Customer Reviews

Language is Sermonic: Richard M.Weaver on the Nature of Rhetoric

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I first encountered Richard Weaver's work as a first-year professor at a small Christian liberal arts college, and he really has revolutionized my composition teaching.

This collection of essays in particular offer a compelling philosophical case for WHY one might teach rhetoric and composition. There are plenty of books that offer ideas of HOW one might do so, but Weaver, who recognizes that rhetoric, the art of guiding intellectual desire, would likely say that such how-to approaches will never really drive teaching so much as offer new ways to fiddle about with something that seems futile, pointless, or beneath a literature teacher's dignity. Weaver turns the modern English department's priorities upside down, casting rhetoric once more as the culmination of the three ways of liberal arts and the most human of the humanities.

There are very few direct, lesson-plan-building suggestions in this book, and by the time Weaver is done, there's not nearly as much need for them. Stirred by the desire for intellectual goodness, the creativity that good teachers bring to bear will arise well enough if the desire to do something inherently worthwhile is motivating the practice of teaching writing.

I was looking for a resource that would help me make arguments in both the written word and the spoken word. This book is an excellent resource for both.It was in good condition and it arrived on time.I recommend the seller.