C121 at Indiana University is a contemporary course in the ancient
and practical art of rhetoric. It is founded on the premise that
rhetorical action (including the focus of our course, public
speaking) is public action. It is a course designed to help you
recognize situations in which your rhetorical action can contribute
to the well-being of a community. C121 provides you with the tools
(both of speech composition, and of delivery) you need to responsibly
prepare a variety of effective presentations.  Each assignment and
speech is an opportunity to engage a rhetorical situation in order to
(1) create an audience out of a collection of individuals and (2)
invite that audience to understand something in a particular way or
motivate them to help resolve some problem about which you think they
should be concerned.