Welcome

Instructor Contact:

Instructor	Kathleen Bell
Office	CNH 417a
Office Hours	Campus: Monday and Wednesday 12-1; 2:30 - 3:30; Online: Continuous; I check email twice daily on weekdays and once daily on weekends
Phone	Campus: 407-823-2286 Home: 321-868-0463
E-mail	kbell@mail.ucf.edu Do not use course mail to contact me

In this course we will study how rhetorical choices construct a perception of gender in discourse, how that construct of gender differs with respect to context and medium of expression (oral, written, electronic, visual), and how the effects of those choices impact status and authority. Assignments include a three-part personal profile exploring the boundaries of how you define your own sense of gender and how you make language decisions to represent that self; an observation journal of a range of documents from various media (written, electronic, oral, visual) to develop your analytical understanding of rhetorical choices; and a field-based research study of a well-defined discourse community.

Course Objectives:

To understand how gender is constructed through language
To identify the effects and consequences of gendered language
To conduct discipline specific field research in gendered rhetoric
To make recommendations for language reform

Course Texts:

Kimmel, Michael S. The Gendered Society 2e, Oxford UP.

Additional readings distributed electronically.