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Dec 14, 2025
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HUMN 7362 - The Art of Persuasive Writing: From Cicero to Churchill to Tweets
Credits: 3
Examines the power of the written word to persuade in speeches, essays, newspaper columns, and new media. Students trace and discuss the development of commentaries that have had an impact on public culture. Includes classic compositions from Roman and Greek orators, the Founding Fathers, Winston Churchill, H.L. Mencken, Martin Luther King, broadcasters Edward R. Murrow and Andy Rooney, contemporary columnists such as Maureen Dowd and Peggy Noonan, and critic/essayists such as Christopher Hitchens and David Foster Wallace, as well as recent White House speechwriters such as Karen Hughes and Jon Favreau. Students explore the structure of effective exhortations, the importance of “voice” in a memorable argument, the use of facts versus emotion, the use of humor to disarm, the value of metaphors, and the elements involved in effectively closing an argument. May be applied to the following curricular field concentrations: humanities; arts and cultural traditions; communication, media, and technology.
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