Many new rhetoric instructors find the idea of teaching writing skills to freshman students (in just 15 weeks) a bit daunting.  But the goal of the general education rhetoric classes is not to teach students how to write the next great American novel, but, more realistically, to learn to “advocate a position responsibly.” In other words, the goal – ultimately - is for students to learn how to put together a decent argument

In 10:001, 10:002 and 10:003 students should learn how to do two things:

The first is to recognize and be able to reproduce the the structure of an argument – the key rhetorical moves made in most academic writing, including sketching the context, staking a claim, providing evidence, dealing with counterclaims and objections and writing a conclusion.  Instructors work to familiarize students with the conventions of persuasive writing (and of most academic writing) and teach them how to use them in their own writing. This is the approach taken by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein in They Say/I Say: The Basic Moves of Argument, (see faculty book review) one of the recommended textbooks for 10:001, 10:002 and 10:003.

The second objective is for the students to learn to do a rhetorical analysis of a text.  This leads the students to a better understanding of the various ways in which the audience, occasion and purpose shape a writer’s approach to a text and of how he or she uses language and appeals to core beliefs and values in order to persuade his or her readers. However the students also have to master the rhetorical moves described above.  In other words, as they learn to analyze a text rhetorically, they must also learn to write a good thesis, use evidence to support their claim….etc..