Description

Required Readings
1. Thomas Wilson (1524-1581), Biographical Sketch, online.
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~nsharp/wilsbio1.htm

2. Introduction to The Arte of Rhetorique (1553), online.
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~nsharp/wilsint1.htm#Differences
o Read “Classical Rhetoric Summary” from Harvard University
§ Please see document attached
3. Lecture Slides “Classical Rhetoric”.
§ Please see document attached

Additional Resources
• The Oxford English Dictionary, online at the BCIT Library
• Encyclopædia Britannica: online entry for “rhetoric: oratory”
• Silva Rhetoricæ: ‘The Forest of Rhetoric’ online.

Assignment
1. Locate the Oxford English Dictionary online at the BCIT Library homepage. Within
the online OED, navigate to the following three sections and read each of them:
• “History of the OED”
• “Early Grey: The results of the OED Appeal on Earl Grey tea”
• The OED entry for the word “rhetoric”, n.1
When you have completed this, be sure that you are able to explain (on a Final
Examination, just for a hypothetical instance) how the rigorous etymological
approach used by the Oxford English Dictionary makes the meaning of words a
matter of empirical science. (For “etymology”–as for all words in English–the OED is
the sole credible authority for its meaning.)

2. From the Required Readings, above, read the biographical sketch of rhetor
Thomas Wilson and Nicolas Sharpe’s introduction to Wilson’s The Arte of Rhetorique
3. Read the entry on oratory in the Encyclopædia Britannica and work through to an
understanding of the relationship between written and spoken rhetoric.
• Which of the two modes of rhetoric is, in your judgment, the more vital for
career success?
4. Navigate through Silva Rhetoricæ and gain a functional command of this resource
for verbal achievement.
Your readings, personal study notes, and comments here–and in every week
throughout the Course–will also inform and direct your work on each and all of the
Course assignments.

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