Class objective:
The principal objective is to give students an overview of Russian functional communicative styles and to make them familiar with their syntactical  and semantic configurations. A focus of the class is the analysis of the primary  sources. English transla
tions are banned from this course, all references are given  to the original. Texts (R-501 collection) are available from the University Copy  Center. Each thematical issue includes exercises, individual oral presentations,  and written summaries of the s
ubject. For every thematic cluster, every student  will be asked to make one formal in-class presentation of approx. 10 mins.  length. and to produce its written summary of approx. 4 pages length. The final grade  for the course is cumulative. Grades are
based upon the following rationale: Quizzes and weekly discussions--25% Oral presentations--25% Written summaries --25%  each. The final take-home exam --25% of the final grade.

The main thematic clusters of the course:
1. Dominant functional styles of contemporaty Russian  Texts and textbooks:  D. Rozental', Prakticheskaia stilistika, R-501 collection.
2. Russian colloquial styles: varieties of emotional and evaluative  connotations in Russian phraseology  Texts and textbooks: Rozental', R-501 collection.
3. Poetic discourse vs the academic style. System of poetic tropes.  Professional terminology of various literary approaches. R-501 collection
4. Compound and coordinated sentences Stylistical synonymy. Rozental'
5. Stylistical patterns of contemporary Russian media (radio, TV,  newspapers.) Prepositions and conjunctions in  time-spatial constructions.  Rozental', R-501 collection.
6. Literary stylization. R-501 collection
7. Varieties of Russian rhetorical styles  R-501 collection.