Writing and Rhetoric: Rhetoric and Contemporary Issues
This MIT OpenCourseWare writing course asks students to develop their own voice by engaging with social and ethical issues, following a tradition of persuasive writers including Charles Dickens, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, George Orwell, Rachel Carson, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. The course materials include a syllabus, weekly writing assignments, and readings that model how essayists and public figures have used rhetoric to argue for change. Students practice drafting, revising, and workshopping their own essays on contemporary issues they choose, building skills in argument structure, evidence, and voice. As with other MIT OCW offerings, materials are free to access under a Creative Commons license, though there is no formal certificate. It suits anyone wanting a structured, college-level introduction to persuasive writing grounded in real historical examples rather than abstract rules.