• RA Thesis can be used in conjunction with any rhetoric curriculum
• RA Thesis uses clear, accessible language
• RA Thesis takes students step-by-step through the writing of the thesis, from start to finish
• RA Thesis aids students in writing a paper, speech, or both
• RA Thesis helps reluctant or struggling writers generate good ideas and organize them well
• RA Thesis contains presentation practice and writing workshops in each chapter
• RA Thesis supplies tips from former senior thesis students
• RA Thesis includes sample student writing and an example of a complete student thesis
• RA Thesis brings classical rhetorical theory to bear on a contemporary issue
“It is crucial for contemporary students to know the classical rhetorical tradition. Dr. Alyssan Barnes takes this ancient wisdom and presents it in its full complexity, showing through helpful exercises and clear processes the practicality, richness, and wisdom of this tradition and how it applies to the modern student. Only a master teacher of the art, with long and deep experience, could have produced a book this valuable to students.” —Gregory Roper, PhD, Chair of English, University of Dallas, and Author of The Writer’s Workshop: Imitating Your Way to Better Writing “The senior thesis process can overwhelm students and parents alike. Research, writing, defending—these things seem like impossibilities. Thanks to Dr. Alyssan Barnes’s latest entry in the Rhetoric Alive! series, solace is just ahead. Rhetoric Alive! Senior Thesis offers hands-on, practical advice to help navigate the murky waters that often bog down thesis work.” —Sean Hadley, Thesis Director, Trinitas Christian School
Testimonials
"Rhetoric Alive! Book 1: Principles of Persuasion is the most comprehensive, classically focused rhetoric textbook that I have seen on the market. . . . The explanations are written in engaging prose, punctuated with easy-to-digest examples and a plethora of pleasant and performance-enhancing activities. Rhetoric Alive! Book 1: Principles of Persuasion serves as an excellent textbook for a first-year rhetoric course in the classical school or homeschool curriculum." —Joshua Butcher, Rhetoric Teacher, Trinitas Christian School
“Rhetoric Alive! is a highly knowledgeable, comprehensive, and clear Aristotelian treatment of the art of rhetoric. . . . Its virtues are many, but two are especially prominent: its patient pedagogy and its detailed and interesting exercises. . . . This is a living rhetoric bound to animate the spoken and written suasions of any teacher or student who submits to its instruction.” (Taken from the foreword.) —Scott F. Crider, PhD, Author of The Office of Assertion: An Art of Rhetoric for the Academic Essay
“This text has the potential to shake up English studies at the secondary level. It is a formidable and appealing innovation that is wonderfully old-fashioned and yet as fresh as anything I’ve seen in a long time.” —John Briggs, PhD, Director, University Writing Program, UC Riverside
“Rhetoric Alive! moves Aristotle’s ideas and concepts out of the classical past and sets them on the bottom shelf for high school students—and the accomplishment is that it does so without reducing them, but instead revealing their relevance and worth. It delivers on the aspiration of the title: It brings Aristotle’s Rhetoric alive.” —Craig Doerksen, Head of the School of Rhetoric, Regents School of Austin
“Combining Aristotle’s insights on rhetoric with examples of speech and writing ranging from Augustine to Shakespeare and from Emily Dickinson to Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Alyssan Barnes has written an illuminating and useful guide for all K-12 teachers of the liberal arts. The selections are well-chosen and age-appropriate. The analysis is first-rate. The connection of past to present is exemplary. Excellent scholarship combined with practical applications.” —Dr. Peter Gibbon, Senior Research Fellow, Boston University