When the going gets tough, the tough get going". 

Right?

What you just read is an example of one of the many rhetorical tools that debaters and decision-makers have used for over two thousand years.

The study of rhetoric is making a big comeback in the English-speaking world, and this course is your chance to put the lessons and tools it has to offer into action in a way that will challenge and improve your English skills.

We will learn from the professionals. For example, we will see how contemporary political figures like Barack Obama have employed - to great effect – a rhetorical toolkit that goes all the way back to Aristotle in Ancient Greece and Cicero in Ancient Rome.

In addition to offering students the chance to pick up tricks from successful English-language orators past and present (which will develop students' ear for good English), this course will give them the chance to try these strategies out for themselves.

For instance, they will have a go at creating their own original metaphors and will see how powerful these can be. They will also write a personal pitch, in which they will put the techniques we will study into practical use in order to promote a business idea they may have or to set out what makes them an excellent candidate for a job.

Your teacher and guide, who has first-hand experience of rhetoric both as a political journalist and as a writer, will help you to learn about the pearls of wisdom in rhetorical theory, and how we can put them into practice to our advantage.

This course is a great opportunity to improve your ability to wield the English language skilfully.

For example, we will learn to try to use the active voice rather than the passive in order to make our language clearer and more precise. More broadly, we will discuss the rhetoric of successful writing in English, notably thanks to George Orwell's timeless advice on the matter.

From Shakespeare to Abraham Lincoln, from Winston Churchill to JFK, and from Martin Luther King to the latest generation of orators, we will study the best moments of English rhetoric and put them into action in a practical way.