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The Truthitician

Page history last edited by Jared 9 years, 8 months ago

Instructor: Dr. Jared Grogan 

Teacher Website 

Email:  jaredgrogan@wayne.edu 

Office: 10501 5057 Woodward 

Office Hours: Wednesday 10:00-1:30pm (and Monday or Friday by appointment)

 

Hi, 

 

Welcome to the Truthitician's roster page.  The truthitician is my "Wiki Handle" for our course. 

 

Currently, this is a space where you can get to know a little bit about me, where I can create a bit of an online persona, and where I can store my own drafts, notes or ideas for class.  (Was that just a comma splice?)

 

I'm very happy to start working with all of you this term...  I love teaching and I especially love teaching different writing intensive classes.

 

I chose the name 'truthitician' because I study and teach writing and rhetoric -- the latter term is of course one we often associate with bullshit or "empty speech".  Rhetoric can indeed be merely 'spin', but it is better understood as a history and theory of persuasion.  Rhetoric is really an ability to (1) analyze how persuasion works on people and (2) to be persuasive yourself.  It has been closely tied to the teaching of college writing for a very long time, and a part of classical education/training for a couple thousand years.  Today, since we live in an age where persuasiveness seems to shape much of who we are, how well we succeed (as individuals and as a culture), influence our economy, and even our natural environment, rhetoric seems more important than ever.  Rhetoric seems to be a great way into a better understanding of new media today, which is increasingly central to how we work, what we do, and who we are:

 

That said, knowing how to be rhetorically savvy and be persuasive is a lot of fun too, and most of the seriously fun/funny people I know are rhetorically savvy.  Colbert is my favorite example as a teacher, since most of his satire is built on making fun of political rhetoric and media rhetoric... while making interesting forms of persuasion of his own (with a team of writers of course).   

As a teacher, I work hard to keep everyone in play: to motivate, coach, support, and train you to engage intellectually with writing, research, and reflection practices that should enable you to take on College writing/research and any other personal or social pursuits enabled through writing and rhetoric.  

 

Here are a few more interests of mine (and some stuff you might find on my C.V.):

  • All things related to my field:
    • Composition (college/university writing)
    • and Rhetoric (classically defined as the production and interpretation of signs and the use of logical, ethical, and emotional appeals in deliberations about public action; rhetoric is both a theory and a practical art).  On the one hand, it analyzes and models discourse practices, on the other hand, it produces and seeks to improve these practices.)  
  • History and Philosophy (they were my double minor as an undergrad) 
  • Environmental rhetoric and the history of ecology (what I write about)
  • Figuring out what Sustainability might be...
  • Conspicuous consumption and Eco-thos (I'll explain if you ask).
  • The history of Science and Technology 
  • Cool Books about the Economy or Capitalism
  • Detroit
  • Food (the science of food...the politics of food...the production of food...the culture and consumption of food)
  • this: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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