Course Content
- The layers of language and related linguistic disciplines (from phonology to semantics and pragmatics)
- The functions of language (creative, communicative, cognitive, etc.)
- The Aristotelian principles of Logos, Ethos and Pathos
- What is ethics? Ethical communication in the age of AI
- Seminal concepts of pragmatics, communication theory and discourse analysis
- What we can learn from the most outstanding orators in history - analysis of famous and infamous historical speeches
- Preparing for a speech: research, rehearsal, delivery
- Minimizing speaker-side biases while facing listener-side biases
- The impactful presentation
Key Skills
- Analyzing written speeches for their cohesion and coherence, rhetorical devices, narrative structure, fallacies and biases, authenticity and overall impact
- Identification and debunking of manipulative techniques, using the adequate linguistic, rhetorical, philosophical and psychological terms
- Speechwriting and impactful, non-manipulative delivery
Course Progression
- Theoretical framework: the philosophical and psychological context (4–5 lessons)
- Interactive and individual exercises, learning and applying bias-related terms and the methods of text analysis (4-5 lessons)
- Active writing practice with tutorial support (parallel with last 3 lessons, individual)
- Presentations of speeches with Q&A (1 lesson)
- Evaluation (1 lesson)
Participants are required to
- Attend at least 75% of contact lessons (sessions build on each other);
- Complete at least 75% of home assignments (Quizlet, learning = doing);
- Deliver an impactful, persuasive but non-manipulative speech on a chosen topic close to the student’s heart and spontaneously answer audience questions related to the speech content.
- Instructor: Robert Gulyas