Discover fascinating new insights about English in this two-course set that takes you deep inside the sheer pleasure and intriguing history of this amazing language.

First, investigate the myriad ways we think about, talk about, and write sentences in Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer's Craft. In these 24 in-depth lectures, Professor Brooks Landon from The University of Iowa—one of the nation's top writing schools—shows you the pleasure to be found in reading and writing great sentences. You explore the stylistic rewards (and risks) of various sentence forms, learn how to build and appreciate effective and elegant sentences, get unique insights into the nature of great writing, and discover how you can achieve some of its greatness yourself.

Then, in The History of the English Language, 2nd Edition, get a revised and updated look at the remarkable history of English, from the powerful prose of King Alfred in the Middle Ages to the modern-day sermons of Martin Luther King Jr. How did this ancient tongue evolve into the elegant idiom of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Melville, and so many other great writers? How did English grammar become so streamlined? How do we even know what English sounded like in the distant past? And how does English continue to develop in the present day? Award-winning Professor Seth Lerer gives you pointed answers to these and other thought-provoking questions in these 36 immensely rewarding lectures.