Prerequisite: Entering 11th grade & Completion of Lost Tools Level 1 and Level 2

Course Description

Students in this course will build on the rhetorical skills mastered in Level 1 and Level 2 by learning to compose a new kind of composition, the Deliberative Address. In LTW Level 3, students will learn to use the Special Topics of a Deliberative Address to consider whether an action should be carried out. During Invention, students will deliberate on the possible advantages and disadvantages of the action as they consider the practical, social, and spiritual aspects of their Issues. Students will also encounter lessons in the four causes and modes of persuasion. During Arrangement lessons, students will learn to enhance the logic of their argument through enthymeme, sorites, and epicheirema, as well as new approaches to developing an Exordium, Amplification, and Narratio. During Elocution, students will learn thirteen new rhetorical tools, as well as work to increase the coherence and cohesion of each paragraph. LTW Level 3 will not only prepare students for other forms of writing, but will, more importantly, equip them to pursue truth and harmony in their own minds and hearts, in their lives, and in the world.

Our literature discussions will take us to Middle-earth as we join Frodo and Sam, Merry and Pippin, Aragorn and Gandalf, Legolas and Gimli, in the fight to save their world from the destructive forces of Mordor. On this journey, we will encounter justice, courage, prudence, and temperance in their actions and experience faith, hope, and love in their relationships.

Please note: this course is a 28-week course rather than Kepler's standard 32-week course. Additional live sessions will be held on the 4th Friday of August, September, October, January, February, and April to satisfy credit requirements for diploma track students.

Course Objectives:

Students will grow in wisdom and virtue through the art of rhetoric as they:

Deliberate on a decision about the future through the lenses of utility and honor.
Employ the tools of reason to form logical arguments.
Apply the tools of expression to articulate arguments with clarity and style.
Delight in literature through annotation and discussion.

Weekly Time Commitment
1.5 hours participating in a live-interactive class
1-2 hours completing LTW assignments
1-1.5 hours reading and annotating the assigned text
1 hour revising assignments as requested