Rhetoric I

Full-year course.  The first year of a three-year high school sequence. Introduction to the techniques of persuasive writing. The initial focus is on sentence and paragraph construction; students then move on to the progymnasmata exercises (narrative, description, fable, proverb, anecdote, refutation/confirmation, commonplace, praise and blame, comparison, speech-in-character) to teach thesis establishment, development, and support; the year concludes with the construction of a persuasive piece following the pattern established by Aristotle in Rhetoric. Click here for an explanation of our writing and grammar curriculum, and sample course sequences.

Prerequisite: Preparation for Rhetoric Writing, or, at least two years completed study in Expository Writing, using Writing With Skill, the Institute for Excellence in Writing, Classical Composition, or a comparable program. For help in placement, see our writing assessment, which will be evaluated by Academy writing instructors.

Grammar Preparation: Below is a list of core grammatical skills a student should have upon entering Rhetoric I, as well as corresponding lessons in Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind, so that students may brush up on their skills prior to entering the course. 

Students entering Rhetoric I should be able to

• • identify the parts of speech and understand their usages (noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection)
    • Week 1: Introduction to Nouns and Adjectives, All Lessons
    • Week 2: Introduction to Personal Pronouns and Verbs, All Lessons
    • Week 7: Compounds and Conjunctions, Lesson 26
    • Week 8: Introduction to Objects, Lesson 30
    • Week 9: Adverbs, All Lessons
    • Week 24: Floating Elements, Lesson 93
  • compose complete sentences and identify sentence fragments and run-on sentences
    • Week 20: Constructing Sentences, All Lessons
  • identify and proficiently use grammatical phrases (verb phrase, prepositional phrase, participle phrases, appositive phrases, and infinitive phrases)
    • Week 5: More About Verbs, Lesson 17
    • Week 11: More About Prepositions, All Lessons
    • Week 16: Imposters, Lesson 64
    • Week 24: Floating Elements, Lesson 94
  • identify and correct misplaced, dangling, and squinting modifiers
    • Week 11: More About Prepositions, Lesson 43
    • Week 26: More Modifiers, Lesson 103 
  • understand how and when to use commas
    • Week 26: More Modifiers, Lesson 101
    • Week 33: Mechanics, Lesson 122

We have found that students who struggle with the above concepts and who do not work to address these gaps in their knowledge find our rhetoric-stage writing classes to be significantly more difficult. If your student needs more practice, we recommend signing them up for a Grammar course. Start by looking at the description for Grammar II and taking the Grammar II placement test. Grammar tutoring is also available.