Visual and Verbal Rhetoric
PBDS 610

Fall 2004 Course Description
Analysis and evaluation of visual and verbal texts composed in a variety of media—both traditional and electronic—in the light of classical and contemporary theories of communication. Completion of a major project based on substantial primary and secondary research and tailored for a specific audience.

I. Introducing Rhetoric (2 weeks)
Time versus Newsweek: the Second Inauguration of Ronald Reagan
excerpts from Aristotle’s Rhetoric (Book I, Chapters 1-3)
Katherine McCoy, “Countering the Tradition of the Apolitical Designer” (LC)II, Complementary Texts (1 week)

Introduction, Rhetoric, pp. xiii-xx
Walker Evans and James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (WR 19-130)
W.J.T. Mitchell, “Spy and Counter-spy” (WR 338-350)III. Designers versus Writers/Readers (1 week)
Véronique Vienne, “Soup of the Day” (LC)
Kevin Fenton, “The New Typographer Muttering in Your Ear” (LC)
Paul Stiff, “Look at Me! Look at Me! (What Designers Want)” (LC)
Phillip C. Repp, “Reflecting on a Stone” (LC)
John Bielenberg, “Thinking About Communication” (LC) IV. The Language of Symbols (1 week)
excerpts from Suzanne Langer, Philosophy in a New Key
Steven Heller, “Hitler’s Children: Nazi Iconography in Contemporary Design” (LC)V. The Rhetoric of Images (2 weeks)
Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller, “Critical Way Finding” (LC)
Tibor Kalman, “Photography, Morality, and Benetton” (LC)
John Berger, “Appearances” (WR 173-205)
Marianne Hirsch, “Projected Memory” (WR 259-282)VI. Research Strategies for Writers and Designers (2 weeks)
presentation of proposals for project
Langsdale Library class
respecting copyright and acknowledging sourcesVIII. Words and Images in Motion (2 weeks)
Citizen KaneVII. The Rhetoric of the Web (1 week)
analysis of http://raven.ubalt.eduVIII. Presentation of Projects (2 weeks)

Texts:
Aristotle, Rhetoric (Modern Library College Edition)
David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky, Ways of Reading Words and Images
Michael Bierut and others, eds., Looking Closer 2
Suzanne Langer, Philosophy in a New Key
Orson Wells, Citizen Kane

Expectations and Assignments:
You are expected to attend class regularly and to arrive on time. (Of course, it’s better to come late than not at all.) If, for some reason, you have to be late or to miss class, please e-mail me an explanation.
For weeks 2 through 7, you must turn in a word-processed response to the assigned reading. (The response should be informal but well written and no less than 250 words.) Each response will be due when you arrive for class and should be e-mailed to me in advance if you are unable to attend. I will read the responses carefully and keep them in a folder. After the midpoint of the semester, I will return them to you, accompanied by a sheet with comments and a single grade. This grade will count 25% toward your final grade.
I would like for everyone to contribute to class discussion and will give a grade for participation, which will count 25% as well. Since I’m aware that some students are shy—as I myself was once upon a time—I promise that nobody will receive a participation grade of less that a C (75%), as long as he or she has attended class regularly and appears to be listening attentively.
For the remaining 50% of your grade, you will complete a major written project (approximately 2000 to 2500 words long) that requires substantial research. I will be suggesting topics, but you are free to come up with your own. You will be required to submit a written preliminary proposal for the project in the eighth week and must also tell the class about your idea so that we can all discuss it. At the end of the semester, each of you will present your project to the class orally (and quite possibly visually as well).
There’s lots of reading for us to do. Remember that I have to read just as much as you do.
Please go to astro.ubalt.edu and subscribe to this listserv for this class: Visual and Verbal Rhetoric PBDS 755.185.
Note: This syllabus is subject to change, with adequate notice. Additional readings may be required.Course Objectives:
By the end of the course, students should be able to identify and discuss strategies and techniques that writers and visual communicators use to create meaning; research a subject using primary and secondary sources efficiently and effectively;
discuss, analyze, and evaluate a subject in a way that reflects synthesis and insight as well as accumulation of information; write for a specific audience.

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