Grammafesto

The word Grammafesto is a term created by St. Thomas University English professor Dr. Kevin Dvorak. The term is used to describe an essay which explores the theories of language and grammar by using a series of various doctrines learned throughout the duration of the course. RHETORICAL GRAMMAFESTO - This assignment gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of and opinions about grammar and rhetoric. Essentially, the Rhetorical Grammafesto is a kind of manifesto/treatise where you get to tell your audience what you think is good writing. The RG can be a combination of narrative, academic, creative, research, and professional writing.

Rhetorical Grammafesto - The goal of this assignment is to give you, the writer, an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of and opinions about grammar and rhetoric. Essentially, the Rhetorical Grammafesto is a kind of manifesto/treatise where you get to tell your audience what you think is good writing. The RG can be a combination of narrative, academic, creative, research, and professional writing. The choice is yours.

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During the course of the semester, you will be keeping a regular Reflection Journal. As you develop your journal, keep track of your thoughts and ideas. As we get deeper into the semester, you will find yourself forming strong opinions about some topics and questioning your beliefs about others. Your Rhetorical Grammafesto will develop from your journals and growing ideas and opinions.

Hold on. What’s a Rhetorical Grammafesto anyway? Well, according to wordnet.com, a manifesto is “a public declaration of intentions (as issued by a political party or government).” It’s also apparently an album by the Astrovamps (: wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn). As you will see in this class, many authors have written rhetorical treatises and grammar guidelines. Well, then, the Rhetorical Grammafesto is something of a combination of all of the things mention so far in this paragraph. In short, it is your declaration of what you think (insert adjective here) rhetoric and/or grammar is/are/can(not) be. You can approach this from a strictly personal level, from a cultural level, from a community level (which is like cultural, I guess), or from a global level (good luck on that one!).

Though the actual document might appear fluid, there are still going to be some guidelines, like this one: 15-20 PAGES. I know what many of you are thinking: “!?!?!” There’s no need for that, though. After all, your Reflection Journals will, in a way, be drafts of ideas that can go into your RG. Your Rhetorical Analysis and Grammatical Analysis assignments can also be used as drafts of ideas.

A second thing I would like to see is this: SECTIONS (and appropriate section headers). Think of it this way: if you want to write a RG about ~18-22 yr old Hispanic rhetoric in SoFla, you might have three sections, such as Business, Humor, and Style. Each section, then, could be a five page analysis that includes narrative, academic, creative, research, and professional writing.

Yes, I am asking you to be very intelligently creative. Or, dare I say this: I am asking you to be very intelligently rhetorical, grammatical, analytical, creative, and, of course, fantabulous (see “portmanteau”).

A third item that is necessary is some RESEARCH to occasionally support your arguments or to show examples of what you are talking about. You are going to have a ton of material to work with by the time you are really writing this document, and I highly encourage you to use it.
A play on the Karl Marx Communist Manifesto, the Rhetorical Grammafesto is used to serve as the student's perspective on a specific discipline of language or grammar. The students are allowed to apply the teachings of different rhetoricians and grammarians to support their ideas.

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