Bachelor of Rhetoric at University of California, Berkeley

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Rhetoric majors are trained in the history of rhetorical theory and practice, grounded in argumentation and in the analysis of the symbolic and institutional dimensions of discourse. The department offers both a pragmatic understanding of the elements of rhetorical analysis, with special attention to logic, style, tropes, figures, and images, and a thorough grounding in the historical development of these elements in rhetorical theory. The combination allows students to make a disciplined grasp of the contemporary character of rhetoric and language. Through its emphasis on the history and theory of rhetoric, the department provides an understanding of the format of contemporary theories of interpretation as well as an opportunity, within this framework, to explore the role of persuasion in pragmatic and aesthetic contexts.

The major is not intended to provide skills-based training in oral argument or communication.

Major Concentrations

Students in the Rhetoric major choose one area of concentration: history and theory of rhetoric, public discourse, or narrative and image.

History and Theory of Rhetoric

This area of concentration focuses on understanding the development of rhetorical theory and practice from its genesis in the classical period to its situation in the present. Students will consider how the discipline of rhetoric has both shaped and itself been shaped by social, political, technological, and intellectual developments over the course of two millennia. Individual courses will enable close study of the process of rhetoric's influence and adaptation, both in theory and in practice, in specific contexts throughout its history.

Public Discourse

This area of concentration focuses on understanding rhetoric in its symbolic and institutional dimensions, with special emphasis on legal and political forums. Students consider the discourse of law, politics, and society both in theory and in practice, in an attempt to understand the rhetorical nature of political judgment, action, justice, and legitimacy. Individual courses will enable close study of specific problems, concerns, vocabularies, modes of interpretation, and strategies of argumentation arising in public forums of the past and present.

Narrative and Image

This area of concentration focuses on understanding the function of rhetoric in literary, cinematic, and visual texts, with emphasis on the role of figure and image in the representation of reality. Students consider the production and reception of narrative literature"oral, epic, folktale, lyric poem, novel, and film"in an attempt to understand the boundaries of the aesthetic text as a rhetorical analysis of particular literary and visual genres arising in a variety of cultures and historical epochs. 

Declaring the Major

The major may be declared after completion of RHETOR 10 or RHETOR 20 with a letter grade of C or better. Obtain a Petition to Declare the Major and the Rhetoric Major Application from the undergraduate assistant in 7406 Dwinelle Hall. The petition is also available from the College of Letters & Science in 206 Evans Hall. Students must present a copy of their transcript along with their petition and application to the undergraduate assistant for approval signature and a brief orientation.

Honors Program

Seniors must complete RHETOR 10, RHETOR 20, RHETOR 103A, and RHETOR 103B and maintain a minimum 3.7 grade-point average (GPA) in rhetoric and a 3.5 overall Berkeley GPA to undertake the two-semester honors thesis series, RHETOR H190A-RHETOR H190B. Students work under the supervision of a selected rhetoric faculty member. Four units of credit (2 units each semester) for the RHETOR H190A to RHETOR H190B sequence may be applied toward graduation as upper division units and fulfillment of one major upper division course. Honors candidates who complete the 4-unit course with a letter grade of A- or better and maintain the required GPAs will receive a BA with honors in the major.

Seniors eligible to enroll in the honors program must begin arrangements with the faculty member who is willing to direct their honors thesis in the semester before they enroll in RHETOR H190A. See the undergraduate assistant for honors information and an application. Warning: Graduating honors candidates who complete the major requirements but take an incomplete in the RHETOR H190A-RHETOR H190B series must drop themselves from the degree list or honors will not appear on their official transcripts or diplomas.

Minor Program

The goal of the minor program in rhetoric is to introduce students to the methodological procedures and interdisciplinary approach of a field that examines all disciplines from the outside and poses questions such as the following: how is philosophy (or law, politics, etc.) constituted as a field? What kinds of discourses are considered legitimate within this field? And what kinds of knowledge are produced and institutionalized as a result?

Students should declare at least one semester prior to graduation. For details on how to declare, please contact our department directly." The Minor Completion petition should be presented to the undergraduate adviser with a recent Bear Facts (available through summer 2016) or CalCentral (starting fall 2016) printout of the student's grades (unofficial transcript).

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Students learn about different kinds of representation (and critiques thereof), how different genres shape and offer material for interpretation, and how different media forms produce a sense of reality. They learn to reflect on how various modes of presentation work (film, literary and philosophical texts, legal cases, political tracts, performances, archival materials), what kinds of meanings they have, and what kinds of effects they produce. They consider works of both high and low culture and bring various kinds of approaches to both. As they advance, students compare and bring genres together for analysis, working for instance with legal trials in film, philosophical uses of literary works, oral interpretation of texts, the textual and archival basis for the transition from orality to literacy, the political presuppositions of law, the aesthetic dimensions of political theory, and the influence of law on non-legal rhetorical practice.

Learning Goals for the Major

1. Understand and make arguments
   • Acquire basic knowledge and vocabulary of formal argumentation and its relation to informal spoken and written arguments.
   • Analyze texts in terms of their arguments.
   • Use arguments in the major's own writing.
   • Develop more sophisticated knowledge of argument and apply it.
2. Interpret written and non-written texts
   • Recognize rhetorical figures and identify stylistic issues.
   • Relate textual interpretations to media (oral, print, and digital/visual).
   • Acquire an introduction to theories and methods of interpretation.
   • Progress to more advanced exposure to interpretation.
3. Display knowledge and articulate themes concerned with the history and theory of rhetoric
   • Read and understand ancient texts out of which rhetorical traditions come (to see how, for instance, the history of the notion of rhetoric and its opposition to philosophy from Plato on is implicated in our conversations about truth, sincerity, democracy, and ethics).
   • Read and understand texts about rhetoric between ancient and modern periods.
   • Read and understand texts that show how rhetoric is used or conceived in particular periods or cultures.
   • Read and understand texts important to contemporary theory.
   • Engage in rhetorical issues involving media, writing, reading, speech, and authorship.
4. Grasp specific forms of knowledge and their modes of reasoning
   • Engage critically in analysis and interpretation of such public discourses as law, politics, science, and religion.
   • Understand elements of narrative in novel and other fictive discourses.
   • Read visual and other productions that are beyond (or other than) the written word.
   • Recognize what is common and what is different in the self-conception of various discourses (e.g., literature, philosophy, law, and history).
5. Integrate the reading, writing, analytical, and critical skills and knowledges above
   • Carry out close readings with a consciousness of the relevance of context.
   • Specialize in a particular area or theme through the concentrations.
   • Understand, reflect on, and evaluate the ways in which persuasive forces (broadly understood) are at work in the contemporary world.