The course catalog description reads: "College Composition II emphasizes critical thinking, reading, and writing as they relate to research and argumentation. Evaluation of information as well as exercises in critical thinking and research design build upon skills achieved in College Composition I. A major activity involves writing and documenting a research paper." To achieve these goals the course will have a central theme: The Rhetoric of War.
We will analyze the rhetoric of war by looking at how people employ language to make arguments about why they fight, what they gain by it, and how they interpret past conflicts. By using a variety of sources-historical texts, government documents, news reports, web sites-we will look critically at not only depictions of atrocities, but at how war is presented, reported, interpreted, and dramatized. Our discussions will lead us to ask important questions about the rhetoric of war: Is declaring war ever justified? What exactly is ethnic cleansing? Who sets the line between a war crime and a "legitimate" act of war? 
How do the media and the Internet manipulate the way the general public perceives war? Is the United States really as altruistic as it imagines?
Although the course will involve a substantial reading component, our primary focus will be on your writing. You will write two short papers (4 - 6, 5 - 7 pages) and one extended research paper (11 - 15 pages). I'll expect you to hand in rough and final drafts of each short paper, and 3 rough drafts and a final draft of the research paper. You will also complete research process essays and peer responses. It's important for us to understand that we each have 
our own interpretation of current events, most likely because of our convictions about previous wars and their subsequent victories, defeats, and atrocities, and atrocious victories and defeats. Ultimately, this course will challenge us to rethink how we came to believe what we do, and how the rhetoric of what we see on TV and in the news shapes-and often distorts-our perceptions of war.
