Essay One Assignment

Your first essay begins with two speeches: one from an ancient rhetor (Greek or Roman) and one by you--an Imitatio of the ancient rhetor's speech. Ultimately, you'll write an essay that reflects on what you learned from studying the ancient speech and from working up your imitatio.

Step One
First, this week, find a short speech or excerpt of a speech (not more than two pages, if possible) by a pre-Dark Ages rhetor (anyone from the Sophists through Augustine and Boethius) and become very familiar with that speech. The speech can be from literature (In Homer's Iliad, for example, the envoys plead with Achilles) or from actual rhetors such as Pericles, Socrates, Xenophon, Gorgias, Cicero, Isocrates, or any of the rhetors listed in ARCS or RT. You may need to look ahead in your texts a bit in order to finish this step, which involves performing a close reading of the speech you choose. Really get inside it. Understand it as if you wrote it yourself. Pay special attention to the rhetorical devices the speaker uses, from the global (logos, pathos, ethos, arrangement, style, delivery, etc.) to the local (figures of speech, rhetorical tropes, etc). You can find a good summary of the local features on the Web at Rhetorica.net. For an edgier version, try Homer Simpson's rhetorical tropes. At any rate, analyze the heck out of it. Really take it apart in order to understand how it works. Research the speech and the rhetor to find out as much as possible about the occasion, the rhetor's purpose, the overall context.

Step Two
Develop your own short speech as an imitatio of the ancient rhetor. Pick a contemporary topic that is consistent with the ancient speech. If it focused on values, then choose a modern issue that centers on values. If it is a speech of praise or blame (epideictic), then choose something or someone to praise. Et Cetera. Develop your speech using the same appeals, schema, arrangement, delivery, style, etc, as the original. You will deliver this speech in class, so pay attention to sound as well as sense. Speeches will be delivered in class on Tues, Sept. 27 or Tues, Sept 29. The text of your speech should be no more than two pages; at two minutes per page, the speech will take no more than four minutes. You will perform the speech, not read it. So learn it well. Practice your delivery so that you exploit all the nuances you have built into it.

Step Three
Write a reflection (about three pages) about steps one and two. Discuss the challenges you faced in analyzing the original and in developing your imitation. Tell us about what you discovered in the experience of Step Two, in particular about what you learned about ancient rhetoric and about to what extent the ways of ancient rhetors translate into modern times. Step Three is due in class, in draft, on Tuesday, Oct 4. On that day, we'll do a peer review. The revised essay is due Tuesday, Oct 11. Hand in a paper version to me, and post your final version on your blog. The final version should include a copy of the ancient speech, along with the text of your imitatio and your reflection (the latter two should total about five pages).

Basically, the goals here are to learn about ancient rhetoric by doing it and to share what you've learned with the rest of us. I expect we'll find out a great deal about the effectiveness and the limitations of the ancient rhetors. And I hope you'll find the process interesting and fun.

Enjoy!

Welcome to English 360, Fall 2011

Hello and welcome, English 360 students! We have a TON of reading to do this semester, and each of you will construct a blog that will serve as your learning journal for all that reading. It also serves as a space where YOU can influence the agenda for class discussion.

Before each class meeting, you will--of course!--complete the reading assignment, and you will make a blog entry, in your own blog, that responds to the readings. Entries should be approximately a page long, and they should respond analytically to the readings for the upcoming class session. For example, you might post your own insight into a reading by Plato; you might post about a connection between the reading and present-day events or media; you might compare one reading to another; you might try one of the progymnasmata in ARCS--really, the possibilities are endless.

Then, after class, you will return to your blog and write a briefer response to your own posting and to at least one other classmate's entry for that day. Over the semester, this informal writing will provide a record of your intellectual progress. Doing it will also improve your grade, directly and indirectly. Directly, because NOT doing these entries will lower your grade; indirectly, because this time processing the material will help you learn the material and will enhance your ability to communicate your knowledge.

So. Here's what you do.

Step One
If you don't already have a blog(s), come to www.blogger.com, create an account for yourself, and create a blog. If you have trouble with this, ask a classmate or come see me.
If you already have a blog on a different host, just create a new blog for this class, or come to blogger and create one.
In either case, be sure that your name (or your pseudonym, if you have a problem using your name) is included in the blog name. You might also include engl360 in the name, just to keep things straight.

Step Two
Come back here and "follow" this blog, making sure that when people click on your "follow" icon, they can see the link to your own 360 blog. That way we can all see each other's thinking.

Step Three
Start reading and blogging!

Enjoy!