"Becoming rhetorical" is a transformation that allows students to identify rhetorical problems and respond to them with arguments, no matter the course or context from which the problems emerge. In BECOMING RHETORICAL, author Jodie Nicotra takes students beyond the view of the rhetorical situation as being composed of communicator, audience, and message, encouraging them also to consider important aspects such as exigence, purpose, and the means of communication. Students learn to analyze and compose in textual, visual, and multimodalities -- from essays to web pages to videos -- and become confident critical thinkers in a 21st century multimedia world. Videos in MindTap® reinforce concepts (Tiny Lectures), practices (How To’s), and processes (Student Makers) in the main text. Fifty additional videos -- paired with auto-graded quizzes and tutorials -- address important aspects of the research process.

Part 1: WHAT "BECOMING RHETORICAL" MEANS.
Introduction. What It Means to Become Rhetorical.
What Is Rhetorical Training? MindTap® Tiny Lecture Video 1: Rhetoric Is a Muscle. Why Rhetorical Analysis Is Important. Why Rhetorical Production Is Important. What It Really Means to Become Rhetorical: Transfer of Skills.
1. The Basic Rhetorical Situation.
The Communicator(s): How Do They Convince Us of Their Relevance? Message: What Is the Communication About? Audience: Who Is the Communication For? MindTap® How to Video 1: Analyzing Audiences. For Reflection: Transferable Skills and Concepts.
2. The Expanded Rhetorical Situation.
Exigence: What Invites You to Communicate? MindTap® Tiny Lecture Video 2: What Is Exigence? Purpose: What Does This Communication Want? Modality, The Means of Communication (Modality, Medium, Genre, Circulation): How Does Communication Physically Happen? MindTap® Tiny Lecture Video 3: Thinking About the Means of Communication.
Assignment: Compare Compositions That Have Similar Purposes but Different Formats. For Reflection: Transferable Skills and Concepts.
Part 2: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS.
3. Analyzing Textual Rhetoric.
Thinking Rhetorical About Reading Texts. Writing Summaries. Researching the Rhetorical Situation of a Text. Doing a Rhetorical Analysis of a Written Text. For Reflection: Transferable Skills and Concepts.
4. Analyzing Visual Rhetoric.
Thinking Rhetorically about Stand-Alone Images. Thinking Rhetorically about the Placement, Circulation, and Distribution of Images. The Rhetorical Work of Images in Texts. For Reflection: Transferable Skills and Concepts.
5. Analyzing Multimodal Rhetoric.
Thinking Rhetorically About How Modalities Interact. Applying Multimodal Analysis to Video. Applying Multimodal Analysis to Websites and Apps. For Reflection: Transferable Skills and Concepts.
Part 3: RHETORICAL PRODUCTION.
6. The Invitation to Rhetoric: Defining Rhetorical Problems.
Event-Based Problems. Everyday Problems. Tasks for Defining a Rhetorical Problem. Articulating Rhetorical Problems through Writing: The Rhetorical Problem Statement. Addressing a Rhetorical Problem: Public Awareness Campaigns. For Reflection: Transferable Skills and Concepts.
7. Responding to Rhetorical Problems with Arguments.
Arguments as Inquiry, Not Fights. Inhabiting an Idea: Arguments as Response. Written Arguments. Visual Arguments. Multimodal Arguments. For Reflection: Transferable Skills and Concepts.
8. Explaining Concepts, Events, and Ideas.
The Booming Business of Explanations. Explaining as a Rhetorical Activity. The Elements of Explanations. Assignments: Composing Explanations. For Reflection: Transferable Skills and Concepts.
9. Defining.
Definitions within Communities. Making Arguments of Definition. Formulating Definition Arguments. Assignments: Composing Definitions. For Reflection: Transferable Skills and Concepts.
10. Evaluating.
Everyday Evaluations. Establishing and Ranking Criteria: The Heart of an Evaluation. Using Evidence in Evaluation Arguments to Draw Conclusions. Evaluating Consumer Products. Composing Multimodal Consumer Reviews. Evaluating a Person''s Accomplishments. Evaluating Policies. For Reflection: Transferable Skills and Concepts.
11. Proposing.
The Gold Standard of Persuasion: Action. Components of Proposal Arguments. Persuasively Describing a Problem or Need. Making a Compelling Proposal Claim. Providing Support for Your Proposal. Acknowledging Potential Problems with Your Proposal. Showing That Your Proposal Will Fix the Problem. For Reflection: Transferable Skills and Concepts.
Part 4: TOOLS FOR COMPOSING.
12. Research: Composing with Multiple Sources.
The Recursive Steps of the Research Process. Incorporating Sources into Your Compositions. For Reflection: Transferable Skills and Concepts.
13. Creating Written Compositions.
Embracing the Messiness of the Writing Process. Writing in Academic Genres. Writing for Civic Participation.
14. Creating Visual Compositions.
When to Use Visual Compositions for Rhetorical Purposes. Good Visual Design: Basic Building Blocks. How-Tos: Tutorials for Specific Visual Compositions. For Reflection: Transferable Skills and Concepts.
15. Creating Multimodal Compositions.
How to Create Videos. How to Create Podcasts. How to Create Websites. For Reflection: Transferable Skills and Concepts.

"Becoming rhetorical" is a transformation that allows students to identify rhetorical problems and respond to them with arguments, no matter the course or context from which the problems emerge. In BECOMING RHETORICAL, author Jodie Nicotra takes students beyond the view of the rhetorical situation as being composed of communicator, audience, and message, encouraging them also to consider important aspects such as exigence, purpose, and the means of communication. Students learn to analyze and compose in textual, visual, and multimodalities -- from essays to web pages to videos -- and become confident critical thinkers in a 21st century multimedia world. Videos in MindTap® reinforce concepts (Tiny Lectures), practices (How To’s), and processes (Student Makers) in the main text. Fifty additional videos -- paired with auto-graded quizzes and tutorials -- address important aspects of the research process. The text includes diverse assignments in multiple modalities. These include multimodal invention techniques such as mapping an issue using images (Chapter 4) and analyzing a video by storyboarding (Chapter 5), as well as assignments that ask students to analyze and compose in different modalities. For example, assignments require students to analyze op-ed pieces in Chapter 3, write a comparative ad analysis in Chapter 4, score a written piece in Chapter 5, compose an academic response essay in Chapter 7, and create a video review of a consumer product in Chapter 10. A flexible organization allows for courses that focus on particular modalities or that treat analysis and production in separate parts of the course (or over two courses). To organize the course by modality, Chapters 3 and 13 can be paired in a focus on textual analysis and production, Chapters 4 and 14 treat rhetorical analysis and production of visuals, and Chapters 5 and 15 examine analysis and production of multimodal texts. Alternatively, instructors can use the chapters of Part 2 to enable students to practice analysis in a variety of modalities, and those in Part 4 to compose. Two assignments (separately or together) could form the trajectory of an entire course. One in Chapter 3 asks students to imagine they are part of an opposition research team for a political candidate, analyzing how the opposition is talking about a certain issue and evaluating the weaknesses in their communication. The other, in Chapter 6, invites students to create a public awareness campaign that can include a campaign brief, a campaign kit, and a variety of compositions like fact sheets, press releases, posters, brochures, social media campaigns, and public service announcements. A diverse selection of readings, many of them within activities, address contemporary issues such as voluntourism, binge drinking, healthy weight loss, women's registration for the draft, social media shaming, fake news, definitions of marriage, student loan debt, and other issues. A complete list of readings by modality follows the table of contents in the print text and is in the Resources for Instructors folder in MindTap®. Annotated readings provide a window into the rhetorical choices composers make. Annotated samples of rhetorical analyses of textual and multimodal works, summaries, writing that defines a rhetorical problem, academic response essays, and other genres help students become aware of the many decisions a composer makes to respond to the rhetorical situation. Students get ample practice and advice on applying rhetorical concepts. "How to" directions guide students in the steps or tasks involved in specific analysis or composing processes. "Questions to Ask" help students investigate rhetorical situations, problems, and issues. "For Discussion" and "For Homework" questions ask for individual, group, and whole-class responses to ideas and, sometimes, to readings. "Assignments" ask for major compositions in a variety of modalities and genres. Hundreds of clear, engaging examples demonstrate rhetorical concepts in action. Based on the responses of more than 100 students who class-tested portions of the text, examples are set off with tags so they are easy to find and distinguish from concepts. The ability to transfer knowledge out of this course and into other areas of their lives is a key component to students becoming rhetorical. Each chapter ends with a "For Reflection" activity that helps students understand how the chapter concepts can be applied to their other courses, at work, and in the world. The video program for the book emphasizes rhetorical concepts and composing processes: "Tiny Lectures" are live-action videos in which author Jodie Nicotra explains a major concept; "How To's" are animated examples of important processes students need to master. "Student Makers," filmed by students, show students engaged in multimodal composing processes. The video program is available in MindTap® English for Nicotra's Becoming Rhetorical.