destructive way English teachers sometimes tell students about "hidden meanings" in long and complex works…