Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Advanced seminar in a particular topic, approach, or author in the field of rhetoric and writing. The course may be repeated for credit if a different topic is taught. Students with credit for ENGL 475 may not take this course for further credit. Students who obtained credit for ENGL 475W prior to Summer 2015 may not take this course for further credit. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

The Art of Listening
Aristotle writes, “Something is persuasive because there is an audience whom it persuades.” This seems pretty obvious, not something we needed Aristotle to tell us. But the implications for the theory and practice of rhetoric—and for everyday communication—are significant: no matter how good I am (or think I am) at writing or speaking persuasively, it’s the reader or listener who decides in the end if I've been successful, and if they’ve been persuaded. If it were really up to me as the speaker, I could just say, “I hereby persuade you.” But I can’t. Instead I have to try, and I may or may not succeed. Though this course will focus mainly on the listener side of the speaker-listener relationship, the two roles are interdependent, and participants in discourse often take turns; the speaker needs the audience to pay attention—to listen—and the audience will want to feel as though the speaker has likewise listened to them when they were speaking.

Questions we will discuss include:

• What does the act of listening consist of beyond the simple “uptake” of understanding the speaker’s words?
• What does it mean to be a “good listener”—or for that matter, a bad listener? What are the ethical commitments in regard to listening?
• Under what conditions, or about what topics, are we unwilling to listen?
• To what extent do the ways and the ethics of listening apply to reading?

Against the common belief that persuasion involves trying to change someone else who is resisting it, persuasion is, ideally, collaborative: if they’re open to change and willing to listen, everyone participating in a rhetorical encounter may find their beliefs and opinions changed by the experience. If all goes well, something like that may happen in this course.

Course readings will include classical and contemporary writings in the field of rhetoric, as well as works from psychology and the philosophy of language.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

• A richer understanding of the act of communicating something important, the act of listening, and strategies for both
• Improved skills in academic writing and reading

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: