Classical Tools for Modern Writing: Writing Intensive (summer, full credit)

SUMMER 2025 Instructor:  James Goode Dates: June 16 - August 7 Mtg. Days: M,T,W,TH (4 days/wk) Mtg. Time (Pacific time zone:  11:00-11:50 AM Credits: 1 (elective) Enrollment will be limited to 12 students Class Description:  Has your teacher ever told you your writing needs work? Did you have no idea what he meant—and no idea how to start fixing it even if you did? Then this course is for you. It turns out that humans have been sharpening their communication skills for a long time. Men like Plato, Aristotle, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Tacitus, John Calvin, John Milton, and many others learned to craft their words in an ancient but ever-refined process. They called it rhetoric, but don’t let the name scare you. It is merely the art of putting words together in a pleasing (and precise) way. This course will teach you some of that art, by working through varied cumulative exercises until a full-length persuasive paper is produced at the end. Since this is a school class, it will mostly