Our class discussions continued to go well during Week 2, although I would like to hear more from a few of you. (If you’re sitting through an entire class in silence, I’m talking to you!) As I mentioned in class on Thursday, I’m going to keep pushing us back into the texts we’re discussing, so when you come to class next week, please be ready to point to a specific passage in each text that you would like to discuss in greater detail.

Here’s the lineup for next week:

• On Thursday (1/31), we will discuss “Rhetoric: Its Function and Its Scope,” by Donald C. Bryant [PNR 267–97]. Stephen will lead the discussion and Elisabeth and Katie will take notes.
• On Thursday (2/2), we will discuss “The New Rhetoric: A Theory of Practical Reasoning,” by Chaïm Perelman [PNR 145–77]. Chloe will lead the discussion and Rebecca will take notes. We will also discuss the parameters for your first short paper, which is due on February 14.

Finally, a couple of quick reminders:

• If you have taken notes for one of our class sessions, please remember to email me your notes within a couple of day after the class session so I can add them to our list of Class Notes. For details about what these notes should look like, please refer to the Assignments page.
• If you have not submitted at least one reading response, please make sure you respond to Tuesday’s reading assignment before you come to class. For those of you who have already written a reading response or two, I will be looking at them over the weekend. Again, if you have questions about the reading responses, please check the Assignments page.