ORATORY: WINNING THE SOUL WITH WORDS
FYSE1355A
Fall Term, 2011, Dana Yeaton, Visiting Assistant Professor in Theatre
Class Times:
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:00-4:15 PM
Additional Required Meetings:
Thursday, September 29: Commons Dinner and Guest Lecture with Professor Stefano
Mula, Blinn Lane; time TBA.
Thursday, October 27: “Big Love Night” – Dinner and Performance of Big Love, Wright
Theatre; time TBA.
Thursday, December 8: Axinn Academy of Advanced Oratorical Studies Graduation
Dinner & Presentation of This I Believe Speeches; time TBA.
Two individual 30-Minute conferences, CFA 329, Date and Time, TBA.
Office & Hours:
MCFA 329, Mondays and Thursdays 1:30-3:00 PM, and by appointment.
Contact Information:
dyeaton@middlebury.edu; Office x2423.
Resource Team:
Peer Mentor: Chris de la Cruz, cdelacruz@middlebury.edu
Librarian: Jess Isler: x3467
Required Texts (College Bookstore):
Aristotle’s On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse, trans., George A Kennedy.
They Say/I Say, by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein.
The Little Seagull Handbook by Richard Bullock and Francine Weinberg.
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Opening Oration:
Friends, first-years, fellow scholars, look around you. What you see are others, like yourself,
who have committed to the study of oratory, an ancient, highly-complex mixture of
philosophy, ethics, politics, literature, psychology-- the list goes on, and we haven’t even yet
arrived at the act itself, public speaking. Indeed, to study oratory is a great challenge . . . but
I invite you to join me, to join each other, in an even greater, almost herculean endeavor:
rather than merely study oratory, let us become orators.
Rather than simply read and highlight the key concepts, let us inhale the history and theory
of rhetoric; let us fill our ears with a medley of humanity’s greatest speeches. Rather than
formulate a quick thesis and cough up a quick five pages, let us savor the breath of each
new thought, allowing it to mingle with our own ideas, until at last we are overcome,
bursting with the urge to share our insight for fear that humankind would be forever
impoverished were our vital truth to remain unknown.
But scholars, it will take every bit of you to become an orator: your body, your brain, and
your voice. Your courage, your curiosity and your compassion. It will take your readiness to
play, your openness to criticism, your commitment to minimize stage-fright by being
prepared. It will take your willingness to let go of past accomplishments, let go the tried and
true tactics that got you here, in favor of the newer, possibly truer, tactics available only to
those who dare to experiment. And like any art, it will take a patience and kindness towards
yourself that very few can muster.
Of course it will take an audience too. But again, look around. They are here. And not just
any audience, but your compatriots. These are the brothers and sisters in oratory with
whom we will transform ourselves into braver, more insightful, more eloquent and possibly
better looking people.
To consecrate our efforts and ensure that we remain united in purpose, I propose that we
establish a new educational entity modeled on Plato’s Academy. There, among the 4 th
century B.C. lecture rooms, gardens and cloisters, a scrappy little Macedonian named
Aristotle began his assent through higher education. And later, once Aristotle had his own
school, he would walk the halls and gardens followed by a gaggle of students eager to
imbibe his every word. Why do I find that image so appealing . . . ?
You can see it, though, can’t you? That hallway as a walking classroom for Socratic dialogue,
the fountain as a sanctuary for silent contemplation. How can it be that those marble steps
leading into the old Starr library have never been used for impromptu orations? And the
Abernathy Room at midnight? It’s a flash-lecture waiting to happen!
But can it happen? Can we become smarter faster by imagining ourselves that way? Can we
be more of who we already are by pretending? Scholars, join us. Dare to become a founding
member of the Axinn Academy for Advanced Oratorical Studies, and we shall find out.
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Course Requirements:
Participation
This class is both a seminar and a writer’s workshop. As a participant in a seminar, you’ll
be expected to come to class fully prepared to discuss any assigned text. This requires
that you not only read or view the text, but that you invest yourself in the work, and in
the written response. We’ll experiment with a number of different models for
discussing and exploring assigned work in class, based always on the assumption that
you have come prepared. As we learn to focus our discussions, it’s probably a good idea
that you monitor your participation. Are you someone like me, who needs to discipline
himself to listen more and say less? Or do you need to nudge yourself into the
discussion, rather than sit back and observe?
As a participant in a writer’s workshop, you will also find that preparation and
timeliness are essential. Much of our class time – and on Workshop Days, all of it -- will
be spent responding to each other’s work. If you arrive with a half-hearted or halfcomplete work, you can hardly expect to benefit much to the session, or contribute
much to it. Later, once we’ve practiced responding to each other’s work in class, you’ll
be writing peer critiques. It’s an enormous responsibility, and also a great opportunity
to understand the writing process from another angle.
Writing
A finished piece of writing is the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Below the surface is a vast
amount of work -- the brainstorming, design, early and subsequent drafts. In a writing
workshop you can expect to pay a lot of attention to what’s below the water line: to the
process.
Informal Writing:
We’ll use the term Informal Writing for all written work excluding your final
drafts. It will include Response Papers to assigned texts, peer critiques, the cover
letters on your portfolios, and what we’ll call Process Writing.
Responses Papers will run approximately 500 words, or 1.5 double-spaced
pages. Early on, you’ll receive specific assignments for each paper, but you can
assume that each paper will ask you to analyze some aspect of the text and to
apply that understanding to your growing aesthetic as an orator. In other words,
your Response Paper is about Your Response.
If you’ve never used Process Writing to help develop your skills, and to lay the
groundwork for specific assignments, then prepare to meet your new best
friend. Process Writing includes free writing, brainstorming, “design walks,”
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standing on your head – anything that aids your progress towards a cogent piece
of writing. Think you do your best work under pressure, the night before
whatever is due? Nope. Not anymore. No matter how successful you’ve been
using that model, I guarantee there is a better writer inside you, eager to make
use of a process that will lift your work to the next level.
And don’t imagine that our focus on the process is something remedial. Writers
pay attention to their process. Like all artists, they are life-long students of what
works. In following their lead, we become more adroit at shifting our focus from
the micro to the macro, from the sentence we’re struggling with, to the purpose
of the piece we’re writing. And back again.
Formal Writing:
Oratory: Winning The Soul with Words is a College Writing (CW) course, which
means you’ll produce between twenty and twenty-five pages of writing that has
been through a development process. As part of that process, you and I will
meet at least twice, including a midterm portfolio assessment conference, to
discuss your work. (These are in addition to our meetings for course advising.)
You will also meet at least once with our Peer Writing Tutor, Chris de Cruz. You
should anticipate additional meetings as needed.
Your formal writing will include analytical papers, and a total of four speeches,
including a TEDxTalk, and a recorded This I Believe speech.
Major Due Dates for Speeches and Papers:
9/13
9/29
10/2
10/16
10/26
11/8
11/13
11/22
11/29
12/8
12/11
Present Speech #1 (2-3 min.)
Post Paper #1, Draft 1 (3-4pp.).
Post Paper #1, Draft 2
Post Paper #2, Draft 1 (5-6pp.)
Post MIDTERM PORTFOLIO
Present Speech #2 (2-3 min.)
Post TEDxTalk Transcript (TRT: 8-10 min.).
Post: This I Believe Speech, Draft 1 (500 words)
Present Speech TEDxTalk
Present This I Believe Speech
Post: FINAL PORTFOLIO
Fair warnings:
1) To me, typos are a sign of disrespect to the reader and final drafts that include
spelling and grammatical errors will be marked down. Informal work should be
proofread as well, especially if you are prone to such errors. If spelling is a
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problem for you, please talk to Chris or me. As writers, it’s our responsibility to
make sure our work is free from unnecessary errors.
2) In order to respond thoughtfully to your work, I have to insist on strict
adherence to the above due dates. One-third of a grade (e.g. from B+ to B) will
be deducted for each day a paper is late, whether it is a first draft or a rewrite.
Only a Dean’s Excuse will waive this penalty.
Grading:
There will be no final exam in this course: instead, you will submit two portfolios – a
midterm and a final. The portfolios are divided into formal and informal writing, with
formal work accounting for 60% of the final grade, and informal accounting for 30%.
The final 10% of your grade in this course will reflect a combination of your classroom
participation and the skill with which you deliver your two final speeches.
The following is a list of texts to be included in each of your portfolios.
Midterm Portfolio: (45% of final grade)
Formal Writing:
 Speech #1
 Paper 1
 Paper 2
Informal Writing:
 Responses
 Featured Responses
Participation/Delivery:
5%
10%
15%
10%
5%
Provisional Grade
Final Portfolio: (55% of final grade)
Formal:
 Speech #2
 TEDxTalk
 This I Believe
Informal Writing:
Revised Response
Participation/Delivery:
5%
15%
10%
10%
5%
10%
Attendance:
Because the class is a writers' workshop, excellent attendance is crucial: absences are
not only a disadvantage to you, but have a negative effect on others. More than two
absences will reduce your grade by 1/3 of a letter grade (i.e. from a B to a B-).
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Course Schedule
I. Classical Training
9/13
Read: Little Seagull Handbook, W-5: Arguments.
Read: Encomium on Helen, Gorgias.
Deliver Speech #1: “Impassioned Argument for the Fruit That Is Objectively
Superior to All Other Fruits.” (TRT: 2-3 min.).
9/15
Read: Little Seagull Handbook, W-11: Abstracts.
Read: Introduction to Aristotle’s On Rhetoric: Response: Write and bring to class
an “Informative Abstract” for each Part of the introduction, A through E.
Deliver Speech #1 (Superior Fruit Speeches, cont.)
9/20
Read: They Say/I Say, 141-155pp.
Read: On Rhetoric Book 1, Aristotle. Respond: Complete and bring to class your
response sheet.
In-class: Group presentations on Book 1.
9/22
Read: On Rhetoric Book 3.
In-Class: Rhetorical Analysis of Pericles’ Funeral Oration.
9/25: Read: Little Seagull Handbook, W-6, W-9.
Due: Post (and bring to class 9/27) the thesis and opening paragraph for Paper
#1, a Rhetorical Analysis of Demosthenes’ Third Philippic.
9/27
Read: On Rhetoric Book 2: Chapters 1-3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 20-22.
In-class: Guest speaker, Associate Professor of Philosophy Martha Woodruff.
9/29
Due: Post Paper #1, Draft 1 (3-4pp.).
In-Class: Writing Workshop. (Bring Paper #1 to class.)
Special Event #1: Commons Dinner with Stefano Mula, Blinn Lane; Time TBA.
10/2
Due: Post Paper #1, Draft 2
II. Speeches Great and Famous (and in English)
10/4
Read: Lincoln’s Second Inaugural and Lincoln’s Greatest Speech, Gary Wills; Ain’t
I A Woman? Sojourner Truth. Response: Posted by noon.
10/6
Read: Their Finest Hour, Winston Churchill; Oration at Tilbury Camp, Queen
Elizabeth I; A Plea for Mercy, Clarence Darrow. Response: Posted by noon.
Read: They Say/I Say, pp. 1-51
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10/11 Read: Great Trial of 1922, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi; I Have a Dream,
Martin Luther King, Jr. Response: Posted by noon.
Read: They Say/I Say, pp. 53-101
10/13 Read: We Shall Overcome, Lyndon Baines Johnson; Remarks on the Assassination
of Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Response: Posted by noon.
Read: They Say/I Say, pp. 103-138
10/16 Due: Post Paper #2, Draft 1 (5-6pp.)
10/17 Due: Post Peer Response to Paper #2
10/18 Library Day!
10/20 Read: 1976 DNC Keynote Address, Barbara Jordan; Ballot or the Bullet, Malcolm
X. Response: Posted by noon.
Midterm Recess
III. Designing the Speech
10/26 Due: Post MIDTERM PORTFOLIO
10/27 Read: Excerpt from Big Love, Charles Mee.
In-Class: Dramatic Structure Workshop.
Special Event #2: “Big Love Night” – Dinner with Pavlos and Maria, Blinn Lane,
then Performance of Big Love, Wright Memorial Theatre.
11/1
Deliver Speech #2: “The Great Speech Speech” (TRT: 2-3 min.): Find the clip of a
fictional speech under five minutes in length and convince us that THIS is
rhetorical masterpiece. We’ll vote, then watch the winning clip.
11/3
Read: TED is all TALK: The Importance of the “Text To Speech” Innovation,
Michael Anton Dila.
View: TEDTalks by Jill Bolte Taylor, Stroke of Insight & by Brené Brown, The
Power of Vulnerability. Response: Bring to class a Structural Analysis of each
TEDTalk.
In-Class: Speech Design Workshop.
11/8
View: TEDTalks by Elizabeth Gilbert, A New Way to Think About Creativity, & by
Sir Ken Robinson, Do Schools Kill Creativity?
Response: Posted by noon.
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In-class: Body and Voice Workshop with guest artist Peter Schmitz. Come
prepared to deliver a speech from memory of 50-75 words in which you declare
your relationship to creativity. Note special location: CFA 110, Dance Studio.
11/10 View: TEDTalk by James Geary on metaphor, and one TEDTalk of your choice.
Response: Posted by noon.
In-class: Bring to class a concept and design for your TEDxTalk.
11/13 Due: TEDxTalk Transcript (TRT: 8-10 min.).
11/14 Due: Peer Response to TEDxTalk Transcript.
IV. Crafting the Speech
11/15 Read: A selection of speeches from This I Believe, including An Ideal of Service to
Our Fellow Man, by Albert Einstein. Response: Posted by noon.
11/17 Read: A selection of poems and lyrics. Response: Posted by noon.
In-Class: Image-Making Workshop.
11/22 Due: TEDxTalk-Draft 2
In Class: Peer Review of TEDxTalks
11/24 No Class – Thanksgiving.
V. Speaking the Speech: Final Orations
11/29 Deliver Speech #3: TEDxTalks
12/1
Deliver Speech #3: TEDxTalks (cont.)
Due: This I Believe Speech, Draft 1 (500 words)
12/6
Deliver Speech #3: TEDxTalks (cont.)
12/8
Deliver Speech #3: TEDxTalk (cont.)
Thirty-minute rehearsals for This I Believe Speech will be scheduled throughout
the day.
Special Event #3: Axinn Academy of Advanced Oratorical Studies Graduation
Dinner & Presentation of This I Believe Speeches.
12/ 11 Due: FINAL PORTFOLIO
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