Welcome

The twentieth-century rhetorician Kenneth Burke once wrote that people “build their cultures by huddling together, nervously loquacious, at the edge of an abyss”; and he defined rhetoric as “the use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols.” These statements are modern renditions of ideas that have reverberated through the history of rhetoric for more than 2500 years. Human beings are “political animals” by nature (Aristotle), and are uniquely endowed with a capacity to form complex, flourishing societies through the agency of persuasive speech and writing (Isocrates). Without the ability rhetorically to reach agreements, induce cooperation, and form institutions — when rhetoric fails — societies descend into Burke’s “abyss,” a chaos of dysfunctionality, random violence, coercion, and oppression.

Another idea that reverberates through the history of rhetoric is that, in complex societies whose functioning and flourishing depend on effective written and spoken (and these days digital and visual) communication, those who are most skilled in rhetoric have a distinct competitive advantage. Rhetoric is how you get your concerns (or your group’s concerns) addressed, or overcome injustice. Rhetoric is how the individual speaks to power. Rhetoric is also how the individual “gets ahead,” speaks with power, or exercises leadership. It is no accident that all of the USA’s best presidents have been remarkably good at rhetoric.

The Department of Rhetoric & Writing views rhetoric as both a humanistic discipline and a practical art and skill. We seek to prepare students to meet effectively the many communication tasks that will be required of them in the 21st century, and also to be good critics and judges of the various forms of persuasion and argument that bombard us all every day. Thus our faculty and instructors promote effective writing and critical reading skills among all undergraduates at the University of Texas at Austin. We are responsible for RHE 306, the required first-year course in writing and argumentation, and we have designed an array of lower- and upper-division courses (which meet the university’s Writing Flag requirement) to help undergraduates hone their writing skills and develop their rhetorical understanding of traditional and emerging genres of communication.

What’s more, we offer an undergraduate major in Rhetoric & Writing to meet the interests of student writers who wish to perform superbly in public and professional forums, and to develop a sophisticated grasp of rhetoric as a humanistic discipline — its history, its theory, and its practical uses in the analysis and study of “symbolic action” in human culture, in all its forms.

Finally, we offer one of the nation’s oldest and most distinguished programs of graduate study in Rhetoric, administered through (and in conjunction with) the Department of English. Our faculty and graduate students maintain active, productive, cutting-edge research in a variety of fields — including rhetorical theory, the history of rhetoric, rhetorical-cultural studies, literacy studies, writing studies, rhetorical pedagogy, digital rhetorics, and visual rhetoric — and our teaching draws upon a continually growing knowledge base and discussion of best practices in the discipline.

Our doors are open — come study with us!

— Jeffrey Walker