Course Description:
Extending concepts and elements from interpersonal, group, professional, and mediated communication contexts, the course delves deeper into the history of rhetoric in public speaking to advocate change in social and community contexts, as well as in public policy. Using multimodal platforms (audio, visual, textual, and digital), and historical as well as current contexts and resources, students will build on their existing skills in public speaking to analyze different forms of persuasive rhetoric through interdisciplinary perspectives. They will also communicate assertively, persuasively, and ethically through goal-oriented responses to current local and global concerns to generate policy changes within diverse sociocultural and community settings. The course uses an experiential learning model where students develop and launch policy-change campaigns of their choosing as part of a course. The student campaigns seek to change a policy (i.e., a rule, law, regulation, norm, or practice of an institution) on campus or in the community.
Taught By:
Sherry Breshears
English and Cultural Studies
University of British Columbia - Okanagan