1. Richard Ward: Teaching Philosophy
richardw@mtu.edu | 717-873-7243 | richardsprofessionalportfolio.wordpress.com
When conducting my class I find inspiration in a quote by Benjamin Franklin that goes, “Either
write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” In fact, I include that very quote
within my own syllabus in the hopes that it touches my students as it has me. It sums up my
pedagogy quite nicely. I explain to my students that this quote is encouraging them to reach
beyond simply writing to fulfill an assignment and strive to move their audience. The latter
portion of that quote, I tell them, can be interpreted as the creation of multimodal works that
don’t often rely heavily on alphabetic text to function as a rhetorical piece, multimodal works
that function as well-developed arguments that might inspire others to write. Composers of
media can create and influence others through the use of assorted modes of communication, and,
while certain students may not be experts in writing in the traditional sense, they may find
strengths in communication elsewhere they had never known before.
In teaching, I feel that it is extremely vital to impart upon students the importance of analyzing
many different rhetorical situations, and, therefore, I foster a classroom environment focused on
a concept of Writing about Writing. I propel my class using three different modes:
textual/contextual analysis, civic engagement, and technology. There is a strong focus during in-
class exercises and homework assignments on analyzing documents both textually through
Aristotelian appeals and contextually via purpose, audience, context, and text. For example, I
have had my students examine historical documents originating in tumultuous times from United
States history such as the American Civil War, Women’s Suffrage, and the Civil Rights
Movement. It is by reviewing these kinds of materials that students may observe the rhetorical
appeals as praxis and see through contextual analysis how a work can inspire a desired change
or, perhaps, even have unintended consequences. I instruct my students to consider inspiring
change as they decide on their own topics for assignments and exploit a strong application of the
rhetorical appeals. I ask them to weigh the purpose and audience of their desired work and to
format their argument accordingly. By teaching in this way and promoting collaboration and in-
class participation, I feel that I’m invoking my students’ sense of agency while also putting in
place a kind of checks and balances, that a certain autonomy can push them to speak their mind
but the views of others can help drive them past biased feelings that can often be very self-
defeating. It is no surprise that by semester’s end the personal views of my students tend to
become evolved or may even change altogether.
During the semester, I provide a balance of participation in class discussion, activities, and
individual work via essays, presentations, and multimodal projects, all in an effort to teach
independent, critical thinking and to show how vastly their peer’s opinion for a subject might
differ from their own. When students complete certain assignments, such as an in-class
multimodal assignment where I have them read an article and design a poster to represent the
argument effectively, I have those students present their finished work to the rest of the class so
that we all might contrast what the author intended with how it was actually received—a vital
lesson in how audience consideration can impact interpretation. Also during the semester, as a
way to further explore rhetoric, I instruct my students to first read a document that helped to
inspire change such as “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or to

2. deeply observe an early 19th
century propaganda poster for Women’s Suffrage and ask them in
an essay to contextually analyze the work and to discuss its effectiveness (or lack of
effectiveness) with the three major rhetorical appeals, ethos, pathos, and logos. Afterwards, I sit
with the class, and we point to specific examples, further discussing the topics outlined for the
essay in an effort that students might be led to find new connections they might have missed.
As one of the last assignments in my class, I prefer to use a multimodal assignment. By breaking
students into groups, this project fosters teamwork and communication through collaboration.
While I give them freedom to choose their topics, I provide examples of hermit crab essays to
express the malleable nature of the assignment. An example from one of my student groups, was
an essay on the ethical use of drones framed three-dimensionally in Google Earth software where
each click spins the reader around the globe to land on an important location and the relevant
portion of the essay in a text box. The choices my students make, as in this example, gives them
worthwhile experience in civic engagement by targeting hot-button issues and reinforces the
significance of rhetorical relationships and expression across a technological platform. The
multimodal project is typically met with the most enthusiasm in class, possibly because they
didn’t realize composition could function in such a way, but more likely because they are
stepping outside of a structured, traditional essay that lets them flaunt their knowledge of
technology that is so entrenched within much of their generation.
By fostering the ideals of agency in their opinion and topic selection, audience consideration,
argumentation and design, critical thinking, peer feedback, and analyzing the rhetorical situation,
I feel as though students leave my class confident that they didn’t just have to complete a course
that was mandatory, that Rhetoric and Composition was not simply some box on a form to be
checked off on their way to attaining their degree. My students move on with a real sense of
accomplishment, that they will carry the things they learned over into their prospective career or,
better still, into their community as a whole. It is my hope that they go into the future feeling as
though they have done some good, that their voice was heard, that they moved others in their
class so that they might nurture that experience as productive members of society. My students
leave confident that they have the power to translate the rhetoric of the world, protect themselves
from it, and inspire others for the better, just as Cicero intended.