A Way With Words: Audiobooks 1-4

From The Modern Scholar series includes the following:
A Way With Words: Writing, Rhetoric, and the Art of Persuasion
A Way with Words II: Approaches to Literature
A Way with Words III: Understanding Grammar for Powerful Communication
A Way with Words IV: Understanding Poetry

In A Way with Words: Writing, Rhetoric, and the Art of Persuasion, esteemed professor Michael D.C. Drout brings his expertise in literary studies to the subject of rhetoric. From history-altering political speeches to friendly debates at cocktail parties, rhetoric holds the power to change opinions, spark new thoughts, and ultimately change the world. The study of rhetoric not only leads to a greater understanding of how personages such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Winston Churchill elevated the power of speech to majestic heights, but also to a stronger proficiency in using rhetoric in anyone’s day-to-day life. Professor Drout examines the types of rhetoric and their effects, the structure of effective arguments, and how subtleties of language can be employed to engage in more successful rhetoric. Drout also ponders the role of rhetoric in our world and the ageold question of whether it is just a tool for convincing people of things that aren’t true, or whether it is indeed a force for good that will ultimately lead to truth.

Course Lecture Titles:
01 - How to Do Things with Words: Rhetoric and Speech-Act Theory: How Words Can Change Reality
02 - Rhetoric, Sophistry, and Philosophy
03 - Audience
04 - Structures of Effective Arguments
05 - The Enthymeme
06 - The Rhetoric of Logic: Truth and Syllogisms
07 - Logical Fallacies
08 - Logos, Ethos, Pathos
09 - Figures of Speech I: Schemes
10 - Figures of Speech II: Tropes
11 - Grammar I: Syntax
12 - Grammar II: Structure, Punctuation (“Pause and Effect”)
13 - Subtleties: Word Choice, Speech Patterns, Accent
14 - Rhetorical Train Wrecks and Triumphs

A Way with Words II: Approaches to Literature
In A Way with Words: Writing, Rhetoric, and the Art of Persuasion, widely published professor Michael D.C. Drout embarked on a thought-provoking investigation into the role of rhetoric in our world. Now, in A Way with Words II: Approaches to Literature, the renowned literary scholar leads a series of lectures that focus on the big questions of literature. Is literature a kind of lie? Can fiction ever be "realistic"? Why do we read? What should we read? Professor Drout provides insight into these and other provocative questions, including those related to the role of the text, author, and audience in the reading process. Throughout, Professor Drout introduces the major schools of literary and critical thought and employs illuminating examples from the world's most important literary works.

Literature contributes to our understanding of what it means to be human in a myriad of complex ways, and for all those who appreciate the role of literature in our lives, this course proves a wonderful exploration of one of humankind's most cherished pursuits.

Course Lecture Titles:
01 - Understanding Literature: Some Big Questions
02 - Language
03 - The Text
04 - The Author
05 - The Audience
06 - Genres
07 - Formalism and Forms: Primarily Poetry
08 - Form, Pattern, and Symbol: Prose
09 - Literature and the Mind
10 - What Is Postmodernism and Why Are People Saying Such Horrible Things About It?
11 - Identity Politics
12 - Culture and Cultural Production
13 - The Literary Canon
14 - What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Literature?


A Way with Words III: Understanding Grammar for Powerful Communication

Who Eats Shoots and Leaves?

A panda? Or a gunman at a restaurant?

The answer to this all depends on—you guessed it—grammar. In the third part of his extraordinary Way with Words series, Professor Drout continues to explore humanity’s intimate association with language, here delving into the finer points of English grammar.

Since others judge you by the way you speak, the intricacies of grammar, in fact, should not be relegated to the realm of fussy “guardians of the language,” but are rather essential clues all can employ to communicate more exactly. In such a light, this course forms an invaluable guide for everyone from all fields of interest.

Course Lecture Titles:

Lecture 01 - The Red Panda and the Drout Way: A Sensible Approach to Grammar
Lecture 02 - What Is Grammar?
Lecture 03 - Why It Is the Way It Is: The Short History of the English Language
Lecture 04 - G-H-O-T-I Spells Fish
Lecture 05 - Word Classes
Lecture 06 - Pronouns and the Noun System
Lecture 07 - The Verb System I
Lecture 08 - The Verb System II: Infinitives, Participles, Gerunds
Lecture 09 - The Verb System III: Truly Irregular Verbs
Lecture 10 - Subjects and Predicates and Objects, Oh, My!
Lecture 11 - Transformations
Lecture 12 - Phrases and Clauses, Word Choices and Pauses
Lecture 13 - Punctuation: Pause and Effect
Lecture 14 - Fight! Fight! Fight! For English (for English?)

A Way with Words IV: Understanding Poetry:
In A Way withWords I, II, and III, Professor Michael D.C. Drout increased listeners’ understanding of the way literature works, of the rhetoric that in many ways defines people’s lives, and of the intricacies of grammar, all while maintaining a lively tone that conveys the professor’s infectious enthusiasm for the subject. In part IV of this fascinating series, Professor Drout submerses listeners in poetry’s past, present, and future. Addressing such poetic luminaries as Milton,Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats, these lectures explain in simple terms what poetry is while following its development through the centuries.

Course Syllabus:
Lecture 1 What Is Poetry?
Lecture 2 Oral Tradition
Lecture 3 The Roots of the Tree: Anglo-Saxon Poetry
Lecture 4 Of Meters and of Rhyming Craftily: Middle English and the Development of Rhymed Poetry
Lecture 5 Early Renaissance: An Exploration of Form
Lecture 6 Metaphysicals, Milton
Lecture 7 The Hard Stuff: The Eighteenth Century and the Influence of Classical Learning
Lecture 8 Romantics: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge
Lecture 9 Later Romantics: Byron, Shelley, and Keats
Lecture 10 Victorians!
Lecture 11 American Poetry and the Development of Free Verse
Lecture 12 Modernism
Lecture 13 Late Modernism
Lecture 14 Poetry Now

Professor Michael D. C. Drout (Author, Narrator)