Truthiness and Rhetoric

Advanced Rhetoric and Academic Writing WRIT 1622

SECTION 4 TR 2:00-3:50pm
WINTER 2019 Sturm Hall 333

Instructor Info:

LP Picard
Teaching Assistant Professor, University Writing Program

Office: AAC 380P

Office Hours: Thursdays 11am-1pm; Flex Hours posted weekly;
& gladly by appointment
Mailbox: AAC 282 (in the Writing Department, behind the Writing Center)
E-mail: [email protected]

“There is no truth. There is only perception.” — Gustave Flaubert

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Course Description:

Truthiness and Rhetoric. Coined by Stephen Colbert in 2005, “truthiness” refers to truth that
comes from the gut, rather than from reputable sources or proven facts. It captures the quality
of preferring concepts one wishes were true over concepts known to be true. Throughout our
10-week term, students will explore the truthiness that shapes our understanding of the world.
How is our view of “truth” determined by our news media, popular culture, civic discourse, etc.?
How do we develop, present, and encounter arguments in popular and academic settings? This
advanced section will emphasize thorough inquiry, rhetorical analysis, reflection, and genre
production. Students will determine the shape and direction of their writing by pursuing
questions related to their own interests.

Course Objectives (as defined by the University Writing Program):

Students will:
•   Demonstrate practical knowledge of the concept “rhetorical situation,” through the
abilities both to analyze and to write effectively in different kinds of situations.
•   Demonstrate proficiency with basic elements of rhetorical analysis (such as logos, ethos,
and pathos) in a range of texts, and the application of that facility in their own writing.
•   Demonstrate the ability to produce writing that effectively provides evidence and
reasoning for assertions, for audiences of educated readers.
•   Demonstrate the ability to incorporate and attribute or document source material in
rhetorically effective ways.
•   Demonstrate the ability to use feedback to revise their own writing and the ability to
provide useful feedback to others.
•   Demonstrate the ability to edit and proofread their writing.
•   Produce 20-25 polished pages across at least four writing projects.

LP’s Additional Course Objective:

What drives my teaching is the hope that:

•   Students will become more critical and socially aware readers of their world.
•   Through thorough inquiry, rhetorical analysis, and reflective writing, students will learn to
take ownership of their ideas.
•   Students will transition from simply capturing another author’s idea to confidently joining
rich academic and civic conversations.

A note on course content

Much of our course material is challenging and requires a great deal of maturity. The very
nature of truthiness is confrontational, and exploring it intellectually is, itself, subversive. So while
past students have acknowledged the challenging nature of course texts, they have also
identified this nature of the course as something they valued.

“All this happened, more or less.” — Kurt Vonnegut

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Required Materials:

Personal Computer (or any reasonable substitution)—for in-class activities

Writing Utensil(s)—for in-class activities
Assigned readings—please print assigned readings for class and annotate them with your
thoughts, comments, and reactions.
Canvas—our course’s homepage contains the following modules:
•   Course Readings & Texts: find assigned readings on the “Course Calendar” page; find
extra-credit opportunities on the “Of Interest” page
•   Projects & Process: find upcoming assignments and their prompts here
•   DQs: submit Discussion Questions here at least 30 minutes prior to class
•   Course Documents: contains our syllabus, homework calendar, and a link to my Office
Hours sign-up sheet
•   Handouts: displays recent handouts—the rest can be found on the “Files” tab
•   In-Class Activities
Technology Expectations: files should be submitted as .Doc or .Docx—the university provides all
students with free Office 365 (including Word). Please do not send Pages files or PDFs—I will not
be able to provide marginal comments on your work.

Grading:

Projects—250 points
Open Letter (WP #1) 30 points
Analysis 1 (WP #2) 25 points
Analysis 2 (WP #3) 25 points
Editorial (WP #4) 75 points
Genre Swap (WP #5) 60 points
Genaroo 20 points
Portfolio 15 points

Process—100 points
Drafts 25 points 5 drafts x 5 points each
Peer Feedback (PF) 25 points 2 PFs x 10 points each, 1 workshop x 5 points
Author’s Notes 20 points 2 notes x 10 points each
Conference 10 points 1 conference x 10 points
Pre-Writing 20 points 1 analysis x 10 points, 1 proposal x 10 points

Process—150 points
DQs 70 points 14 sets x 5 points each
Exercises 80 points 20 in-class exercises x 4 points each

Total: 500 points

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For final assessment:

A 470–500 points B 416–432 points C 366–382 points D 316–332 points

A- 450–469 points B- 400–415 points C- 350–365 points D- 300–315 points
B+ 433–449 points C+ 383–399 points D+ 333–349 points F <300 points

Percentage Breakdown: A 100%–94%, A- 93%–90%, B+ 89%–87%, B 86%–84%, B- 83%–80%, C+ 79%–

77%, C 76%–74%, C- 73%–70%, D+ 69%–67%, D 66%–64%, D- 63%–60%, F <60%

If you wish to discuss your grade or ask me how you are doing in class, speak to me during office
hours, not during or after class.

Course Components:

Projects—Writing Projects (WPs), Genaroo, & Portfolio

•   WP #1—Open Letter (3-5 pages)
o   Draft due Thursday January 17th; Revised WP #1 due Thursday January 24th
o   Worth 30 points
•   WP #2—Rhetorical Analysis 1: Single Artifact (3-5 pages)
o   Due Sunday February 3rd
o   Worth 25 points
•   WP #3—Rhetorical Analysis 2: Two Approaches to the Same Story (3-5 pages)
o   Due Sunday February 10th
o   Worth 25 points
•   WP #4—Feature-Style Editorial (5-7 pages)
o   Draft due Tuesday February 19th; Final WP #4 due Tuesday March 19th
o   Worth 75 points
•   WP #5—Genre Swap (of your Editorial)
o   Draft due Tuesday March 12th; Revised WP #5 due Tuesday March 19th
o   Worth 60 points
•   Genaroo Resource + Presentation (5-10 minutes)
o   Presentations begin Thursday February 28th
o   Worth 20 points
•   Portfolio—Final WP #4, WP #5, and their Author’s Notes
o   Due Tuesday March 19th
o   Submitting to Assess-it.du.edu worth 15 points

A note about our WPs

All of our Writing Projects are open-ended. You will be asked to accomplish a specific task within
a specified genre for each, but you will determine the subject and scope of your inquiry.

In the past, students have identified the open nature of our projects as one of the biggest
challenges of the course—this is worth noting as many of you may face writer’s block or doubt
the validity of your topic. I encourage you to embrace this challenge. Taking agency of your
projects will lead to greater investment in your work (something students have identified as a

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benefit of the open nature of these assignments) and greater confidence in your own abilities as
a knowledge-producer.

I am available to meet throughout the quarter and do reserve much time for one-on-one
appointments with students. Please use these to your advantage at any stage of the writing
process. If I were to estimate the use of conference time in past terms, 60% of conferences were
dedicated to invention, 30% devoted to drafting, and 10% spent discussion strategies for
revision.

A note on grading for the WPs

Many instructors use rubrics to assess academic writing—they make evaluating student work
efficient, consistent, and objective. Many students find rubrics helpful as they provide students
with a clear understanding of what is expected of a given assignment. Rubrics offer a
multidimensional framework for spelling out and valuing the criteria of “good writing”—e.g.,
“mechanics,” “source use,” “organization,” “thesis / main idea,” “evidence / development,” etc.

While there are many solid reasons to use rubrics, there are limitations to consider. Rubrics
ignore outside circumstances, effort or ambition displayed, and creativity. Rubrics value product
(the final paper) over process. Rubrics can encourage formulaic thinking and formulaic writing.

I’m sorry to say that you won’t see a rubric in our class. Please don’t mistake me—writing rubrics
are a sound pedagogical tool and are very helpful to both students and instructors.

But I want you to feel encouraged to take risks in your writing, to think outside the box. I want
you to value the process of meaning-making (and of intellectual inquiry) as much as you value
the artifact created through this process. I hope you will expand your understanding of what
makes “good writing.”

This quarter, “good writing” will be evaluated using five flexible criteria1:

•   How well it fits a given readership or audience;

•   How well it matches formal conventions expected by its audience (adherence to genre
and research traditions);
•   How well it achieves a given purpose;
•   How well it conforms to matters of fact and reasoning; and
•   How much ambition it displays.

These criteria do encourage and reward taking risks in your writing.

Each assignment prompt will include a rough translation of point values to letter grades.

                                                                                                               
1
Borrowed from Doug Hesse: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/02/grading-writing-the-art-and-
science-and-why-computers-cant-do-it/

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Process
•   Drafts—5 points each (25 total points)
o   Turning in complete, thoughtful drafts demonstrates investment in one’s work
and engagement in invention. Students without a draft will miss the opportunity
to receive valuable feedback. This course also emphasizes writing and composing
as ongoing, collaborative processes. Single drafts leave no room for growth.
o   Students who bring 3 printed copies of complete drafts to class will receive 5
points. Late or incomplete drafts will earn <5 points.

•   Peer Feedback (PF)—10 or 5 points each (25 total points)

o   As the abilities to both constructively give and receive feedback are crucial for
academic, professional, and personal success, the PFs you provide classmates for
WPs will be an important factor of your process grade. We will discuss models for
strong, constructive PF early in the term.
o   If students are absent on draft days, they cannot make up missing peer feedback.
However, if students know that they will miss class and e-mail me an electronic
copy of their draft before class, they can still participate.
o   For 10 points—Students who participate in peer feedback activities and fully
address the prompts will receive 8 points. Students who provide thorough,
thoughtful, and insightful feedback (i.e., go above and beyond standard
expectations) will receive 10 points. Students who provide incomplete feedback
or are late returning it to the author will earn <8 points.
o   For 5 points—Students who participate in peer feedback activities and fully
address the prompts will receive 4 points. Students who provide thorough,
thoughtful, and insightful feedback will receive 5 points. Students who provide
incomplete feedback or are late returning it to the author will earn <4 points.

•   Author’s Notes for your Editorial and Genre Swap—10 points each (20 total points)
o   An Author’s Note allows you to consider and reflect upon your WP. You will be
asked to examine, explain, and justify your approaches, rhetorical decisions, and
revision strategies in these notes. Students who fully address the prompts will
receive 8 points. Students who provide thorough, thoughtful, and insightful
reflection (i.e., go above and beyond standard expectations) will receive 10 points.
Students who do not address the prompts or include textual evidence will earn
<8 points.

•   Pre-Writing (Analysis for WP #4 & Proposal for WP #5)—10 points each (20 total points)
o   Students who fully address the prompts will receive 8 points. Students who
provide thorough, thoughtful, and insightful reflection (i.e., go above and beyond
standard expectations) will receive 10 points. Students who do not address the
prompts will earn <8 points.

•   Conference—10 points
Students are required to meet with me at least once during the quarter to discuss
their work. See “Course Policies” for more information.

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Engagement
•   Exercises—4 points each (80 total points)
o   At various times throughout the quarter, students will be asked to complete 20
exercises in class or for homework. These exercises include: annotating shared
texts, generating genre conventions of our assigned WPs, invention activities, and
analysis. Some of these exercises are group work; others are individual activities.
o   Students who complete the exercises with good-faith effort will receive 3 points.
Students (and groups) who get off-track or do not complete the exercises will
receive <3 points. Students who go above and beyond expectations will receive
>3 points.
o   These activities will be marked on the Course Calendar. If you are absent from
class, it is your responsibility to reach out to me to complete the exercise within
24 hours. Otherwise, you will not receive credit.

•   Discussion Question (DQ) Sets—5 points each (70 total points)

o   There are 14 Discussion Question sets due throughout the quarter.
o   Before every class period that a reading is assigned, please generate three
questions (per designation of “DQ Set” on the Homework Calendar) that can be
used to prompt a conversation regarding the material.
§   Questions should not be answerable with facts or with yes/no. We will
discuss model questions early in the term.
o   Submit to Canvas at least 30 minutes before class (1:30pm).
o   The use of DQs will vary each class period, and there may be times when we do
nothing with the DQs. But I find that students will engage more critically with the
readings through DQs than through in-class quizzes.
§   I don’t want to give you reading quizzes.

Extra Credit Opportunities

•   Writing for the Public—event details and date TBD
•   Submitting Photographs to Many Voices, One DU—students who submit 3-5 images
to [email protected] for consideration will receive 5 points.
•   Additional DQs—for texts appearing on the “Of Interest” page, e-mailed to me by
Tuesday March 19th. These DQs sets will be worth up to 3 points each, with the earning
potential of this opportunity capped at 15 points.
•   WRIT Large Submission
o   The journal, which showcases academic writing produced by University of Denver
undergraduates, welcomes not only essays and research papers but also scientific
and business reports, creative nonfiction, multimodal projects, and more. If your
work is accepted for publication, it will appear in the Spring 2020 issue.
o   Texts may be submitted electronically (by students or by instructors on behalf of
students) to the Editorial Board at [email protected]. Please limit each
submission to 20 double-spaced pages or fewer.
o   If you send a submission by March 19th @ 6pm, you will receive 5 points.
•   Other opportunities may arise throughout the quarter.

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Course Policies:

Active Participation & Engagement

•   Class discussion will be an integral part of your learning and participation is vital to
success in this course. We will be reading a number of challenging texts and frequently it
will be up to you to discover your own answers to the questions raised. I encourage you
to share your thoughts and ideas, because this course also emphasizes developing your
voice and creativity.

Students are expected to be present and engaged during class. This means:
•   Personal Computers are to be used strictly for class work. If we are not using them for
an exercise, they should not be open.
•   Cellular Phones are to be turned off during class.

Students are expected to participate in all in-class exercises and activities. This means:
•   Participate in class discussions.
•   Be a productive member of all group activities.
•   Be focused during class.
•   Come to class prepared, having done the reading, writing, and other homework.

Students are expected to help preserve an atmosphere of tolerance and civility during discussions.
•   As some of these texts deal with sensitive issues, an atmosphere of tolerance and tact is
crucial for classroom discussions. This does not prevent you from disagreeing with your
peers, but instead holds you accountable for a respectful and productive dialogue. It is
the students’ responsibility to remain self-aware, regardless of the positions they take.
o   This means you should not…
§   Cut off a classmate who is in the middle of speaking.
§   Resort to insults, accusations, or the Straw Man or Ad Hominem logical
fallacies.
§   Use hurtful or hateful language
o   Instead, do your best to be an attentive and receptive audience to your peers’
ideas, opinions, experiences, etc.

Attendance
•   Regular attendance and participation are crucial to success in this course. It is very hard
to do well unless you are present and ready to participate in discussions, exercises, and
workshops. Given the short length of the quarter, missing two class sessions means
missing 10% of our time together.
•   Class begins at 2:00pm sharp. Tardiness and unexcused absences will lower your grade.
Students with more than two unexcused absences should expect to see a significant
reduction in their overall grade (20-point reduction per additional unexcused absence).
In the event of excessive absences (more than 20% of class meetings), students should
talk to me about options moving forward.
o   Student who miss more than six classes will not pass the course.

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•   If you know you will miss an upcoming meeting, it is your responsibility to notify me in
advance (though notification does not necessarily mean excusal).
•   Religious holidays, ongoing medical situations, and other extenuating circumstances will
be considered as excused with proper documentation.

Conferences & Office Hours

•   Students are required to set up at least one Office Hours appointment with me to
discuss your work in this class, though are welcome to schedule more.
o   Use this conference wisely—they are a chance for me to get to know you and
your work. Historically, students who have taken full advantage of office hours do
better on projects and better overall in the class.
•   Our appointment is a time set aside to speak specifically about your work, so please
don’t hesitate to ask any questions or voice any concerns. Students should feel free to
meet with me at any stage of the process.
o   Please note: I resist proof editing during office hours. That is not an effective use
of our time. There are many resources available to students for that kind of
sentence-level editing, including a trusted/diligent friend.
o   Our conferences are better suited for big-picture concerns: brainstorming,
invention, arrangement, style, revision, etc.
•   Please do not think that office hours are reserved for our major writing projects. Use this
time to discuss other matters related to this class, the Writing Program sequence, the
Writing Minor, etc.
•   Stop by during my office hours, e-mail me, or schedule an appointment (on the “Winter
2019 Office Hours” Google Drive document that is available on Canvas).
o   Feel free to drop by office hours for both required or informal conferences, but
scheduling an appointment on the Google Doc ensures that we have time set
aside specifically for you.

Communication and Netiquette

•   Before e-mailing me a question, please consult the Syllabus.

•   I repeat: please consult the Syllabus. Most informal questions can be answered by
returning to this painstakingly detailed document…
•   You are welcome to e-mail me with questions throughout the quarter and I will return
them at my earliest convenience. In general, expect e-mails sent to me before 5pm on
weekdays and Sundays to receive a same-day response, and expect e-mails sent to me
after 6pm on weekdays to receive a response the following day.
•   I would be happy to provide feedback on drafts, but not via e-mail. Questions about your
work-in-progress should be reserved for in-person meetings. Questions about formal
features of the project (e.g., how it should be turned in) or desire for homework
clarification are fine for e-mail.
•   The instructor-student correspondence is a professional one and I expect emails to
reflect that.

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Turning in Your Work

•   Though precise instructions will be available on our course calendar, please anticipate
that:
o   You will print multiple copies of your WP drafts, and
o   You will upload WP revisions to Canvas by the start of our class period on the day
the assignment is due.
•   When submitting WPs, please include your name, the project, and title in the file name.
example: “LP Picard WP #1—Open Letter to the TL;DR Mentality”

Late Assignments
•   WPs, DQs, drafts, and other homework assignments can be turned in late but will see a
reduction in grade. We’re all humans, we forget sometimes. If work is turned in late more
than a few times, however, I will stop accepting it.

WRIT 1622 Portfolio

•   Here is the official language that you will receive from the Assistant Director of the
Writing Program:
o   “The Writing Program assesses WRIT 1622 by reading student work at the end of
the course. To help this effort and to demonstrate your writing accomplishments,
you will create an electronic portfolio that contains the assignments you complete
during the quarter and an introductory/reflective note from the author.”
•   Our portfolio will contain your final WP # 4, revised WP #5, and Author’s Notes.
Directions for submitting this portfolio will be made available later in the quarter.
o   Worth 15 points

Academic Misconduct
•   The Writing Program (where I am housed) follows the Council of Writing Program
Administrators policy “Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism,” which states, “In an
instructional setting, plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s
language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without
acknowledging its source” (http://wpacouncil.org/node/9). DU’s Honor Code also
maintains that all members of the University must responsibly use the work of others.
Self-plagiarism (submitting a project created for one class in another without explicit
approval) is another serious example of academic misconduct. Students who have
plagiarized a project will receive an F on that project, and the instructor will inform the
Office of Community and Citizenship Standards, which may take further action. Any
documented acts of plagiarism after the first may be subject to more severe actions.
•   Plagiarism generally takes different forms:
o   Fraud: borrowing, purchasing, downloading, or otherwise obtaining work
composed by someone else and submitting it under one’s own name.
o   Insufficient citation: writing one’s own paper but including passages copied from
the work of another (regardless of whether that work is published or unpublished
or whether it comes from a printed or electronic source) without providing
appropriate citation.

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o   Patchwriting: Writing passages that are not copied exactly but that have
nevertheless been borrowed from another source, with some changes, by
paraphrasing another writer too closely, whether or not the source is cited
properly.

Resources:

University Writing Center

•   The Writing Center supports and promotes effective student writing across the University
of Denver campus. In a non-evaluative collaborative setting, we help DU students with all
kinds of writing projects: class assignments, personal writing, professional writing, and
multimedia projects. We serve any student affiliated with the University and invite
students in all classes, at all levels of writing ability, and at any stage of the writing
process to visit us.
•   Any DU student, faculty, or staff may make an appointment for a consultation by calling
us at 303.871.7456. Students may also make appointments by going to PioneerWeb,
clicking on “Student and Financial Aid,” and then selecting “Writing Center.” We will see
writers on a walk-in basis if a consultant is available.
•   The Writing Center is located in the Anderson Academic Commons.

ADA Statement
•   Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a
disability protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of
the Rehabilitation Act should contact me privately to discuss your specific needs. Please
contact the Disability Services Program located on the 4th floor of Ruffatto Hall; 1999 E.
Evans Ave., to coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented
disabilities. 303.871.2278 / 303.871.7432 / 303.871.2455. Information is also available on
line at http://www.du.edu/disability/dsp; see the Handbook for Students with Disabilities.

Religious Accommodations
•   DU students are granted excused absences from class if needed for observance of
religious holy days but should contact instructors to make alternate arrangements during
the first week of class. Visit DU's religious accommodations policy for information and
a list of religious holidays.
•   http://www.du.edu/studentlife/religiouslife/about-us/policy.html

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