How could I adequately explain that rhetoric had not always been a synonym for public flummery and outright lying? That the modern university subjects had spun out of a rhetorical center not much more than one hundred years ago? That for two millennia rhetoric had been at the heart of Western education, had supplied its traditional unity, the lack of which we now so deplore? That it was rhetoric which, for most of Western history, had shaped the basic curriculum that taught people how to read, write, and think? . . . I have tried to follow the "rhetorization" of contemporary thought in its various strands. It is this "rhetorization" that electronic text expresses so much more adroitly and emphatically than print.

Richard Lanham, The Electronic Word

This course serves both as an introduction to rhetoric as well as an introduction to the ways computer technology has both changed and enabled rhetoric. On the one hand, computer technology has created new literacies, new forms of writing, new ways of thinking, and new ways of teaching. On the other, it has extended classical and modern rhetorical principles into a postmodern culture. Consequently, we will begin with histories of rhetoric, explore rhetoric in the context of technology, and then attempt to apply the knowledge of rhetoric and technology to the production of a hypertext project. The project is meant to function both as a way to invent new knowledge and research directions and as a way to explore and invent new rhetorics for technological contexts.

Beyond how computer technology changes the writing process, it has become a new "expressive medium" (Lanham), one that allows for a wider range of expression through the use of multimedia and thus pushes the boundaries of what is called writing. In addition to examining chatrooms (MOOs) and blogs as forums for new writing practices, the course will discuss hypertext as a genre that can encompass expository (informational), narrative (literary/fictive), and argumentative (rhetorical) modes, but more importnatly goes beyond them. These traditional genres are rarely (if ever) mutually exclusive, but hypertext makes that even more the case. As a more expressive medium, hypertext is blurring all these boundaries and producing new genres of writing.

To sum the course:

 Purpose: To introduce students to the field of Rhetoric and the sub-field of Computers and Writing—the issues, texts, and authors that have been and continue to be important.

 Goal: To provide students with the opportunity to pursue their specific interests—whether pedagogical, informational, or theoretical—in a way that connects their own projects to the issues and texts discussed.