Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric: 1 - Hardcover

Farnsworth, Ward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1567923852 ISBN 13: 9781567923858

Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher, 2010

Synopsis

“I must refrain from shouting what a brilliant work this is (pręteritio). Farnsworth has written the book as he ought to have written it – and as only he could have written it (symploce). Buy it and read it – buy it and read it (epimone).”—Bryan A. Garner, Garner's Modern English Usage

Everyone speaks and writes in patterns. Farnsworth is your guide to patterns known as rhetorical figures that can make your words more emphatic, memorable, and effective.

This book details the timeless principles of rhetoric from Ancient Greece to the present day, drawing on examples in the English language of consummate masters of prose, such as Lincoln, Churchill, Dickens, Melville, and Burke.

Most rhetorical figures amount to departures from simple and literal statement, such as repeating words, putting words into an unexpected order, leaving out words that might have been expected, asking questions and then answering them. All apply to the composition of a simple sentence or paragraph—repetition and variety, suspense and relief, concealment and surprise, the creation of expectations and then the satisfaction or frustration of them.

Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric is for anyone who wants to be a better speaker or writer.

About this title

About the Author

Ward Farnsworth is Professor and W. Page Keeton Chair at the University of Texas School of Law. He is author of The Socratic Method, The Practicing Stoic, and the Farnsworth Classical English series which includes Argument, Rhetoric, Metaphor, and Style—all published by Godine.

From the Back Cover

Rhetoric, one of the oldest academic disciplines, has two

faces: first, the art of using language to influence or persuade;

second, the body of established patterns of language,

spoken or written, that makes words and phrases memorable,

emphatic, and effective. There are very few recent books that

tackle the subject, and in this new effort, written with the

scholar and orator in mind, Farnsworth collects and discusses

the great masters of English prose Lincoln and Churchill,

Dickens and Melville, Burke and Paine and, using their own

words, proceeds to organize, illustrate, and analyze the most

frequently used rhetorical devices with clarity and detail.

The way we use our language to convince and cajole is based

on timeless principles on repetition and variety, suspense and

relief, expectation and satisfaction that have been employed

by writers and speakers since the Golden Age of Greece. They

can be applied with effect to the construction of simple sentences

and paragraphs, or entire compositions. Here, distilled

from the best examples in our language, we see those principles

in actual use: for the general reader it is an indispensable guide,

a highly useful reference, and a rewarding (and even entertaining)

source of instruction.

Edition details

• Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1567923852
• ISBN 13: 9781567923858
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256