English 505

In class on Tuesday we discussed Rug pgs. 21-32 in which Ramage compares rhetoric with the legal system. I had the class brainstorm about laws, listing on the board those which they felt were black and white and those which they felt were gray laws. It was an interesting discussion, and the students seemed to have some strong emotions and opinions concerning certain laws. In fact, one student stated that she felt every law was, in some way, a gray law, that--and thank you Socratic method--"circumstances alter cases." This was the main point I was trying to drive home with the discussion--not that we live in a relativistic society that holds to no system of ethics, but, that we live in a society in which rhetoric plays a crucial and foundational role. Also, I just finished grading first papers. The class average was a low C. I had only one A.