Great Courses: Writing and Rhetoric

The Teaching Company has some excellent courses (Great Courses) on writing and rhetoric.  Here are the ones I can recommend.

Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer's Craft by Professor Brooks Landon
I loved this course.  I recommend buying the transcript as well.  The course introduces you to the beauty that can be achieved with complex sentences.  You might not like all the examples, but you will surely find some that are amazing.  It has been a long time since I have read Christensen expound on using clauses to extend thoughts.  I believe this course reasons along the same line, but provides a host of wonderful examples.

Abraham Lincoln: In His Own Words by Professor David Zarefsky
Lincoln gave wonderful speeches.  This course reviews and explains a number of them.  One learns how Lincoln studied speech writing and discovers that some of his speeches have a very technical structure.  Over 100 years ago Abraham Lincoln was better educated on the technical aspects of speech writing than, probably, 99.9% of the 21st century Americans.  This course is entertaining and highly educational.

Art of Public Speaking: Lessons from the Greatest Speeches in History by Professor John R. Hale
This covers 12 excellent speeches.  My favorite was the speech by Elizabeth the 1st to her army. 

The following courses become increasingly technical.  The previous courses were entertaining.  The course below by Dr. Armstrong is border-line entertaining.  Then they become increasingly technical.  The technically minded will enjoy them.

Analysis and Critique: How to Engage and Write about Anything by Professor Dorsey Armstrong
I found this thoughtful.  I need to listen to it again. Actually, I should get it on DVD and get the transcript as well and review it again with those materials.

Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning, 2nd Edition by Professor David Zarefsky
If you want to be serious about organizing and preparing complex arguments, this is the course for you.  If you want to learn how complex an argument can be, this course diagrams the argument General Collin Powell presented to the United Nations to persuade the world that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction. 

Tools of Thinking: Understanding the World Through Experience and Reason by Professor James Hall
This is a fabulous course for the technically minded.  If I recall correctly, a simple syllogism can be expressed 256 different ways.  Some of the transformations maintain the accuracy of the original syllogism, and some do not.  You will learn that Aristotle, the father of logic, had some weaknesses in his work.  Sir Francis Bacon and John Stewart Mill both made improvements in the field of logic that was created by Aristotle.  This is a very good course, but it is not for everyone.

The Teaching Company also has courses on literature, but this article only focuses on the courses I have enjoyed on the topics of writing and rhetoric. Of course, they have numerous courses on many topics.  I love their lectures. I listen to Teaching Company Great Courses almost every day.  I generally listen to audio in the car, but I watch some on DVD at home.

If you have a favorite I have not mentioned, share it with me!

Robert Canright