Writing and Rhetoric: Designing Meaning
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this writing course from the Comparative Media Studies/Writing program, treating rhetoric as a system for designing meaning rather than mere ornament. Students analyze how persuasive texts work on readers and then practice making deliberate rhetorical choices in their own writing. The course pairs close analytical reading of arguments, speeches, and media with hands-on composition assignments, asking students to test theories of persuasion empirically rather than accept them on authority. Materials include the syllabus, assignment sheets, and readings drawn from classical and contemporary rhetorical theory, all free to access through MIT's OpenCourseWare site with no enrollment fee. The course suits anyone wanting a structured, college-level introduction to how language is built to inform, enlighten, or move an audience to act, grounded in MIT's undergraduate writing curriculum.