This course overviews basic research methods used in the rhetorical analysis of different types of text: written and oral, verbal and visual. Students will learn and exercise various frameworks and research instruments used in contemporary trends in rhetorical criticism. Among the course’ topics are: rhetorical situations, rhetorical act, argumentative dimensions of discourse, argumentative structure of texts, persuasion through character (ethos), appeal to emotions (pathos), figurative language, rhetorical fallacies and so on.