Earn a Minor in Rhetoric
The General Education course Rhetoric (RHET:1030) helps develop basic skills in the effective use of language by having students engage with important social controversies and by asking them to analyze and describe the various perspectives on these controversies as well as to craft and advocate their own positions (Description, Analysis, Advocacy).
The Minor in Rhetoric and Persuasion educates students in the responsible, credible, and effective methods to empower them to take active leadership roles in engaging social issues in personal, professional, and communal settings. Conceived for students entering any discipline, field, or career, the vision behind the minor is to provide students with a way of looking at the world as a place open to change and receptive to influence. The minor also develops undergraduates’ skills in a way that helps them to look at themselves as agents capable of improving the world and their place in it.
Our minor aims to professionalize students—whether in their capacity as individual citizens, members of the community, or leaders in the workplace—by guiding them to understand audiences and situations, to use language responsibly and strategically, and to develop the integrity and authority of their own voice.
What is Rhetoric?
Rhetoric is not just empty words or fine political speeches. Rhetoric is the study and art of writing and speaking well, being persuasive, and knowing how to compose successful writing and presentations.
Rhetoric teaches us the essential skills of advanced learning and higher education. In rhetoric classes, students learn to think logically, discover wrong or weak arguments, build a good case on a controversial topic, and overcome the all-too-common fear of speaking in public so that they can deliver crisp and well-prepared speeches.
Rhetoric is a fundamental building block of good education, whether it is followed by studies of engineering, English, or entomology. Clear thinking, good argument, and logical discussion are essential to academic student success in any discipline and field. The better the essays you write, the better your grade. The stronger the presentations you make, the greater your academic success. The more you understand how to criticize and analyze what you read and study in music, mathematics, or modern languages, the stronger your education.
Rhetoric today
The field of rhetoric examines how and why certain messages, images, or modes of communication (what we call "rhetoric") moves audiences. Why, for example, does a song become a hit at a particular moment in history? Or why does one presidential candidate's speech send ripples through the nation while another's falls flat? Or why does an image—like the face of Che Guevara—circulate across publics and take on various meanings, like freedom, revolution, or radical chic?
Rhetoric has been described as the "art of moving souls" and this is as true today as when Aristotle first said it 2,500 years ago. The more difficult question is, What is not rhetorical? Even objects that seem to be outside of humanity's desire to communicate—like trees or mountains or the arrangement of chairs in a classroom—are all sites to which humans give meaning. The study of rhetoric is designed to empower us to decode the messages around us so that we may more critically examine our place in the world and in relation to others. What this means in the twenty-first century is critically analyzing all kinds of messages that are flying at us each moment.
This has been called an "information era," even a time of "information overload." We are saturated with images and messages demanding our attention and often our complicity or cooperation. Have you ever thought of texting, tweeting, or Facebook as rhetorical? Consider the intensity with which we craft messages about ourselves, others, and the world in a continual fashion through these technologies. So rhetoric in the twenty-first century shapes our daily lives and our most intimate ties, as well as relations of power: gender politics, racial identities and antiracist struggles, globalization, and decolonial struggles. From the most immediate to the global, rhetoric is actively shaping our experience and the world in which we live. Our task is to learn to decode and strategically intervene in these processes—through writing, speech, digital culture, film, fashion, or other daily practices through which we create meaning.
Rhetoric is not just ancient history
Here are some great examples of modern rhetoric and persuasion at work:
Requirements for the minor
The undergraduate minor in rhetoric and persuasion requires a minimum of 15 semester hours, including 12 semester hours earned in courses taken at the University of Iowa and at least 12 semester hours earned in Department of Rhetoric courses. Students must maintain a grade-point average (GPA) of at least 2.00 in all courses for the minor and in all UI courses for the minor. Course work in the minor may not be taken pass/nonpass.
The minor educates students in responsible, credible, and effective methods to take active leadership roles in engaging social issues in personal, professional, and communal settings. The program empowers students to look at the world as a place open to change and receptive to influence and to view themselves as agents capable of improving the world and their place in it. The minor aims to professionalize students—whether in their capacity as individual citizens, members of the community, or leaders in the workplace—by guiding them to understand audiences and situations, to use language responsibly and strategically, and to develop the integrity and authority of their own voice.
The minor in rhetoric and persuasion requires the following course work.
A maximum of five of these courses may count toward the minor
| Course Number | Course Name | Semester Hours |
|---|---|---|
| RHET:2055 | Persuasion and Advocacy | 3 |
| RHET:2065 | Persuading Different Audiences: Launching a Successful Career | 3 |
| RHET:2070 | Persuasive Stories | 3 |
| RHET:2085 | Speaking Skills | 3 |
| RHET:2090 | Conversation Practicum | 3 |
| RHET: 2135 | Rhetorics of Diversity and Inclusion | 3 |
| RHET: 2350 | Forensic Rhetoric | 3 |
| RHET: 3350 | Gaming (the) Systems | 3 |
| RHET: 3700 | Advocacy and Sustainability | 3 |
A maximum of one of these courses may count toward the minor
| Course Number | Course Name | Semester Hours |
|---|---|---|
| RHET:2000/ARTS:2000/ASP:2000/EDTL:2000 | Big Ideas: Creativity for a Lifetime (when taught by a rhetoric instructor) | 3 |
| RHET:2610/THTR:2610 | Acting for Success | 3 |
| BUS:3000 | Business Communication and Protocol | 3 |
| CLSA:3742/WRIT:3742 | Word Power: Building English Vocabulary | 3 |
| COMM:1816 | Business and Professional Communication | 3 |
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