Courses Taught:

Com 20: Public Speaking
Com 30: Introduction to Rhetoric
Com 38: Political Communication
Com 44: Media Criticism
Hum 21: Reading the Rhetorical in the Classical Age

Areas of interests

Classical rhetoric and art, social and discourse theory, popular culture, film, political communication

Publications

Leterri, Richard. A Handbook of Public Speaking.

A Handbook o Public Speaking was designed to incorporate principles of speaking from the classical rhetorical tradition and from contemporary speech so that students can develop their critical thinking skills while learning how to inform, persuade, and entertain a contemporary audience. It offers clear and concise explanations, definitions, and descriptions of the main principles of speaking that show how these principles can be employed in a speech. These explanations are complemented by an array of examples from student speeches in order to demonstrate how students have applied the principles of speech to their particular topics. Finally, in order to facilitate the student’s comprehension of book’s main principles and to offer them students easy access to these principles easily when preparing their speeches, A Handbook of Public Speaking divides each main area of the public speaking process into its own brief section.

Thus, unlike most contemporary public speaking textbooks that are lengthy, cumbersome, and expensive, A Handbook of Public Speaking offers a thorough yet succinct explanation of the fundamentals of speaking in a clearly organized manner for one-half to one-third of the cost of most public speaking textbooks. Such a text hopefully will augment the instruction of the main principles of speech while making more class time available for student speeches and class discussion.

If you are a student or college or high school instructor and would like to examine or buy a copy of A Handbook of Public Speaking, please contact Allyn & Bacon. If you are interested in discussing the book with Dr. Letteri, feel free to do so by either e-mail or phone (864) 294-3170.

Personal Interest

Sculpture

While the influence of classical sculpture, cubism, and the works of such artists as Moore, Zuniga, and Modigliani are readily apparent in these pieces, as a novice sculptor my working philosophy is “when you have minimal skills, do minimalism.” More work in soapstone, alabaster, and wood will hopefully be exhibited on this page in the near future.