The Modern Scholar: Way with Words: Writing Rhetoric and the Art of Persuasion

Includes everything you should have learned in grammar school had you been interested and engaged in the topic. A dynamic and unpretentious speaker. Famous speeches were dissected and the tools of their effectiveness revealed. I got it.

This lecture was informative and enlightening. He challenged what I know and what I thought I knew. He brought me back to college. It was just like my best and favorite college courses; giving me information but not answering all my questions. He left me with enough curiosity to learn more on my own and continue with my road of life-long learning. I have added more books to my reading list because of this lecture. Additionally, I read books with a new eye, a new mind, because of this lecture. He teaches, he entertains, he delights, he inspires, and he allows; for possibility, opinion, and curiosity. I look forward to more lectures from Professor Drout. I highly recommend this lecture.

I have already listened to many of the chapters over and over again in this audio book. I love the way Professor Drout speaks with such enthusiasm and passion on a subject that he is obviously highly and skillfully versed in. He breaks it down splendidly so that even those of us with limited skills can grow and expand from the wisdom he imparts.

One of the best out of hundreds that I have listened, this book contains not only the general principles but also many brilliant examples on motivating the audience and becoming compelling communicators.

I loved this explanation of rhetoric. He took modern and ancient examples and made them completely clear, all while remaining consistently energetic about his subject, even though the material itself can be viewed as dry. He explained very well how communication is only boring when you haven't reached your audience properly, in a way they can understand easily.
Though his enthusiasm was at times a bit much, I enjoyed listening to this book and will likely listen to it again soon. Great job, worth every penny.

This is a great introduction to the Modern Scholar series. I was afraid the audio book would be boring on a long drive but I found this book interesting and the speaker enjoyable all the way to my detination ... and back! High praise for an english book by an engineer. I am going to the other book by this author.

This is an excellent course of 14 audio lectures about rhetoric as an art of convincing people, and not only due to all the interesting and well explained information it includes but especially because of the pleasure of listening to the professor Michael Drout. He is a brilliant lecturer and it is obvious he himself is having fun when he speaks to you about rhetoric.

He's a fine lecturer, making otherwise boring topics palatable. The accompanying guide or notes are extremely thorough and helpful. You will learn to analyze speech and writing, but not to speak or to write. But hey, what can you expect from just listening or reading? I most enjoyed his presentation about rhetoric, since I had never categorized figures of speech or fallacies. On the other hand, while it is useful to put a label on general concepts, I wish scholars used labels that were easier to remember. All these Latin names of fallacies reminded me of botany; similarly, with all those names of schemes and tropes. I'm sure that, if I ever see or hear them again, I would have to look up "litotes", "hypophora," "pleonasm," or "paronomasia." (This last word is spelled "paranomasia" in the guide, which, although incorrect, actually makes more sense etymologically. Now that is something about which only English professors get excited.) He only offered mnemonic devices for "illocution" and "perlocution." Finally, even though he seemed so excited to get to discussing grammar, I found the two chapters on it the least insightful in an otherwise illuminating presentation. Although he attempts to make the subject matter relevant, his presentation is more formal than practical. I enjoyed his concluding speculations about the evolution and future of spoken rhetoric.

Michael is a great speaker and does an exceptional job in keeping his energy up through subject matter that is very complex but clearly an area of passion for him. I found the content excellent however I found myself constantly listening for practical examples of how I could implement this in my career. He is so passionate and knowledgeable about the subject matter that the practical application is hard to decipher amid all the history and fast facts. If you want to learn about rhetoric and the way language is used for power etc it's great - but if you want to learn how to implement it in your own life it's probably not an A+ audio book - although Michael is clearly an expert.

Informative, entertaining, and useful. Absolutely worth listening to.