1. Kirk Rose Democratic Deliberation 12/11/13
When I first heard the word rhetoric I had no idea what it meant. During the course of
this semester I have learned the meaning of rhetoric and the ways it can be used. Rhetoric is a big
part of everyday life, and can be used in many different ways. The class I designed is going to
explore the basic meaning of rhetoric as well the role it plays in everyday life. During the course
of my class students will be given lectures on specific topics that relate to rhetoric and how it
plays a part in democratic citizenship. They will also be doing multiple debates on national or
world topics of their own choosing. The final thing they will have to do in the class is write a
final research paper that asks them to explore past politicians that have used rhetoric in a way to
manipulate the citizens into thinking what they are saying is the right thing. By the end of this
course the student should be able to engage in debate about world or national topics and be able
to find facts and important information on their topics. Also they should be able to understand
that rhetoric can be used for manipulative purposes. Finally I want them to be able to take into
consideration the view of their peers because in a successful democracy everyone’s voice is
important. I feel that teaching students the power of rhetoric and how it can be used for
manipulation will help them develop their own views and beliefs while being able to stay open
minded to other ideas and beliefs.
In my class we first are going to start off with a lecture on what rhetoric is and how it is
used. I picked out a course reading that basically introduces what rhetoric is and what it’s used
for. Rhetoric is the capacity to be able to entertain multiple sides of an issue. David Foster
Wallace states this beautifully in his commencement address to Kenyon College, titled “This is
Water” when he says, “blind certainty, a close-mindedness that amounts to an imprisonment so
total that the prisoner doesn't even know he's locked up”. Here he is saying we need to stay open-

2. minded and need to be able to take into account what other people have to say, and not thinking
everything we think is right. I feel this is a very important part to having a successful democracy.
Without the ability to entertain different sides of an issue we would just sit and argue with people
that didn’t share the same views, because we would always think what we believe is right and
don’t take into consideration what other people believe. Rhetoric is not only about being able to
persuade people, it is also about listen to others point of views to grow your understanding of the
world. To go along with this lecture I decided to have in class response essays that relate to the
specific readings the students are to do at home before they come to class. I wanted to have the in
class essay because I feel most of your learning goes on in the classroom and I would like to be
able to go around the class and see what they are thinking about when writing their essays. For
this portion of the class there will be five readings and five response essays. I didn’t want to over
whelm the students with a lot of reading and essays because we have bigger and more important
projects to focus on later in the semester that I feel develop students into better democratic
citizens. In these five readings students will learn general information about rhetoric as well as
other things. For instance I chose for them to read an article that has to do with the power
manipulation play when using rhetoric. Another article I want them to read is on the “Q
question”, which asks if learning rhetoric conduces more to virtue or to vice. I felt these are some
important aspects of rhetoric and by reading these will give the class a better understanding of
just what rhetoric is and the powers it can potentially have.
The five readings and response essays I decided to make a total of 100 points. I did this
to not make the weight of these essays so much on the final grade. The essays are mainly to
make sure students come to class those days, because if you aren’t there you can’t do them late,
and to make sure they are doing the readings. On my class schedule I have my lectures on both

3. days we meet in class just because I’m going to give the class about forty minutes at the start of
class to write their response essays. I feel that being able to read something and then being able
to share your view points on it gets you to take into account what other people are saying to help
develop your own views into stronger views on the topic. This allows people to work together
better, and come to more compromises rather than arguing saying your views are better. If our
government could do that now we would be in a lot better place.
When it comes to building your rhetorical skills I feel higher education plays a big role in
doing that. In his article Task of Higher Education Stanley Fish states “equip those same students
with the analytical skills-of argument, statistical modeling, laboratory procedure—that will
enable them to move confidently within those traditions and to engage in independent research
after a course is over”(pg.13). Here he is saying that it’s not the role of the institution to teach
students what they should believe, but to give them the skills to go out on their own and do
researcher to build their own beliefs. Building your own beliefs is something America was
founded on. The immigrants came here because they didn’t want to follow the rules of their old
country, and to start forming a new life and need views to build a new culture. An assignment I
have that kind of goes along with that idea is having the students engage in three debates on
national or global topic of their interest. In that they will have to decide which side of the topic or
problem they want to argue for. Doing research on topics that affect the world get student to see
things from others perspectives. Being better informed on things that are going on around the US
or the world I feel helps us make better democratic decisions. It also helps grow our knowledge
of different cultures, and the views and beliefs they live their everyday lives by. What I mean is
that knowing what is going on around us allows people to make decisions and actively
participate in democracy. In his article "Democracy is not what we have. Democracy is what we

4. DO" Tom Atlee states “without the active participation of citizens, the unprecedented challenges
of the 21st Century cannot be met…..Today's problems cannot be solved without the
involvement of the people most directly affected”(pg.1). This right here shows that having
citizens actively participate in democratic practices is the only way we can solve the problems
we have going on in the nation. Without having people being more informed and people not
participating in democracy we can never change and make our country better. If we don’t use our
rhetorical skills to debate and hear other perspectives we are never going to grow as a nation and
make it better for future generations.
Two of the biggest assignments are going to be the debates we have in the class. The
main point of the debates is to get students to research topics of their interest, to help them be
better informed about the topic, and to share their views on either being for or against their
specific topic. Being better informed and expressing your opinion goes a long way to you
making better democratic decisions. I feel like doing debates helps gets students involved in
arguing for a cause rather than just arguing for no reason. In his article Kennedy states,
“instructional strategies such as debate are better suited to the development of students’ higher-
order thinking skills than are traditional instructional strategies such as lecture” (pg. 226).
Another assignment I have that piggy backs off the debates are, for the student to write a brief
reflection on the debates. This calls for the students to actively listen to what their peers are
talking about and I want them to write about three or four ideas or views that they had not yet
considered and to explain why they chose those ideas. By using the rhetorical skills they will
have learned how to use by now, will force them to think about what the person is saying and
could also help them adjust or strengthen their side of the debate. I wanted to add this assignment
because it gets the students to be open to what their other classmates have to say. They don’t

5. need to adopt these ideas or views from their classmates, I just want them to be open to both side
of the issues and understand that for a successful democracy that everyone needs to be heard and
have their views respected.
The final portion of my class is to write a research paper on past politician national or
world that have used rhetorical manipulation to exploit their citizens. When I came up with this
assignment the first person that popped into my head was Adolf Hitler. He used his skills of
rhetoric to convince the people of Germany that the Jews and a few other groups of people were
bad and needed to be wiped of the face of this earth. In his article “The ‘Q’ Question” Richard
Lanham says “…there are two kinds of rhetoric, good and bad. The good kind is used in good
causes, the bad kind in bad cause. Our kind is the good kind; the bad is used by our opponents”
(pg.155). The problem with this statement he made is that good and bad are not fixed entities in
the world. Good and bad are something that we as a society, or on a smaller level, what you
make it to be. With the Hitler example in his mind he truly felt that the Jews were bad people and
killing them off was a good idea. Just because what you think is right, does not mean everyone
else in the world is going to feel the same. Rhetoric teaches us that it’s ok for people to have
different points of view, but the one that can dissect the argument the best will usually get more
people to follow them.
This goes deeper into whether learning rhetoric can lead you to be a more virtuous
person. This research assignment will allow the students to dive deep into the world of rhetorical
manipulation. They are going to have to use their rhetorical skills to decide whether or not what
they are trying to argue for is going to make them a more virtuous person. A virtuous person is
someone who has high moral standards, and has used rhetoric to see different points of view to
develop their own views of the world. When it comes to politicians they are always trying to

6. manipulate us into believing what they say is true. In their article The Use of Language in
Political Rhetoric: Linguistic Manipulation Dr. Gunta Rozina and Dr. Indra Karapetjana state
“language plays a significant ideological role because it is an instrument by means of which the
manipulative intents of politicians become apparent” (pg.113). Here I believe they are trying to
say that learning the powers of rhetoric can help us realize when politicians are using their words
to manipulate us into doing or acting the way they say to. This is why I chose this assignment for
the final because I want to instill in the class that rhetoric can be used to manipulate people if
they don’t have a full understanding of rhetoric. Teaching students the power of rhetoric and the
manipulative properties it can have I feel will allow students to make better decisions for
themselves. Not only will it allow them to do that but having a good understanding of rhetoric
allows you to see multiple sides of the spectrum which I believe helps us develop into a better
democratic society.
This class I developed is to help students have a better understanding of rhetoric as well
as prepare them to be better democratic citizen. With that in mind I specifically want students to
be able to do a few things after they complete this class. I would like them to be able to research
and debate with classmates on national or global topic that interest them and to pick a side and
argue for or against it. I feel this is important because to be a true contributor to democratic
practice you need to know at least some information on topics that are affecting us. Another skill
I would like them to gain is the knowledge that rhetoric has manipulative properties and if you
don’t know how to guard against them you can be manipulated into doing anything. The final
thing I would like for students to get out of my class is that rhetoric means you can entertain
multiple sides of an issue. I don’t necessarily want them to adopt their classmate’s ideas but I
want them to be open to different ideas and if they happen to like them by all means adopt them

7. into what you believe. Making sure everyone has a voice and isn’t shot down for their ideas is a
very important aspect in having a successful democracy. So I feel that if we teach students these
skills I have laid out we can start to develop into a democratic society where we all work
together to achieve a common goal.

8. References
1) Atlee, Tom. ""Democracy is not what we have. Democracy is what we DO."
Thinkpeace. vii. (1992): n. page. Print.
2) Fish, Stanley. “The Task of Higher Education.” Save the World on Your Own Time.
NY: Oxford University Press, 2008. pp. 10–17.
3) Kennedy, R. R. (2009). The power of in-class debates. Active Learning In Higher
Education, 10(3), 225-236
4) Lanham, Richard. “The ‘Q’ Question.” The Electronic Word: Democracy,
Technology, and the Arts. IL: University of Chicago Press, 1993. pp. 155–159.
5) Rozina, Gunta, and Indra Karapetjana. "The Use of Language in Political Rhetoric:
Linguistic Manipulation." SDÜ Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi.
(2009): 111-122. Print.
6) Wallace, David Foster. “This is Water.” Kenyon College Commencement Speech,
2005. Audio recording. 22 min.